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A Successful Outcome is All How You Think About It

For advice in business or in golf to truly work, two elements are always present: one is tangible, and one is intangible. The tangible is the physical part – how you use something in a certain way to get the result you want. The intangible is the mental part – how you adjust your thinking towards the outcome. When you onboard both, you succeed.

Business Tip

There are many different things you can do to market your business. The challenge is choosing which are most likely to yield the results you want.

A senior leader asked me to ghostwrite an article for him for a key industry publication. The focus was on advising emerging leaders while sharing aspects of his own journey to CEO. We had a chat about this, and then I prepared a draft for his review.

He wasn’t happy with the draft. While he wanted to be in the publication, he was focused on selling himself to other CEOs and felt it was a waste of time advising emerging leaders because they weren’t the decision-makers.

What he hadn’t done was adjust his thinking about how to sell himself through this opportunity. Part of selling your value is showing your value, and that can come in a number of ways, including how to recruit emerging leaders. Once we talked about how this article could help elevate how other CEOs perceived the depth of his expertise, he started to see how it could be impactful.

There’s more than one way to think about how to extend the value of opportunities.

Golf Tip

When I give golf lessons to regular players, I know they have a certain way of doing things. While they come to me to improve, they often have to adjust what they have always thought to get a better result, and often that is more the challenge than the physical fix.

One man, also an entrepreneur, came to me for a lesson and was ready to give up golf. He was an avid student of the game, but no matter how much advice he consumed, he wasn’t playing any better. I watched him make a few swings, listened to his reasoning, and then had him work on taking the club back on a straighter path. After a few swings, he was consistently making better contact. I asked if he felt that was a better outcome, and he agreed it was, but then said, “I want to go back to what I was doing before. I really think that should work.”

He reverted to his old ways and continued to struggle. He couldn’t figure out why my idea had produced a better outcome than his way of doing things. I suggested he alternate hitting shots – one his way, one my way – to help adjust his process more easily towards the method that worked better. He did, but it only frustrated him. He wanted his method to work more than he wanted to accept a method that would work.

When we finished our time, he thanked me for giving him something new to think about, which he appreciated. I shook his hand and told him he could always use this new way he had learned whenever he wanted, and wished him the best.

Bottom Line

Learning what can help you improve is one thing. Being able to adjust your thinking to make it happen is another. Everyone decides if they will do that for themselves.

Upcoming Events

• June 22 – I am giving a Canada-wide webinar for Futurpreneur, which has provided $259 million in loan capital for entrepreneurs since 1996. My topic is the first 90 days in business.
• July 6 – My interview with The Traveling Golf Diva podcast goes live. This is a neat podcast where golf meets travel, lifestyle and unforgettable adventures. Subscribe for free!

Resources

I hope you enjoyed this issue of On Course. Here are some other resources you may find helpful:

Forward Thinking for Your Business is a book that serves as your marketing reference, saving you time and money.

Forward Thinking for Future Entrepreneurs is your guide on how to start a business using the experience of those who have actually done it.

Reach out by email at jennifer@fwdthink.ca

Book Jennifer to speak to your workplace or association.