It Pays to Pay Attention

June 8, 2008

A few weeks ago, in a coaching session, one of the key objections to trying something new was… “ How do I know this is going to work?” The good-natured client started laughing as soon as the sentence was out of his mouth. He knew what I was about to say before I even said it and said it for me. “ Wait, I know what you are going to say. You are going to ask me what else I am doing that is not working.” I responded telling him he was exactly right and then urged him to write those things down, which he did.

Some people might have just kept hammering away on what they were suggesting. I have found that going with the resistance is the only way to clear it out.

With his list sitting in front of him, we looked at each item and then asked some pretty serious questions.

How much time are you spending on the activity?
What do you get from it? You might get an emotional, financial, intellectual payoff – understanding ‘why’ you are doing helps you determine whether you want to get this payoff from the actual activity or from something else.
What did you think you were going to get from it? For example, in marketing many people are in networking groups that simply do not yield referrals. The original intention was leads in this case.
Can you eliminate this and increase results or productivity?
If yes, and you do not want to eliminate it, why not?

If you’ve been in business at least two years or more chances are that you have some activities that are on ‘auto-pilot.’ These are great places to find time you can use for something else that could yield a better payoff.

In this client’s case, the ‘recommended’ activity was to call clients who have done work with the company in the past year, but not in the past three months. These calls strengthen the client relationship, can turn into instant business, allow him to get a pulse on the marketplace (one of the assumptions was that the recent economy was affecting sales – you don’t know unless you ask), and also listen for new ways the client might like to be served.

The activities that were taking precedence were things like networking meetings that were yielding three to four referrals per year, meetings with service vendors (no doubt looking to do the same thing we were doing), and men’s groups that are part business and part friendship. He decided to let the first two shift until the calls were made, which we estimated would take approximately 4 hours total.

As straightforward as this sounds, most people simply don’t take the time to pay attention to what they are focusing on and the results they are getting from those activities. I appreciate my clients giving me permission to use his example (thank you!) because we all need help seeing our ‘stuff.’ I have a team that helps me – mastermind members, coaches, and family members – and who ‘call me’ on my junk.

We are all creatures of habit moving toward things we enjoy and away from things we don’t enjoy. The secret is finding something you can enjoy in those things you think you don’t enjoy! It really pays to pay attention – especially when time and money are at a premium.

Sphere: Related Content

Post Words: