Recently, I did a 360 review of myself where I got feedback from friends, family, peers, subordinates, and supervisors about my strengths and weakness. Several comments stood out about how I am a calming force and how I have a way of describing why something is done. Both have an underlying commonality: the “perception” of taking the longer view.
We commonly hear phrases like just look at the big picture, focus on the war; not the battle, or take a longer view. But how do you actually do this? As with many human things, it starts with understanding oneself and truly being honest with oneself.
Say you want to introduce a new expense management software to your company. When coming up with the first draft business justification you might say something to the lines of the old system is broken and this new process will save the company money – both of which are probably true. But what happens when you hit resistance? How will you keep working towards your goal?
Let’s ask “Why” you want to introduce this software a few more times:
- We should adopt this new expense management software
- Why? It will save the company money
- Why? My team spends hours every week entering expenses and complaining about the current process
- Why? I want recognization from my team for solving the problem
- Why? I want status
At this point, we have multiple layers we can pivot at and still reach our fundamental goal of building status.
Now lets go and sit down with finance, instead of starting with the solution of the software, you can explain the problem your team is facing and inquire about the current system. At this point you could learn that the current system could be easily changed to address the problem, or that you were missing some requirements and finance would be open to a solution that was better as long as it met the requirements, or that the software you wish to suggest would be a great choice. So many places that an adjustment could be made while still working towards your goal now instead of the single point of the new software that was started with.
However, it is always possible that when talking with finance you learn there is nothing you can do for this problem due to legal requirements on the industry. At this point you can still move down the “Why” stack and find another problem to solve for your team and still be moving towards your goal of status.
By understanding yourself and what you want in a situation, you can take the longer view when making decisions in the moment while gaining more flexibility and certainty in what you choose.