“Obstacles are what you see when you take your eye off the goal.” I’m sure you’ve heard this platitude, or many like it, but I have some contrarian advice for you. Focus on the problems and obstacles; focus on removing them.
Dr. Ken Jones, President of Lubbock Christian University, presented this idea at the Texas Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus conference.
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
I like these statistics. It’s nice to be in the majority for once. :-)
I loved this post, thanks so much for sharing!
However I was curious where the 15% of people are truly goal oriented statistic and research came from?
Not that I am doubting, I am just hungry for more information on the subject matter!
Best,
Brandon
Andy, it’s a bit of relief, isn’t it?
Brandon, Dr. Jones said he learned it from a coach working with university presidents, though he did not name a specific source.
Great perspective Becky. I was an account manager in telecom sales for 8 years and was successful because I focused on removing the next obstacle to sales. Our sales meetings would always start with goals and objectives, but then we would spend the majority of time figuring out how to remove the obstacles. It worked pretty well in that situation. Thanks.
JGorman, thank you for sharing your experience with this technique. I’d love to hear from others, as well.
My approach to obstacles is a little more free-form. I’m a novelist, so my business is all about entertaining my fans. Is this funny? Will that bring us closer? Keeping people engaged in a meaningful way is my bottom line. That may seem overly simplistic, but it works for me.
This isn’t to say that I don’t pay attention to things like cash flow and cost analysis, I do, but it’s not the focus of my attention. My fans are what keep me grounded. I may come up with ideas for what I believe is a cool experience, but ultimately they will decide if they want to play along and if I get the chance to try again.
I love having a symbiotic relationship with my fans: we all benefit when I succeed so it’s in all of our interests to make that happen. We’re all invested.
Chris, that is an interesting way to approach problem solving. I would never have thought about this for novelists.