Problem solving doesn’t produce results, It prevents damage. Exploiting opportunity produces results.
Great thought. I was challenged by a CFO a few years back who ask me to stop running around doing so many task and start working on the most important task. Ever find your self operating in that reactionary mode. Preventing damage and exploiting opportunities are very different activities. Preventing damage may feel good because we get instant results. we can feel the impact of making something happen. Getting it done! Preventing damage does not grow the business. It prevents damage. Sounds a little like defense vs. offense. In order to score, we need to focus on getting to the end zone. Developing plays and strategies that move us toward a higher score. a larger payoff or bigger impact. But, each player is responsible for knowing the play, knowing their job, and executing their job!
So how do we move from prevent to planning. From reactive to proactive. From the scarcity mind set to the abundance mindset. You got it. Attitude. We decide. We make the Choice to react. We make the choice to fill our calendar and task list with prevention, protective, fear based activities. It’s time for an attitude adjustment. You can do this. We can do this. We can empower the team to work on the problems. We can empower the team to manage the damage. We can slowly push those focuses and actions down to the frontline players and let them manage them. Let them own it and be accountable to identify and solve it.
As owners, managers and leaders, we need to focus our energies, skill set, experience, expertise, and passions on opportunities. Are we pursuing them? Do we set aside time to think about them. Network for them. Plan for them. Have we decided where we want to go? Where we want to be in the next 5 or 10 years. Are we actively forcing ourselves to spend our time and energies pursing and unpacking the opportunities we need to find and create to get us where we want to go? If you hired and trained the right people, they can handle the day-to-day which will free you up to exploit opportunities. If you have the wrong people, we can address that challenge and develop a strategy and timeline to move forward with finding the right team players.
You got this! You can do this! Take some time in the next 2 weeks and challenge and empower your team to own it and run it and you switch your focus and energies to opportunities!!
If you need some help unpacking this process, let me know. bmink@choiceconsultingman.com
For some direction on this process order a copy of my book “Choices”. https://www.choiceconsultingman.com/choices/