7. Seek to Understand Other Points of View. Highly focused individuals often have a distinct vision of how things should be, and often find it hard to slow down to get other perspectives. If this sounds like you, you may be missing out on great ideas that could make the outcome better than on your own.
There’s an old saying, ‘None of us is as smart as all of us.’ The great thing about getting ideas from those around you is while they may or may not be fully baked, they can spark other ideas that can evolve into the solution you’re looking for. The sheer act of brainstorming gets everyone’s creative juices going. In this environment, sometimes seemingly out of nowhere, an idea is born that never would have occurred to you on your own.
8. Get Better at Active Listening. Most of us believe that if someone tells us something, the message has been communicated and received. Unfortunately, most of the time this just isn’t the case. While they know what they were thinking, they may not have communicated it clearly, or you may have not been fully listening.
The human brain fills in the blanks when you don’t pay attention. This is when you miss parts of what is being communicated. The best way to avoid this mistake is to feedback what you heard to the other person. This can clear up many potential misunderstandings. The technique works in reverse as well. The next time you communicate a set of instructions to someone, ask them to repeat those instructions back to you. You will be amazed at how much was missed.
9. Decide on What to Stop Doing. We all have a finite amount of time each day to get work done. We can better manage our time, prioritize things, and so forth, but at a certain point, there’s just not enough time in a day to get it all done.
When you hit these points, and we all do, the solution is to either delegate, or just stop doing certain things. If the task or project is worthy of continuing, then the best solution is to teach someone else and delegate it. But sometimes we just have to take a hard look at it, and in the words of a dear old friend of mine, decide if the ‘juice is worth the squeeze.’
Are you doing things that just aren’t producing enough value, but are on autopilot? This can apply to your business and private life. If you stopped doing those things, what could you do with the time it would free up?
10. Under-Promise and Over-Deliver. It’s good to get excited about a new product or service. It’s better to be conservative in promising what it can do, or how soon you can deliver it. Even if you know it can do more, or it will be better or faster, by slightly lowering expectations, when you exceed it, your customers will be delighted.
The same goes for something that you plan to launch but is not quite ready. It’s better to have all your ducks in a row before you announce it than to let the cat out of the bag early. This way if there are delays or setbacks, you’re not disappointing people. When you do launch, it will truly make the big splash you intended.
I hope one or more of these resolutions work for you, and I wish you a successful, happy, and healthy 2021!
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