If there is one lesson you can take away from nearly every Career Opportunities
column, it is the fact that there is always a better way. I don't care how entrenched
the problem, there is a way to solve it that will make your working world a better
place to be. You shouldn't simply have to "live with it." Granted,
the more difficult the problem the more dramatic the solution will need to be.
Having the courage to address the problem is where we often fail, though. We
forget that there is a better way and struggle on for months or years.
Too often, long term problems exist because everyone in a company has
collectively
agreed to ignore them. These problems are the proverbial "elephant in the
room" that everyone pretends isn't there. It is amazing the mental gyrations
we can perform to ignore a problem that is staring us right in the face. Maybe
your company accountant is allowed to overrule any expenditure or your office
manager treats the company as their own personal fiefdom, intimidating workers
and executives alike. While people might grumble privately about the problem,
no one seems to have the wherewithal, the courage, the guts to deal with the
problem, even though it is crippling the company. I understand how stressful
it can be to address a deeply entrenched problem like this, but by failing to
deal with the problem, you risk sacrificing your entire company to the whim of
one person.
Companies can also damage themselves by failing to address fundamental
problems with their products or even their entire business model.
In many operations,
customer service and support staff spend the majority of their time fielding
the same questions repeatedly. If companies truly wanted to improve their bottom
line and help the company to grow, it seems that addressing these most common
issues would be a great place to start. Instead, though, they ignore these
most basic issues in favor of grand plans, complicated business
strategies and the
latest management fads. In most cases, management doesn't even think to ask
about these chronic problems. As in our other example, they simply
pretend they don't
exist.
Sure, you will hear countless reasons why certain problems can't
be solved, but it is exactly this thinking that ensures problems
will continue. We convince
ourselves that some external force is preventing us from being the company
and the person we truly want to be. The cold fact is, though, we
have lost sight
of our goals. We have forgotten that there is a better way. We ignore the difficult
issues by focusing on those issues we think we can fix, but no matter how hard
we work on these problems, the fundamental issues we are ignoring will always
cause us to fail. Solve the big issues and many of the smaller issues will
take care of themselves.
The most damaging problems are those where entire business models
are at risk. You only have to look to the entertainment industry
to see the results. In their
case, refusal to face fundamental changes in their industry has led them down
the path to near destruction. First, they ignored the problem of the Internet,
file sharing and online distribution and now they are trying to use the legal
system and legislation to prop up their old business model. Instead of addressing
the problem and seeking new alternatives they will eventually be replaced by
new companies that have created new business models that deal with the new
realities of the entertainment industry.
For your own personal career, developing the courage and methods
to face fundamental issues is a sure way to continue building your
career, instead of watching it
falter. While voicing your concerns might upset some people, the results you
achieve will far outweigh the complaints of those determined to ignore the
problems. You may need to be very creative in showing people the
better way, but it is
possible.
The current state of business should be a clear signal that you need
to face those intractable problems of your company and your career
or you could be facing
the failure of both. No matter how difficult the problems may seem, you have
to seek out the better way -- you have to believe it exists -- or you will
find yourself trapped in a never-ending cycle of failure.
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Career
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