I just love doing things wrong!
I really do love being wrong. I relish it, I wait for it and embrace it every time it walks into my life. I greet Wrong with a smile and if it were possible, I’d buy it a mimosa at Sunday brunch. Now, I don’t go out of my way to BE wrong, mind you, but when Wrong shows up at my door, I don’t look through the peephole and pretend I’m not home.
Over the years, I’ve discovered a certain power in being wrong. Remember when we were kids – teenagers, even. We couldn’t imagine not being 100% right all of the time! If anyone told us we were wrong, well, they were just…WRONG. I don’t know about you, but as I traveled through Life’s School of Hard Knocks, I came to realize something:
Wrong is Right.
When you open the door to being wrong, you find new ways to be right. That’s reason number one I love being wrong.
Reason number two is this: when you’re wrong, you can try again. Being wrong is life’s little mulligan. A do-over. And half the time, the work is already done for you when you’re wrong (because someone’s done it right and all you have to do is catch-up). Now, I’m not advocating you don’t look both ways before crossing the street, but there aren’t many types of wrong that aren’t recoverable. I love the do-over.
The third reason I love being wrong? That’s easy: I love learning. If I could be wrong about something every day and have a new Right presented to me, I’m living right. Whether it’s business, a conversation with a friend or a quandary at the grocery store, being wrong gives me the chance to emerge better on the other side. And I can learn how to not make the same mistake again.
Now that you know why I love being wrong, why do YOU love being wrong? What does it bring to your life and what do you learn? Go out and hug a Wrong today – you need them (and they need you)!
Appreciate your opposite!
Forget the battle of the sexes. When it comes down to gender issues (and yes, we ALL have gender “issues”), men and women each bring something unique to the collective bargaining table. But in the heat of life and business, it’s easy to overlook the benefits of men and women being different – we’d rather see those differences as negative. Well, this morning I’m going to turn your head in another direction and give you a list of three things that men and women each do that they do better than the opposite sex! Now, these aren’t absolutes or stereotypical characterizations – they’re tools to help you change the way you think. Last week, we talked about the value of having a trusted business colleague to bounce ideas off of. Well, this week, I’m that person and I’m going to share some fun tips about men and women in business and in life!
Three Things Men Do Better than Women
- The Technicals - From installing a ceiling fan to figuring out why the back door is making “that noise,” men are just good with tools and gadgets. They’re raised with them – they take shop. Gals took home ec.
- The Research – Guys activate that hunter instinct and will tell us what kind of car we should buy, the best schools in the area in which we want to live and can find most anything we task them with finding. They love to hunt, gather and bring it home.
- The Solving – Men are problem solvers. Not to say that women aren’t, but it goes along with The Technicals. If something needs fixing, they’ll get it done.
Three Things Women Do Better than Men
- The Listening – While guys are great at fixing, sometimes things don’t need to be fixed. They just need to be heard.
- The Translating – We are great at hearing one thing and distilling the meaning. Granted, we are excellent at jumping to conclusions as well (not so great), but it goes along with our listening skills. We can hear, distill and then come out with something on the other side with great prowess.
- The Organizing – Maybe it’s our maternal instinct, but women can rally a crowd, plan a wedding, throw a fundraiser or get 16 kids to a little league game on time. We’re great at nurturing and every good organizer is a pro with taking care of the details.
Now, before I get the reaction from some of you as I did from some of my best girlfriends, let me explain. These differences correspond with the years of research done by Carol Gilligan, the foremost leader in gender differences in the world. (I had the privilege of training with one of Carol’s colleagues early in my career.)
Carol’s research shows that men speak in the voice of ‘justice’ and women speak in the voice of ‘care.’ Each ‘difference’ translates into leadership, consensus building and influence methods that you use everywhere in your life.
I want to ask you – what’s one thing that you think men do better than women and vice versa? We all see situations differently and it’s great if we can appreciate the people in front of us for how they’re built instead of who we’d like for them to be. Share with me in the comments section! Forget the battle of the sexes: how about a consensus?
Who do you lean on in business?
I’m not talking about left or right, conservative or liberal. I’m asking you: do you lean? More importantly, do you know HOW to lean?
Business is never a solo endeavor. On Tuesday, we spoke about things to consider when scaling your business. Today, we’re taking that idea one step further: who do you lean on in business? Leaning isn’t about not being able to support you and the weight of your day to day yourself. It’s about having a trusted business mind at your side at all times.
When you find someone in your business life that can not only lend an ear but their business savvy, it’s an incredibly empowering feeling. Business can be a lonely path to follow, what with worrying about competitors, bills, food on the table and keeping clients happy all at once. It’s key that you find a trusted colleague who has a soft shoulder to land on.
Sometimes it just helps us to know that we’re not crazy for thinking what we do about our business situation. Other times, it helps to have someone who will flat-out tell us we’re being crazy about our business situation! We get so wrapped up in our own day-to-day that we can’t see the forest for the trees sometimes. I don’t know about you, but I sure do value a little reality check every now and then!
Learn while you lean.
The other benefit of having a trusted business colleague is learning while you lean. When you share things about your business experience with someone, they’ll undeniably share things about their experience with you. If I made a list of how much I’d learned from other people’s business experiences – oh, honey – that would be a blog and website in and of themselves! Why would you deny yourself the gold mine that comes with learning from someone else’s mistakes and successes? It means you don’t have to make the same missteps and can take better, more purpose-driven steps toward you own goals.
So, my friends: LEAN! Find that shoulder, that ear. It feels great to take the load off every now and then.
If you have an experience to share about how you’ve found the hidden gold in a trusted ally, let me know and let’s start our own little “leaning” community right here.
Effective business planning doesn't mean biting off more than you can chew
Tired of all the hoopla about business planning? We recently talked about turning your intentions into actions. Today, we’re going to stop thinking about…
How will you grow?
How much will it cost?
Where will you be in five years?
Enough is enough! Step away from the crazy five-year plans and pare it down a bit. Make a three-day plan!
Have you ever been to one of those all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants and been dumbfounded the moment you set foot in the dining room? Seafood, salad, desserts…where do you begin? For some people, creating a five-year plan is the exact same feeling. It’s the overwhelming feeling that you’ll miss some of the things you like or needed most because you were blinding by having to take in so many things at once. That’s why it’s time to push the salad to one side and the sushi to the other and make your three-day business plan.
It’s three days! Without even thinking about it, we make plans to go out to dinner Friday night on Monday morning. We drop our clothes at the dry cleaners on Tuesday and pick them up on Thursday. Pretty much anything is manageable with a three-day window, right? Take your business from buffet to bite-sized in just a few simple steps:
- In three days, what would I like to have crossed-off my list?
- In three days, what would I like to have done that I’ve been putting off?
- In three days, can I clean-out my email inbox and return all of my calls?
You can probably catch my drift.
Putting your business goals into bite-sized bits can make the overwhelming seem effortless. Some of us are great deadline workers (i.e. procrastinators) and a short deadline will incite us to action. Others just find value in getting some of the smaller tasks accomplished as it makes us feel productive. Don’t turn yourself into one of those negative people by taking on more than is manageable. No matter how you look at it, a series of three-day plans will create your five-year plan before you know it. And I’m betting it will be easier than you ever thought!
