“Don’t blame a clown for acting like a clown. Ask yourself why you keep going to the circus…”
– Unattributed, but I like it a lot, and will start using it quite a bit….fair warning!
Two thoughts, as I begin what will be a two-day series on “transformative times.”
First — Difference Makers find the simplicity in the complex, the calm in the chaos.
Second — there is a transformation, maybe more than one afoot (more on that to come…)
Let’s start with simplicity.
It’s there. Really, it is. I remember the eye-test, “The Old Lady and The Young Lady” illusion. Most of us see one or the other, and once we’re told that both of them are in there, the harder we look, the less we see.
Yesterday, I led a conversation with a team that was just certain that there were, as one of them stated, “Any number of ways this could go.” Of course, he was right. Except that he wasn’t right at all. At the level that really matters — there were only two, maybe three if we stretch, paths forward.
Let’s try an analogy.
You and I are at Erin Hills Golf Course just outside Milwaukee, WI. After our round, we are sitting by the fire pit outside The Lodge sipping a Baker’s 7-year old, neat. (Sometimes I write to torture myself….but I digress…)
We agree that we’re going to pick up the conversation on Monday, at noon, on the putting green at Ballyneal.
In these times, many would say, “How are you going to do that? It’s an 11-hour drive! It’s gonna take 10 hours if you fly, by the time you get to MKE or ORD and connect to either Denver or North Platte, and then drive from there! Travel is a bad idea with the restrictions! What if the golf course is closed? Should you even be playing golf now? What if the caddy contaminates your grips? What if your grips contaminate the caddy? Neither of you are members there! What if you take the Dallas connection and the flight cancels? It’s a 13-hour drive from there! Cell reception is bad out there in NE Colorado, what if one of us is late and we can’t reach the other one?”
All legitimate concerns. All sideshows at the circus, keeping us from the Big Tent of success.
None of those distractions materially impact the fact that we’re both planning to be on the putting green at Ballyneal, Monday at Noon, and it’s up to each of us how we get there, then.
When we maintain our focus on the end goal, the distractions stop being distractions, and we keep moving toward the end goal.
How do we know? How do we know what the end goal is in professional, B2B Selling?
We ask!
Mister CFO, are you taking on this project to trim costs or boost revenue? Madame CEO, is your end-game to sell the company, or grow it and sustain it as its own entity? Hey, Pat Salesleader — are you trying to increase deal velocity or total contract value? Sam Software Developer, is the goal to write code that is more efficient or that can tackle bigger processes?
When we calmly break it down until the simple kicks the complexity to the curb — most business is — wait for it — simple.
Last point in a longer-than-usual post. I caught up with a client late Wednesday night. He’s special and so is the company he and his partners founded 20-years-ago. For that entire 20-year run, through the dot.com bubble’s burst, the recession of 2008-ish and now in day 20-ish of the COVID19 mess, his company has grown. Profitably. Debt-free. Consistently. Steady, significant steps forward. Because they know who they are and what they do, and it’s all they do. They’re too busy being awesome to get distracted.
Difference Makers find simplicity in the complex, and when transformative times come upon us, Difference Makers lead the transformation.
Keep it simple. Break it down. And get ready for the “Boom Sauce.” (Blatant inside joke. Sorry, not sorry…)
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