Going under

and around

business problems

guarantees no solution.

Unless you tackle troublesome issues head-on, answer questions and respond to your messages promptly, you can be sure they’ll still be around on your next visit, and will no doubt have gathered velocity, weight, and momentum while awaiting your return.

Okay, easier said than done, right? Well sure, if you choose to make it hard on yourself. You can be certain that if you consciously or unconsciously choose for something to be hard, it will be. “Yes, but…” you start to reply. Don’t choose to “yes-but”; choose instead to get on with solving the problem.

Then, no matter which way the chips fall, the next step is to choose to get over it! (Because dwelling on what did or didn’t happen is itself a problem –an interruption– and can become worse than the original.)

There is no time in either life or business to dwell on what did or didn’t happen. We all root for teams that lose, but by mentally and emotionally hanging on to a loss, we actively set ourselves up to be losers ourselves. Wishing and hoping are childhood fantasies that accomplish nothing. Only action speaks.

Only by taking action steps can we expect to have the possibility of a favorable outcome.

“Well,” says you, “I can’t always jump on every problem that comes along. It’s too interruptive. And I already have too many interruptions to deal with every day!”

In case you’ve somehow missed what I’m about to say in response, let me be loud and clear about it:

BUSINESS LIFE . . . entrepreneurship, management, ownership, partnership, counseling and consulting, investing and lending, designing, inventing, innovating, creating, being engaged with any form of business . . . IS: One big interruption after another. But it’s why you get the big bucks!

One big interruption after another. People knock on your wall, waltz into your workspace, call you on the phone, slip notes under your door, send you 347,000 emails a day, throw pebbles (bricks?) at your window. They step up to your breakfast table, lunch table, dinner table, meeting table, and call to you under the bathroom stall.

Sometimes it seems that all of these things are happening at once. It’s your job to separate, sort out, prioritize and respond. And even as you perform these functions, yet more interruptions are bound to occur. This is also why we all need some time away once in awhile.

Small business owners notoriously deal best with turning interruptive problems into productive opportunities. Corporate types expend all their energy analyzing every interruption that comes along. They use all forms of committees and groups and teams to do this, but analysis paralysis is the byproduct.

Got Government? Government sleeps and sweeps stuff under rugs hoping it will just go away, or that someone else can solve the problem at hand so that government can step into the spotlight and take the credit. When everything’s under the rug, nothing is really “interruptive.”  The rug just gets hilly in spots. And productive, it ain’t!  

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 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

BEING TOO GRATEFUL?

Is there such a thing!

The only person who finds it annoying to hear you say “Thank You” over and over is someone who is too self-absorbed to routinely express appreciation, or just too ignorant to consider it, or who is insecure about speaking up. Many people fear being too “overkill” thankful. There is no such thing.

It’s a well known fact that human beings value and respond positively to “Thank You!” especially when it’s delivered sincerely. Don’t you? Think about it. How much can you say it? It’s never too much. Point to one single instance in the world in all of history where someone has died from being too grateful.

So how can you best cultivate all these positive responses in your personal, professional and business lives?

By letting more people know more often how much you appreciate their efforts on your behalf, no matter how insignificant they may seem.

Besides making them feel good, you’ll get more smiles and better service.

Is there anyone reading this who would not enjoy getting more smiles and better service? Really.

So start practicing when you wake up in the morning. In the bathroom mirror. To your spouse and kids. With neighbors. With fellow commuters, associates and employees, partners, advisors, investors, lenders, referrers, suppliers, vendors, visiting sales reps, OF COURSE CUSTOMERS. (Being continually grateful is the highest form of branding!) Thank the guy who fills your water glass at lunch.

You get it, right? Thank you.

Make it as much of a habit as brushing your teeth and fastening your seatbelt. It really is not hard. Simply prove to yourself how smart your brain is, and just choose it! (Thank you!)

Okay, says you, you’re just looking for work. Guess what’s the fastest way to make a positive impression to give yourself the competitive edge boost in your job search? A prospective employer (or client) takes you to lunch to size you up –to make sure you know where the napkin goes, and that you don’t order whiskey shots with your eggsalad sandwich.

You thank the maitre de or hostess, the waiter or waitress with every table visit, the bus boy who cleans off the table, anyone and everyone. If it doesn’t help you get a job offer, the prospect isn’t worthy of your talents and upbeat personality (Go back to the first sentence at the top of this post to see what you’ve got; be glad for not working there).

Oh, and while thank you’s will certainly not replace raises, bonuses, 401ks, healthcare plans and insurance coverage any time soon, you’ll be surprised how your increased use of them with employees will have the effect of minimizing these kinds of concerns as contentious issues, and there’s no better way to motivate your troops!

Try just 10 more thank you’s a day for one week, and see what happens.

You’ll thank yourself.

Then what?

What’s next?

Hmmm, well maybe think about trying “Please” more often?

. . . Hey, thank you! 

                           

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 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Pretending to enjoy the

Royal Wedding Kiss when you

haven’t even had a hug

since mid-March                                                                                      

Trying to “think green” when there’s none in your wallet. Rooting for the San Diego Padres and Minnesota Twins to finally break into double digit season wins when your own favorite team is tumbling into last place. Thinking that yet another White House-prompted stomp on small business is crushing . . . until you see the tornado devastation.

Laughing with a new puppy and new baby until it’s scoop-up and diaper-change time, or waking up to wailing cries and incessant barking. Thinking that Mid-East violent turmoils are too far away to be concerned with. (Are they?) Struggling to reconcile government reports of climbing unemployment with government reports of growing job creation.

Network media news ends every broadcast with sports, weather and some new medical discovery of traumatizing side effects (including the possibility of, of course, death or extended misery, or both) from breathing air, drinking water, sleeping too long or too short, eating health food, getting check-ups, singing . . . you know the rest.

Gas prices are headed to $8 a gallon, but not to worry; it’s okay, we’re told because gas prices in Europe are even higher and have always been higher.

We’re just starting to catch up with other countries.

Oh, sorry, I should have known there was a good reason to not be upset with having to second-mortgage my house to pay for gas for my car.

Gee, I guess I’ll just take it on the chin that skyrocketing food costs result from higher shipping costs which result from higher gas prices which –advises Mr. Obama– we should just suck it up about, or just trade in our cars to get more energy-efficient vehicles so that rising gas prices don’t become an issue.

Well, of course. Why didn’t I think of that? 

Every human on Earth has a different comfort zone. Physical, emotional and intellectual comfort parameters vary as dramatically as individual personalities. Think about that before you approve the next marketing creation (and accompanying expense) that’s thrown your way. . . especially for misguided online productions: the majority.

Your comfort zone, were you to draw a circle around your body, can vary considerably depending on location, environment, circumstance, and others around you — also where you were born and raised. Human space needed to function comfortably in Hong Kong is far less than that required in rural Texas, or Manhattan vs. Waterloo, Iowa.   

Get outta my face! Get outta my space!

Just how far do you “go with the flow”? How does physical proximity impact personal selling? Presentations and demonstrations? Business meetings and lunches? Golf? Giving visitors tours of your facility? What about the use of space in your ads, banners, direct mail, packaging and labeling, client reports, promotional materials, forms?

Then there’s the past, present, and future comfort zones. We can gain great comfort from reminiscing so it’s easy to get ourselves hooked on thinking about past events, ideas, and people. The future is at least equally compelling to many. And drifting periodically for short visits into both arenas can enhance the present here-and-now moment.

Staying in touch as much as possible with the present moment is what allows us to function best and most productively day to day. It also gives us the internal emotional support necessary to make adjustments that allow us flexibility in our subjective (and generally conditioned) physical proximity comfort zones.

When you sense your comfort zone moving into the “Twilight Zone,” take some deep breaths and recognize the choice to go there or stay where you are, or cut out some new paths, is completely your own.

Your “zone” is your OWN!

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 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

It may be time to re-visit MBWA

(Management By Walking Around)

 Why? Because most 

business meetings are 

like playing SCRABBLE 

under water!

Underwater SCRABBLE? A lot of slow-motion time is wasted trying to earn points for drumming up obscure words that play off of what others have or have not produced. And–in the end–someone wins backpats; the word connection hodgepodge that surfaces has no meaning; and the board is dismantled until the next session when it starts all over again!

If you absolutely positively definitely have to have a meeting, do yourself a favor and work the following items into your meeting prep checklist:

• Plan your meetin’ eatin’s!

If you are planning a major session and are looking for those in attendance to contribute mush — jelly, be sure to put out a plateful of jelly donuts. That will almost guarantee you the results you seek.

If, on the other hand, you are hopeful of some meaningful input from those you invite, put out some meaningful snacks. It doesn’t take any more time (and only marginally more money, maybe) to serve fresh fruit and raw veggies with a dip, and perhaps some cheese and crackers.

• Take time with your invite list!

There’s nothing worse than having people dragged into a meeting who have no real purpose in being there and nothing of value to contribute. Think hard about who needs to be part of your dog and pony show and stop asking those to attend who you simply want to impress, or test. Do those things in other ways.

Their time is your money!

• Share your agenda!

This is the world’s biggest stumbling block for meetings. Keep your agenda clear, simple, unencumbered, and targeted to those you invite. Circulate the agenda two business days ahead of time and ask for input that you may want to consider in the way of additions and deletions.

Have the finalized agenda printed in clear large block letters on a piece of cardboard or a whiteboard displayed for everyone tom see and stay tuned into. 

When you run the meeting, STICK TO THE AGENDA. When someone brings up something that’s not itemized, let that person know your level of interest in the subject, ask to table it for another time (next meeting, two minutes after this meeting, 37 years from now, whatever), and explain that this meeting is for this agenda, and thank her/him. 

• Watch the clock!

This is not something you normally want to do or have others do, but it is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT that you start the meeting at exactly the time it is scheduled to start, regardless of who’s present or absent, and that you end it exactly when it is scheduled to end, regardless of what’s been covered or not.

Use follow-up sessions for issues not addressed.

• Consider a room with no chairs!

If the subject matter needs to be dealt with quickly and there’s simply no time for side-trip excursions, and you want to minimize chatter and delays, use a room with no chairs. You’ll be amazed at how rapid and productive the meeting becomes.

Some meetings of course are necessary, but most are not. When it’s really necessary, make the most of it by focusing on the small things. Attention to planning details makes implementation productive.

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    302.933.0116   Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Thanks, Angela Current www.ClassicResumes.com, for today’s topic

PUT AN “X” THROUGH IT!

It’s never easy to balance two large critical chunks of your daily existence –like your work and your exercise– without experiencing some feelings of inadequacy, and wondering if you’re cheating yourself.

Why can’t I make both of these things work? What do I have to do to make both pieces fit my daily timeline? Life is no longer feeling like a series of opportunity windows . . . it’s more like locking and unlocking prison gates. HELP!

There are no magic-trick answers. What there is, is discipline. And self-imposed discipline is the hardest to follow. Grumble though we may, it’s almost always easier to follow someone else’s schedule of discipline.

“Your report is needed for a 3pm meeting,” says the boss. “Two more laps around the track!” yells the coach. “Parade Rest!” orders the CO. 

Ah, but all of those external discipline situations include real or imagined consequences for failure.

So?

You’re saying you can only perform when there’s a perceived threat involved?

Maybe you need a shrink?

You use self-discipline to get through every hour of every day. It’s called living a mature and responsible life. What you make of your self-imposed discipline is what draws the line in the sand between your existence and productivity and achievements, and the existence, productivity, and achievements of others

If you’re an extremist, you might be choosing three hours a day, seven days a week, of pumping iron. This can of course severely cut into any kind of reasonable work schedule, and this is not even to mention the time that must be used to be selecting, preparing, and eating the specialized diet that needs to accompany such a commitment.

But hopefully you’ve figured out how to harness your compulsiveness by combining interests — by running or managing a gym, or functioning as a personal trainer or exercise physiologist or physical therapist, or perhaps by being a professional or Olympic athlete.

Now this may be an even bigger stretch, but let’s assume instead that you are fairly “normal” (HA! and you’re reading this?)

Okay, you’re a typical entrepreneur who’s preoccupied with making your business idea work; you put in longer business hours than most of your friends and family.

And you’re trying to maintain a reasonable exercise schedule, right?

As with anything in life, success doesn’t drop from the sky. You must apply yourself. In this case, you must set up your own disciplined approach to doing the kinds and amounts of exercise that you believe you need (or that a healthcare professional has prescribed), and commit your mind and attitude to working around that!

Put exercise times down on your calendar for every day you decide you need to exercise.

Pick times (usually best kept consistent from day to day) that do not interfere with essential work hours. For most, early mornings fit best; some prefer early evenings (late evenings are not generally recommended by professionals); others use their lunchtimes to exercise, and nibble healthy snacks throughout the day rather than sit-down lunches.

Some set flex schedules.

The point is that once you choose the times, record them on your daily calendar — put an X through the time slots involved.

Then work everything else in your life around those X’s.

Unless it’s an emergency situation, simply elect to not schedule any meetings or conference calls in those X-boxed times.

Make excuses if need be, but protect those Xs because they are indicators of investment you are smartly choosing to make in your SELF. No one but you can do this. And no one but you can make it work. Reinforce your X hours by watching and/or listening to motivational programs. And keep marking your calendar, always  a month in advance.

Oh, by the way, when you’re occasionally forced to miss an Xd-out time block, don’t torture yourself. Make it up as best you can, when you can. It’s not the end of the world. It’s an opportunity to make adjustments.

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www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

And in the sweetness of

                                     

friendship let there be

                                       

laughter, and sharing

                                  

of pleasures. For in the

                             

dew of little things the

                           

heart finds its morning

                  

and is refreshed.”

--Kahlil Gibran

“A sense of humor can be priceless in frustrating situations. Having a sense of humor does not mean laughing and joking all the time. But many of life’s problems and predicaments are the result of weaknesses and mistakes.

“If you can recognize these first and release some of your tensions by seeing the humor in a situation, you will be in better condition to begin the serious business of making adjustments.”

--Rita K. Baltus, PERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY FOR LIFE AND WORK

It’s probably true that the boardroom meeting gone sour at hearing the latest plunge-in-sales report, may not be the best venue for reenacting a joyful rendition of “Singing in the Rain” with a tabletop tap-dance.

One might also be well-advised to avoid raising outstretched hands to the roomful of grey-pinstriped-suit-clad directors and addressing them in mock whisper:

Did you hear the one about this guy goes into a bar with a purple parrot hanging off his belt . . .?”

But well-timed doses of tasteful humor do have a place in business. Humor almost always plays an important role in establishing, re-establishing and maintaining balance and harmony in business ownership and business management settings. For leaders, small periodic shots of self-effacing humor lets team members know they’re being led by authenticity.

It’s definitely true that getting a serious-minded sales prospect or existing or past customer to crack a smile or chuckle serves to lighten the burdensome parts of the sales message and generally makes that individual or group more receptive to exploring available products or services in a positive frame of mind.

She/he/they will also be more likely to engage with the emotional buying motive triggers that account for every sale of every product, every service and every idea . . . even those that seem like they are prompted by rational and logical-based decisions.

 Tasteful, well-placed humor is typically exercised most successfully by entrepreneurial thinkers and doers who are self-confident , self-reliant, and proactive thinking. Humor bullets are most often fired by those who are “sales personalities,” who are outgoing people who are invested in building and strengthening relationships.

But plenty of business humor has found its way to the top of agendas hosted by serious introverted business leaders as well, including Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, and Thomas Edison, to name just a few. So it’s not a question of that you either have it or you don’t. It’s instead a question of timing, presentation, and appropriateness. And all three are within your reach.

You think you don’t have it in you to make humor part of your repertoire? Then work at it. You really can improve, you know. Aldous Leonard Huxley (You remember him, right? He sat behind you in third grade . . . or was it fifth?) once said:

There’s only one corner of the universe that you can be certain of improving and that’s your own self.”  

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“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”   [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Thirty years of 

selling services 

proves nothing sells 

like free samples

Take a page from PRODUCT manufacturers, marketers, distributors, and retailers. Food products are a good place to start. 

The restaurant gets free food product samples from manufacturer sales reps, and in turn will often give you an extra pickle, complimentary, and usually with a smile. You get sample slices of cheese or lunch meat handed across the deli counter, complimentary, and usually with a smile. The supermarket often serves up a variety of taste samples, complimentary, usually with a smile.

Doctors give away sample drugs they get from detail reps who want the doctor’s Rx business. Airlines offer free upgrades to frequent flyers. Car salesmen will tear the shirts off their backs to get your signature on the contract. Every one loves free sample products! 

What are you giving away?

Yeah, I know, your smile! (and I’ve heard it’s a great one, so pass it on!)

You’re no doubt throwing your hands to the sky and proclaiming you’re in the  S~E~R~V~I~C~E  business, so you don’t have a warehouse or storeroom full of goodies to non-chalently flip at prospective buyers. (Oh, and sure doctors provide healthcare services, but doctors are doctors and –WOW!– who balks at free drugs?)

It doesn’t matter that you sell consulting services, design services, writing services, accounting services, legal services, tech services, cleaning services, entertainment or travel or hospitality services. It doesn’t matter that you deliver packages or newspapers, or that you broker real estate or insurance or market bank loans or investment services. Nothing sells like free samples!

If you’re soliciting a prospective client to engage your services, start providing the services you offer as part of your solicitation.

“You know, I don’t pretend to have all the answers, and I would need some more time to confirm this, but I can’t help but think that it would be very much to your advantage to consider strengthening your media relations efforts (or building an email list, or developing a training initiative for your drivers, or putting your cash flow analysis on a monthly report basis, etc., etc.).”

                                           

Start BEING the consultant

(lawyer, accountant, bookkeeper, web

designer, SEO specialist, etc.)

that you want the prospect to engage.

Give ’em a taste for nothin’! Show people a sample of how you would work with them. Don’t worry about telling them too much for free; just tell them. Of course, don’t go too overboard with information, and be respectful and certain of your points before you make them.  

Oh, and stop thinking instant gratification. These days, a sale takes 5-6 attempts to close before the sale is made. And the real sale –especially for S~E~R~V~I~C~E~S  begins AFTER the sale is made.

In the meantime, toss the dog a bone! 

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“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”   [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

The Answer IS . . .

ASK QUESTIONS!

Whether you’re looking for better grades, improved cash flow, an investor, a loan, new customers, repeat customers, a new employee (or  job), new revenue streams, the exact right set of words for a branding themeline, or some trace of your ex-mother-in-law who changed her name and left town with the contents of your wall safe . . . your odds of success increase dramatically when you:

ASK QUESTIONS! 

You might think that’s pretty basic advice, but my experience is that it least happens when you most expect it –especially with headstrong entrepreneurs.

It isn’t that business owners strut around with a know-it-all cockiness; it’s that they don’t want to waste time and it can often seem more productive to step out of a meeting, seminar, webinar, conference call, txtmsg exchange, or cocktail party, than to suck it up and stay there and have to ask questions (when time is perceived to be better spent, instead, taking action).

Does that ring a bell or am I just imaging things?

Entrepreneurs (and most men, it seems) have to be on the verge of total mental meltdown before they’ll ever stop to ask anyone for driving directions. It used to be the threat of embarrassment for being so dumb as to have gotten lost. Now. it’s more like cringing at the thought of getting a reply like: “Hey, man, you mean you ain’t got no GPS or MapQuest thing?”

Here’s the bottom line:

If you don’t ask for what you want,

or what you want to know, 

you don’t get it!

(Always? No, sometimes we get things by accident.) 

Oh, and asking questions is completely useless if you forget the answers. Write them down. Stop with all the excuses about how much time it wastes to write things out by hand on paper (assuming you actually still own a pen and can find some paper, and remember how to write ;<)).

When you write things down, you get them out of your head, create more think space, and deal better with the inevitable interruptions that occur within seconds of getting your question answered. Note taking is not only smart insurance that you’ll walk away with an undistorted idea of what you heard, it also communicates that you value and respect the source of the responses you get.

The answers to questions

are at the root of all progress.

If you’ve been focused on secondary research sources (like books, reports, and the Internet) as your primary decision making tools, you may want to get yourself out into the real world and ask real people real questions once in awhile. There’s nothing can compare with asking real customers what they really think, really listening to their answers, and really writing down what they say.

Formal focus groups? Perhaps. But just plain old informal questions (without rebuttals, defensive reasons, excuses, or “yes, but’s”) will serve the purpose just fine. You will walk away feeling gratified, maybe astonished, and definitely enlightened. So???  (That was a question.)

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“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”  [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Life is complicated enough.

Business owners whose messages add temporary 

 confusion lose permanent customers.

• From misplaced marketing messages to lousy operational instructions
• From squirmy small-type warranties to smoke-and-mirror contracts
• From jargon-filled business plans to sales spiels focused on I/Me/My/We
• And with totally non-communicative website content

. . . America’s businesses are strangling themselves with bad word choices that are costing more business every day than they are intended to create.

Contrary to popular opinion, one

word is worth a thousand pictures!

Pictures set up customers, but WORDS are what sell them!

The words you choose to use to sell and promote your business’s interests –to give your business consistency, backbone, and a customer-centric sense of enlightened self-interest– can produce revenues, new revenue streams, profits, and a positive reputation.

But the wrong (e.g., too complicated) words used in the wrong places at the wrong times, will demolish all you’ve worked to build, in one fell swoop!

Are you selling products or services that are –for example– manufactured or fabricated in China? Are user instructions written by the manufacturer or fabricator?

Odds are pretty good that they might as well be in Chinese!

“Getting lost in the translation” is not an empty phrase. It’s truth is found in those 27-language fold-outs for practically every tool, electronic device, and self-assembly item.

And THAT translates to lost return-visit sales, both online and in-person.

If your business depends on customers coming back to buy more, you cannot afford to lose them to competitors AFTER they struggle with a poorly-explained purchase that you are not likely to ever hear about (until AFTER your accountant tells you about last quarter’s diminishing cash flow).

Unless you’re committed to losing repeat-sale business, STOP buying goods and services from other countries to sell or resell in America that come packaged with unintelligible, non-communicative directions. Demand that instructions be clear or refuse purchase. Customers will not separate sources. Disgruntled, frustrated buyers will blame you for being stupid and insensitive, not China! 

You know the “Keep it simple” formula. It works. As the slogans go: ”Do It!” and “It’s In You!” and “I’m Lovin’ It!” . . . There’s definitely something to be said for “It” . . . got it?

Does an eight-year-old (or eighty-year-old) have trouble tracking down information on your website? Is the sales message obscured with meaningless verbiage? Does your branding message or theme beat your business chest, or focus on the customer? Is what you are trying to communicate too lost in the clutter of features to ever get around to selling benefits? 

Are you communicating too much, too little, or just the right amount of information? Do your news releases start to sound like a back-seat driver? Do they get published? Are you making the most of them with direct mail and email followup? Does your social media program emphasize Twitter, LinkedIn, PRWeb and BizBrag? Why not?

Facebook may be great for socializing, but doesn’t cut it for business simplicity: You direct people to Facebook so you can then direct them from Facebook to your website? Send visitors direct to your website!. Life is complicated enough.

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“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”   [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Can I forget everything

I know up until now

. . . right now?

This is the question we must ask ourselves, and answer, if we are to thrive in leadership roles with our businesses and the communities we serve and that support us.

It is not a suggestion to wipe out memory banks or get a lobotomy, or set off toward early senility. It means: Can you let go of what you know long enough to shed some new light on the issue or person or group involved?

Can you let go of all the preconceived notions you have about someone or some group (or idea), give the benefit of doubt, put aside your beliefs, suspend your biases and prejudices, be truly non-judgemental, and see and hear the next three individuals or groups you encounter (or the next three times you examine the idea on the table) as if it were the very first time you ever met?

                                                           

Can you forget, in other words, everything you know about her/him/they/it from past experience?

Why? Because you’ll see that person or group or concept in a revealing new light and he/she/they will see you with a fresh outlook too! That happening alone will prompt new levels of receptivity and innovative thinking. 

When you can put the mental and emotional baggage of the past aside, and look at some one or some group with new eyes, you are in effect removing barricades to productivity. By initiating this way of thinking, you help others (and yourself) to rise to the occasion of dealing most effectively with the task at hand.

Every decision to pursue an intense focus on the present moment is typically met with resistance from those parts of your brain that seek to drive past and future issues to the foreground. Trying to disregard past associations, relationships, experiences, or what you know or think you know about the individual(s) you are meeting or conferencing or communicating with can be exhausting.

If you choose for it to be exhausting.

When you decide, for example, that it can really be simple and invigorating and worth it to turn around an historically difficult partner, customer, client, investor, key employee, or whomever, your odds are substantially increased when you can wipe the slate clean.

By responding only to what is communicated –and not to prior conclusions, reputations, beliefs and behaviors you have attached to the source– you establish a new ground for new possibilities to surface. Great leaders do this routinely. You can too. It may take a few tries, but three times on the runway will serve you well as preparation for takeoff. Have a nice flight!

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