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What Would a Business Robot Do?
January 29, 2010
By Michael Neill
There is an old joke about a man who goes to his neighbor's house to borrow a lawnmower. On the way, he thinks about all the reasons his neighbor might say no to his request, and gets angrier and angrier as he listens to the imaginary argument in his head. When he finally gets to his neighbor's house, he rings the doorbell, waits for the neighbor to answer, and shouts, "Keep your damn lawnmower, you ungrateful you-know-what."
Most of us become aware, at some point in our lives, of the price we pay for cutting ourselves off from our feelings. Like a river flowing against a dam, the more we resist feeling what we feel, the stronger those feelings can get. But what many people also fail to notice is how these repressed feelings and emotions get in the way of making sound business decisions.
Emma was struggling to keep her home-based business alive after about a year of hard work and limited profits. When she hired me to help her turn things around (or help her make peace with letting the business go), the first thing I did was introduce her to a thinking tool I use with many of my clients:
Imagine a robot who has been programmed with all the best business skills and business wisdom, but has no emotional circuitry. No matter what is going on in your business, "Business Robot" will always make the decisions, and take the actions, most likely to lead to both short and long-term success.
Now imagine Business Robot was hired to run your company or take over your job for awhile—what would Business Robot do?
When I asked Emma, her first response was "he'd quit!" (Not sure why most people seem to make Business Robot a "boy-bot", but they do!) After further questioning, she realized that, in fact, the business was mostly on track. What troubled her was the pressure she'd been putting on herself to "make" it succeed more quickly.
A series of insights followed, including:
• Business Robot would institute a strict ABC priority policy and stick with it, not letting itself get caught up in other people's sense of urgency.
• Business Robot would work less hours, recognizing the value of focusing on work when at work and renewing energy and resources outside of working hours.
• Business Robot would go through and do an 80/20 evaluation of which clients brought in the most money for the least effort, and vice versa, and then would use that information as a basis for prioritizing certain clients and "firing" others.
Perhaps the biggest breakthrough Emma got from the exploration was she realized that far from working harder or longer, Business Robot would hire an assistant to take care of the majority of tasks she herself found tiresome, leaving her free and energized to do the work she loved and excelled at.
To put Business Robot to work in your own company, imagine it has been brought in to run your company, take over your job, or manage your career:
• What would Business Robot do in the first week?
• What goals or targets would it set for the next month? Next quarter? Next year?
• What longer-term vision would Business Robot create for your business or career?
• Think of the biggest problem or sticking point you are facing in your work right now. What would Business Robot do in that situation?
The key to making this thought-experiment work for you is to realize that, as Aristotle said, "a virtue is the mean between two vices." Your goal is not to become more robotic—just to bring the wisdom of a mentally disciplined approach into balance with the feelings of your human heart.
Michael Neill is an executive coach and author of the new book, "Supercoach: 10 Secrets To Transforming Anyone's Life." Neill hosts a weekly talk show on www.HayHouseRadio.com, and his daily and weekly coaching columns can be read on his Website www.geniuscatalyst.com
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