Cognitive Bias
In the CIA (and other places, too – I’m sure) they call it Cognitive Bias. It’s what they do NOT want their intelligence analysts experiencing as they put together briefs. They want clear, unbiased information, because the best decisions are made that way.

In organizations, this can be a challenge when a manager sees something, or someone as a problem, then every action or issue tends to support that perception. This creates an even bigger challenge: poor decisions based on faulty or incomplete information. As leaders and managers, we must do our best to remove the Cognitive Bias factor so that we can make clearer decisions.

Awareness is the Goal
We must ask ourselves: “Am I seeing only what I want to see?” This takes a great deal of self-awareness. The best leaders are very self-aware. They know their own blind-spots, and put someone in place to point them out to them – like a coach, or trusted advisor. The goal must always be to seek greater self-awareness so we can make the best possible decisions for ourselves, our organizations and our world. .

This also takes courage – at first. Eventually it becomes second nature to question our own understandings and motives. Over time, it becomes much more matter-of-fact. We become fearless decision makers. We get better and better at questioning ourselves in service to clarity. Clarity becomes more important that ego. It’s our ego that wants to be right in our assumptions. For successful businesses, families and lives, clarity is critical to making sound decisions. Ego is helpful – it just works better when combined with the clarity that comes from self-awareness, and asking ourselves the right questions.

Next time you are looking for evidence to support a theory, spend an equal amount of time (or energy) searching for points that do NOT support the theory (or support the opposite). You may be surprised by how much you find, just by looking for it. In the end, your decisions will serve you and your teams better.

Change your Thoughts
Selling, it turns out, is a critical part of what we all do. The problem, at least in my case, was what I THOUGHT about selling. My thoughts got in the way of my progress at every step.

I always thought:

• Selling is SEPARATE from serving clients
• Selling is ASKING FOR (or begging for) stuff for me
• Selling means manipulating
• Selling is wearing a plaid jacket and hiding the dents in the used sedan I’m trying to unload

The problem in my thinking was I had it all wrong. When I perform my service, I am helping people. I help businesses, teams, relationships, profit, operations, and many other things.
Selling is, in fact, SERVING.
And service is the highest form of consciousness. We are the best of who we are when we serve. And there are no rules that say we can’t be paid for serving.

The Truth about Selling
The truth about selling is this:

• Selling is OFFERING the best of what you have
• Selling means EDUCATING
• Like a beautiful ballet, selling and serving are one, integrated thing.
• Selling is being exactly who you are

Nothing has ever been sold outside of a conversation. A conversation that is based in service. Many clients tell me that they get nervous in “sales” conversations. I encourage them to look at EVERY conversation as a “sales” conversation. And if it helps, think of them as “service” conversations. After a while they aren’t nervous any more. Serving, after all, is FUN! It’s uplifting! Serve people ALL DAY LONG and you will have all the business you want.

If we are in SERVICE in our conversations, we can’t go wrong.

Unless owners and managers are constantly looking at the latest thinking, trends and understandings—and many are—then they don’t have a choice but to stay with what they know when a RESET happens. In other words, if you don’t have any options, then you can only do what you know. But more than staying up-to-date, a savvy business owner, manager, and even employee must be doing their own inner work as well.

In small companies, the owners must invest in “talent development” for their people as well as for themselves. And this work not only involves industry knowledge, business trends, and the like, it is also the tough, inner work of looking at the blind spots, beliefs, understandings, and feelings that they carry around limiting their effectiveness. It’s like if you ask a fish, “How’s the water?” they’d say, “What water?”  Similarly, we have our beliefs that are so real to us that we don’t even think about them. They are just there.

Beliefs are important. It is our beliefs that determine our actions, and our actions create our business. So getting clear on what our beliefs are is critical to creating the successful business that we want.

My belief was that I could create a business just like I had in the past. It was the only way. I actually tried twice, with two different sets of two partners! I didn’t even realize that I was running a belief that I needed two others to be successful!  What beliefs are you running?  One way to identify these beliefs is to ask yourself: What is keeping me from the success I know I can have?  Are there any absolutes in there or anything definite?

Like “I need an MBA, then I can sell myself as a . . .” or “It’s just too crazy out there to grow anything,” or “No one wants to buy this in this economy!” These statements presuppose a truth, and that “truth” may be false, a lie we perpetrate on ourselves. Really, no one wants to buy?  It is not possible to grow? Who says?

Those are the beliefs.

Now, just because you have beliefs, doesn’t mean that they are not true. If you had all the skill and talent to create amazing eight-track tape stock, and you have a belief that there is no market for 8-track tape stock, then you might actually be accurate. But wait!  Is that really true?  What about collectors?  What about an alternate use for eight-track tape stock?  Maybe there is a novelty item or a highly sophisticated use for this capability that you have!  Or maybe there isn’t. The point is; ALL beliefs are worth exploring, and exploring IN DEPTH.

Many smart business people work with coaches to help them spot their hidden beliefs and rewrite them with something more useful. I once believed that I could not write despite the mounds of evidence to the contrary. Do I write well? That’s a matter of opinion, and you may have yours. The fact is, I can write. I consistently have clients willing to pay me significant amounts of money to write for them—proposals, brand copy, speeches, and more. Not only am I a writer, I am a professional writer and published author!  That never would have happened if I continued to believe all of those old beliefs.

In essence:  When we carefully examine what our beliefs are about our business, our role, and our marketplace, we may, in fact, find opportunities lurking there that we had no idea existed. We are in charge of our beliefs. Why not create some that work for us?

What is the “magic” that is in your business? We all have it. Sometimes, we just can’t see it. It may take a third party – one who thinks highly of us – to point out our magic.

I was coaching a client this morning, and she told me that she was looking at all the different kinds of business she was doing within one client company and she was bemused by the fact that none of them knew half of what she was doing to help their business! She was sharing that since one group wasn’t talking to the other, they were missing opportunities to grow their own business!

“That’s it!” I said. “You have something that they don’t have, but desperately need. You have perspective!” And not only that, she has the talent and skill to use that perspective to create a powerful overall strategy for her client.

I give a talk every now and again that I call “5 Ways to Grow Your Business Now.” Number 2 is “Move up the Food Chain.” My client was working lower down on the food chain by effectively executing marketing programs. What she CAN do is move up that food chain and deliver powerful marketing strategy – which she can effectively execute. Moving up the food chain gives her the ability to design and create her own opportunities to then execute. And, not insignificantly, she can SERVE her client better. She is plugging a gap that exists within the client’s structure. In fact, if she doesn’t step forward and begin to offer this higher level offering, she is doing her client a disservice!

We are all hired to do what we do, and do it well. When we advise our clients on better ways to achieve results, then we are doing our job. In fact, it’s magic. When we just do what they ask because we don’t want to upset the apple cart, then we are shirking our responsibilities.

This is only one example of hidden magic. It’s everywhere. All it takes is to step back, and look at your business as though it were a trusted friend’s or your son or daughter’s. Either that, or have a good friend or coach take a look at it with you. Their perspective and feedback can really help your business grow by pointing out the magic already present.

Bottom line: Look for the magic. If you look, you’ll find it.

She, and her very skilled teammates have been studying for 3 or 4 years to get to this place. As a freshman, Madeleine began studying biology facts in preparation for this eventuality. She worked so hard, and became so proficient, she entered AP Biology in the second semester of 9th grade. She scored a perfect 5 on her AP exam.

I like to say she has really good genes. Maybe so, but the real key to her young success is her commitment, discipline and drive. She takes action and is relentless. Her goal is to become Valedictorian of her class. Unfortunately for her, (and fortunately for the rest of us), there are another dozen or so kids in contention for the honor.

The way I see it, there are lots of kids with smarts, talent and abilities. But remarkably few with the drive, discipline and commitment that these 4 kids have. If more of us only knew what Madeleine and her friends seem to already have figured out, the more we, as a species, would achieve.

This mastery that these young people are displaying doesn’t only apply to academics. It applies to EVERYTHING. Art, relationships, work, play, life. They have already experienced the power of becoming a master. And they are very familiar with the commitment, focus and discipline that it takes to achieve it.

They would probably even say “what mastery?” if you asked them, because they know how much more they have available to them… how much more there is to learn.

That’s mastery.

What is it?

Well, I used to think it was a kick in the ass, or maybe the posters with pictures of whales or the Tony Robbins’ of the world. I used to believe that I had to listen to the great motivators of the world to get pumped up. CHARGED and ON IT!

Here’s the truth of it:
None of those things will motivate ME. Not because I’m special or anything like that. It is because I am a human being. I’m a person living on this planet just like you and my kids and my clients and my coaches. After years of searching, yearning, wanting and hoping, I have come to discover what so many have discovered before me. I am the source of my motivation. No one else.

This understanding, at first, sucks. “You mean, I have to do it myself!” Yep. I’m the one who has to muster up the courage, energy, time and discipline that it takes to be motivated. Yes, in one way, it sucks. But in another, more accurate way, it is actually fantastic!

4 Elements
Here’s why: I don’t have to rely on ANYONE else to be motivated! I don’t have to wait for the perfect alignment of astral bodies and energies to converge to provide me with motivation.  I just plan for it.

Here are the elements of motivation, as I see them:

1. Discipline:

A solid discipline creates the result you want. In anything. If you want to write a book, create a discipline that says to sit down to write, every day, until it is complete. Even if the commitment is only to a sentence a day. Sit daily and you will complete the book. It can’t help but happen.

2. Time:

To make time, you literally have to “make” it. You make it through discipline. It’s like (for PC’s) when you defrag your hard drive. It looks pretty full, until you run the Defrag program. The bits of information all get lined up neatly, leaving you lots of room when before there was very little. Defrag your schedule (with a little discipline) and you’ll have plenty of time to be motivated.

3. Energy:

This all comes from within. Many people put this out of reach. In fact, it is all within reach, because it is inside. Did you ever notice how energized you are about accomplishing a goal that you are excited about, even when you are tired? You can plug into your energy by getting excited about what you are doing. Take a minute, and think about what you are doing it for! What is the purpose? To feed your family? To live in a great house that you love? To travel the world? To create something that you feel great about? I get excited when I write. It feels good to me. It gives me energy!

4. Courage:

You only need this to START being motivated. Once you are rolling, it is no longer necessary. Courage is required when you are afraid to do something, and you do it anyway. Do that a few times, and you won’t need the courage any more. You will become FEARLESS. Being in that fearless place is VERY motivating! So is the intention to experience that.

Motivation doesn’t’ come from posters or great speakers. It comes from within. The posters and speakers can be very useful to remind you of your potential, of your superpowers. Reach inside and find it for yourself!

I recently experienced a completion. I now have a book that I conceived, wrote, produced and published. Completion. And I have to tell you, it feels great!

It all started when…
This process of writing The RESET Button started almost a year and a half ago. I was in a Steve Chandler “Coach School” learning more about growing businesses and being of service, and how service is fused to business growth as one thing. In the school, I met Michael Neill, best-selling author and Supercoach. He was also learning more to improve his already very impressive business. In a coaching session with Michael, he advised me to write a blog, and call it The Hidden Truth, because I told him that that was my gift when working with businesses. I can see what is often hidden from the owners and managers of a business, and then use that awareness to help the company. “Write that,” he told me, “and use true stories of your experiences and see what emerges.”

That was my first step.
And I began. I opened up a free blog account and began writing. Not very well, at first, but I got better. And after a time, a pattern emerged. I kept writing about letting go of what once was – because many of my clients were suffering setbacks and disappointments (as is often the case with someone seeking coaching, but that’s another story) and I was finding ways to help them see an even brighter future than they were able to see.

And so, The RESET Button was born.
Soon I added the subtitle: How to Move Your Business Forward When There’s No Going Back. Then I just kept writing until I had a complete book. Or so I thought. I received lots of feedback about the length of the book. Too short. So I wrote some more. And I stopped short of writing just to fill pages. I wanted the book to be useful, not heavy. And this book will be very useful. This material will help many companies and individuals RESET their businesses and their lives. I only know that because it already has.

After editing, proofreading , layout, design and a few other hoops and hurdles, I published the book and it is available for you to read. You can get it at www.youngscom.comor Amazon.com.

NEXT!
Besides the fulfillment of successful completion, I notice something else, too. An emptiness. Like the one I get when I finish reading a great novel. It’s over now. A mix of satisfaction and longing. It had become part of my life for some period of time and now it is complete. Now what? Well, when it is reading a novel that I’m talking about, I choose the next one. And I start again. When it is writing a book, I sit down and start writing the next one. And this article is the firsts step in that process – for me.

They say men don’t like to ask for directions.  In my experience, as a man, “they” are right.  I don’t like to ask, but I do.  Why?  Because they are very handy when you’re lost!  If I’m in territory that I’ve never been in, I want to talk to someone who’s been there, and can help me navigate my way through.

In my small business, I get all the help I can get.  I’m constantly moving into new and uncharted (for me) territory and looking for guidance.  I get this help from many sources, including books, other business people that I know and my coach.

So why don’t I like to ask?

Well, it feels a little like I’m weak.  Like I “should” know how to do it already.  Almost as if I “should” know martial arts, like the TV character who just has to think of Kung-Fu and he can then automatically do it – with no prior training.

It’s just about that ridiculous, really.  It’s crazy to assume that we should know how to run when we are just now walking.  Yet we do it to ourselves all the time.  And business people do it quite a bit.  They don’t want to ask because they don’t want to be seen as weak or inept.  In actuality, NOT asking is really what’s inept!

I Need Help!

Let’s take a closer look.  I recently met with a woman to talk about her business.  In her email prior to our meeting, she proclaimed “I Need Help!” That’s music to my ears, because if people are feeling that, they are more likely to do the things that it takes to change.  In our meeting, it was a different story.  I identified several aspects of her business – through our conversation – that I could assist her in addressing.  Each suggestion I made was met with a deflection of some kind.  “Oh, I don’t mean that…!” or “No, it isn’t really that bad…” What I heard in this was, “I don’t really want to do anything about it.”

Asking for help is the key

So what was the disconnect between “I need help!” and “Oh, it’s not that bad”?  I believe it is fear.  Changing how we do things is scary.  Even things we know aren’t working for us.  For men driving in an unfamiliar town, asking for directions is scary.  What would that mean if I couldn’t do it on my own?  Would it mean that I’m weak?  If you have the strength to ask for help, it would mean that you are strong.

Jeff Youngs helps companies and individuals – when they ask – as a consultant, coach, speaker and author.  Check out his website at www.youngscom.com and blog at www.youngscom.wordpress.com .  He welcomes your thoughts, comments and suggestions.  Email him at jeff@youngscom.com.

As we all move forward to re-create our companies and our lives, we’re ready to get it done, so we can put it behind us and hurry up and get back to “business as usual”.

One Bead at a Time

Brenda Ueland said about writing: “I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten, – happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.”  That’s how a business is built, too.  That’s how it was done when your business was first started.  It is time to start it again.  Patiently.  From the beginning.

For any business that has had great success, or even modest success, it can be difficult for the owners and operators of that business to think like a beginner again.  It is difficult to “step back”.  But it isn’t really stepping back; it’s stepping onto new ground.  And this new ground must be carefully mapped out and a route must be chosen – not based on what has come before as much as on what is true now.

Making Hard Decisions

I have a client that was the General Manager of the Los Angeles office of an international B2B services firm.  He ran a very successful operation and in fact floated much of the rest of the organization for some time.  He invested in the firm both financially and personally.  Then, it was clear.  It was not going to be able to continue.  The financial weight of the greater company was strangling his operation.  Despite all of his personal investment in the company, he left.  And in leaving, he created the opportunity to start new.

He used to run a very successful operation in an international company.  Now he’s the President of a brand new start-up.  Starting from scratch.  One-bead-at-a-time.  He won’t likely be able to operate like he did before for some time.  And if he’s smart, (he is) he won’t ever operate like he did.  He must find a way to operate that is relevant and useful in this current climate and circumstance.

Business is Not Like it Was

Nor will it ever be.  That’s not a new thing, it has always been like this.  But any business that has “grown-up” through the 90’s and the early 2000’s has little to compare the past year to.  And has had little need to “re-invent” on the scale that is necessary now.

To Begin Again

The opportunity is to be a beginner again.  See what needs to be done and do it.  Don’t measure yourself by where you were before, or by how much less you are earning.  Measure yourself by a new plan, and a new direction.  Use the past as information and guidance.  Not a reason to punish yourself for coming up short.  That’s not useful to you or anyone.

If you have continued to be successful and experienced growth throughout the recession, I want to know what you are doing, how you have navigated the climate, or what set of circumstances has allowed for your success.  You may have some inspiring information for our readers, and you may be featured in my next book.  So drop me a line and we’ll talk.

As for the rest of us, we re-invent.  One-bead-at-a-time.

Jeff Youngs helps companies and individuals to re-invent as a consultant, coach, speaker and author.  He’s a coach and a regular blogger at www.lifebyme.com.  Check out his website at www.youngscom.com and blog at www.youngscom.wordpress.com .  He welcomes your thoughts, comments and suggestions.  Email him at jeff@youngscom.com.

Many of my clients are just now feeling the worst of the recession.  Is that true for you?  One of the most difficult aspects of this sort of business downturn is the emotional effect it can have on the people within the company, especially the leaders.  It can drop morale through the floor.  And the owners or managers just can’t seem to bring themselves to be a cheerleader, because they just aren’t feeling it.  There doesn’t seem to be a reason to cheer up anyway.  Business is bad; it may not even make it.  It just doesn’t make any sense to “put on a fake front”.

Well, I completely understand.  The problem with that thinking is just that.  It’s thinking.  Not doing.  And what this type of thinking does is just the opposite of what the business needs at that time.  It needs your creativity.  Things have changed, business is very different – and not necessarily for the “better” – at least that’s what it looks like.  More than ever it needs the best of what the owners and managers (and everyone else) have to offer – and that’s not going to happen if you’re attitude is scraping bottom.

Doom-saying and cynicism may be a socially acceptable pastime, but is doesn’t help business (or anything else for that matter).  It leads to uncreative, contracted thinking.  And real doom-and-gloom.

A client of mine, a CEO of a very creative and high-end business services agency has been very proud of the way he has navigated the ins and outs of the rough economy – until now.  He has been able to keep all of his people on-salary, and busy.  In fact, his business was even growing through early fall.  Then it hit.  His first quarter, which is normally a large percentage of his annual income, is bone-dry.

He is down on himself, and taking it personally. The result is that he’s a bit frozen.  He’s making moves, and taking care of things, but there is something missing.  I’ll call it enthusiasm.  I know, you may be thinking that there is nowhere for enthusiasm here!

Look it up.

Dictionary.com defines enthusiasm this way: absorbing or controlling possession of the mind by any interest or pursuit; lively interest.

There’s the key:  Controlling Possession.  We have very little control over anything in this life.   We do have control over what our minds do. Instead of thinking about how “bad” things are.  Let’s get creative and think about what we can do in the current situation.  With enthusiasm.  This may even be a great opportunity!  It doesn’t necessarily make anything easier, but I guarantee that you will have much better ideas to work with.

My client is lacking enthusiasm, and it shows in his face, and his decisions.  He’s trimming a bit here and saving a little there.  With enthusiasm – and lively interest, he has the opportunity to completely re-imagine his business and re-create it in the way that will work for today’s economy.  Yes, these are difficult decisions, but much easier to make and execute from a place of enthusiasm than from self-loathing and upset.

Any business owner has a choice under difficult circumstances.  She can be saddened and upset by the loss of “the way things were”, or she can enthusiastically re-imagine a bold and brighter future – and create that.  Just like she did when she started the business in the first place.  The latter is much more effective.

Jeff Youngs helps companies and individuals see past the gloom and find their enthusiasm as a consultant, coach, speaker and author.  Check out his website at www.youngscom.com and blog at www.youngscom.wordpress.com .  He welcomes your thoughts, comments and suggestions.  Email him at jeff@youngscom.com.