Build Understanding

Why do people reject our ideas?

If you're like me, this can drive you to distraction. The idea is sound, the logic is flawless, the need is palpable, and yet sometimes people reject our best ideas.

Maybe they don't understand them yet. Maybe we don't understand what they are looking for (or more importantly, what they are seeing). The work has just begun.

It does not good to walk away pretending we've reached an understanding when what we've really reached is an impasse. Whatever is blocking you usually doesn't go away on its own. We need to work harder at understanding what's going on.

People aren't always trying to be difficult (yes, I know that sometimes they are). People don't always find us objectionable (although it can feel like that). Sometimes we just don't understand.

We need to understand the value. We need to understand the urgency. We need to understand the need. We need to understand. Otherwise, we're not likely going anywhere.

It's hard to embrace what we don't understand. Sometimes our task is to first build understanding.

How will you know when that tough sell truly understands what it is you're selling?

-- Doug Smith

What have you learned today?

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Comments

Connections

It's in our differences that connections are made. -- doug smith

More signal than noise

Criticism produces more noise than signal. The recipient will hear mostly noise. Find another way to share the relevant information and it will sound more like advice than insult. Here's one other way -- ask the person you want to give advice to what their advice is for improving performance. Listen. Find the tone. Catch the brilliance. Support the useful observations. When we coach positively with enthusiasm our advice lives longer. What do you think? -- doug smith

Tough Choice

As a customer, you'd know what you want. That's worth keeping in mind. Sometimes things might seem good for business but be bad for customers. If money is the only bottom line we find ourselves at the bottom quickly. It takes courage to say no to something that is bad for your customer but profitable for your business. People with that kind of courage are people worth doing business with. -- doug smith

Share the Load

Are you in charge? Is the team your responsibility? Every team needs more than one leader. The highest leverage strategy a leader can employ is to develop more leaders. Build that mighty team one person at a time. Share the load. -- doug smith

Relationships and the Mission

Team relationships get complicated. Sorting them out is one more tough leadership task. Recruiting the right people for your team is the first step, followed by keeping the communication on your team clear, open, honest, and respectful. A team of superstars who cannot get along will not make for a successful team. Interpersonal dynamics matter considerably. Team relationships make more sense when the mission matters. The best reason for a team to get along with each other is so that they can achieve their mission. Start there. Focus there. -- doug smith

Play Your Music

What does your ideal music sound like? Not your taste in music, not even what you usually listen to, but rather the music that you make. Maybe it's with your voice, or an instrument, or maybe the music you make is with your hands in the form of care, or maintenance, or healing. There is music in that. We all have music inside. A tempo, a beat, a pace, a tone. Can you hear your music? Does your effort lead to a flow where you can lose yourself in the art of what you do? Leaders can find that flow. Each leader has music inside. Maybe the key is to find the harmony. Who else hears the music, and how beautiful can it become? Play your music. Keep practicing. Let it flow. -- doug smith

Dig deeper

Obvious solutions are great, except that they seldom work. The chances are that the solution that first occurs to you has already been tried. Sticky, mysterious, subtle problems evade the obvious. They hide. They mask. They simmer. Mysterious problems seldom surrender to obvious solutions. Dig deeper. -- doug smith

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