Spotify audio is back! I’ll upload the missing episodes later this week. Direct Spotify link here.
What if I told you …
What if I told you of a guaranteed path to business success?
People are very much up for that. TELL US THAT GUARANTEED PATH IAN.
But it’s not a cool path to tell people about, and it takes a long time to get there.
“Oh,” they say, losing interest in a heartbeat.
Anyone who does presentations or runs training courses knows the inevitable line people say afterward.
“Thanks for that. I knew almost all of it, but it’s good to hear it again. It’s just common sense really isn’t it?”
It does my head in. The people who say that line do not do the things you’ve suggested. I always feel like they’re looking for something that’s less common sense and more Elite Secret KnowledgeTM.
People want business to be complicated
People want business to be more complicated than it is. So they can feel like a clever professional.
They would like you to tell them an advanced neuroscience hacks for their business brain. And Optimal Change-Curve Management systems or Service-Oriented Organisation Architecture.
Biz-wizard stuff that sounds impressive in interviews. Ideal for a fat PowerPoint deck with plausible-looking funnel clip-art. Bringing science-y looking powers that will surely pull all those unruly staff and customers into line.
It’s like a small boy dreaming of the radioactive spider bite that will give him superhuman powers to take on his enemies. One day, he’ll make them all regret the way they treated him!
Delivering is the hard part
The focus on hacks and the elite one percent idea means people neglect the 99 per cent, because basics don’t carry that prestigious aura of expertise. So the one percent idea delivers no practical results anyway.
Obviously there are endless courses and books to pander to that need, that will be attended and read and no action taken. “The one book you must read to get rocketship career growth!” etc.
The big lightning bolt idea can be fun and get customers through the door once. Then comes the essential test, the hard part. Delivery.
As any customer will tell you, businesses that don’t pay attention to the basics are just useless.
Essential skills that don’t sound cool
I was on a panel at a lunch presentation last week and the MC asked: if I had just one tip to help people get better at business, what would it be.
Tricky question, there’s quite a bit of territory to cover.
My answer was:
“Learn to listen better.”
It’s the antidote to almost every business problem there is.
It’s the only thing that stops the standard business-person belief that all customers are the same as them and like the same things. It alerts you to opportunities. Good listening teaches you not to think you’re better than anyone else.
Listening is essential exercise for your curiosity. All the best business people I know are fascinated by how and why things work, and ask lots of questions.
It helps you understand your staff, who will do better work if they feel they’re heard and understood.
Yet it just doesn’t sound very cool or prestigious. “Oh yeah, listening, I do that,” say people who don’t.
Imagine pitching advanced listening skills as your top attribute in a job interview.
“We were seeking someone with a robust track record in delivering deliverables,” says the HR person on the other side of the desk. “But thanks for coming in.”
Picasso got the basics right. And then some.
I have nothing against elite performance. It’s fascinating, and studying it gives you the odd tip you can use in your regular non-elite life.
Consider Picasso. And no, it’s not the classic “why I’m charging for this napkin squiggle” anecdote you hear from every motivator. In the Picasso museum, in Barcelona, there is a bunch of his early realistic sketch work. Here’s a torso study:
He did that aged eight.
By the time he rebooted the whole art world with his Cubist gear, he was a master of the basics.
Being on top of the basic work first gives you license to break the rules and try the genius stuff.
Plus he was a genius. I’m not and you might not be either.
It’s not a compromise to just do what you can do as best you can. It works.
The essential basics
If your business isn’t working, the answer is almost always one of the basics you’re neglecting.
Getting back to people when you said you would.
Doing whatever you can to speed up your responses, with customers and internally.
Listening to customers, in real life not via garbage survey data.
Acting on new ideas rather than delaying them through endless process.
Giving your frontline staff the power to make decisions like adults.
Staying in touch regularly with your existing clients before you chase new ones
Treating people like you’d like to be treated yourself.
Pricing high enough to finance your business growth, and having confidence in that.
Keeping on top of your credit terms.
Success is just remembering to do things you knew
Are you doing those things, or just having meetings and talking about them?
Or have you forgotten them because you were attracted to cooler items than these frumpy old basics?
In a way, those training course people are right.
You knew those things.
Success is just remembering to actually do them.
If you can do that yourself, you’ll do great. If you can get your people to do them consistently, your organisation will be an unstoppable force.
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