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The Power Of How
Anyone who has ever been in a leadership or management role might well be familiar with this idea. You have a problem, issue or challenge that is causing real problem for the organisation, customers or users of services.
You highlight this problem or issue and you are faced with:
A whole host of reasons to justify why things are the way they are which may or may not be reasonable or even logically.
A whole host of barriers, which prevent you doing anything which might range from it being too difficult to it being too unpopular or because it just won’t work.
A whole host of explanations as to how it could be different if only this area or that area actually did something different.
Trouble is that in these situations all of the above responses are in reality a form of self protection of the status quo and a form of resistance to change.
It’s really easy to come up with the obstacles. On the other hand coming up with options and solutions is a whole lot tougher.
If you are getting frustrated by all the blocks, perhaps it’s time to start to work on changing the thinking from Why We Can’t to How We Can Achieve the result we want.
Think about it if we are focusing on the barriers it is going to be a whole lot tougher than if we are focusing on the how.
So next time you are faced with a problem or challenge that it is impacting adversely on the organisation, try getting people focused on using the power of how.
The fact is that if there was a fire in the office block people would not focus initially on the explanation of the fire but on how to get out quickly and safely.
Duncan Brodie helps professional people to become highly effective leaders and managers. To learn more click here.
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.