Laura Williams, SBL coach and trainer at L J Business Consultancy, explains why you need to sometimes check-in with yourself and review what you think you know
If you’ve been reading my blogs for a while, you’ll know that my hairdresser is new (to me) as my previous hairdresser retired during COVID. Thankfully, she’s not only lovely, she’s also very accommodating! Because I didn’t want to rock up at EdExec LIVE in October with crazy hair, she squeezed me in for an appointment the week before.
However.
Because we were both super busy, she could only fit me in at her second salon…which is further away from my house and in a place that I don’t particularly like. The parking is terrible, there aren’t many shops, plus I’ve never had a real need to go.
After Googling the location of the salon I searched for nearby parking and found that a new car park had been built so I set off nice and early to make sure I could find a space, locate the salon, and arrive in plenty of time (quality organisational skills, right there!) Surprisingly, the car park was not only well-located – it was huge – and it was free for up to 3 hours!
And then…when I stepped out of it, I found myself in a square full of shops which I instantly found myself itching to have a look around – home stuff, a deli, boutique clothes shops, as well as some nice-looking bars and cafés for a post-haircut lunch! I was that gobsmacked, I stood at the exit of the car park, taking it all in for a good five minutes!
I literally didn’t recognise the place. I grabbed a coffee and a muffin from Costa and made my way towards the hairdressers in awe.
Why am I telling you this?
Because sometimes we just need to check-in with ourselves about what we know – or rather, what we think we know – as we may well be wrong!
We can look at something and convince ourselves we know exactly what we’re looking at – that we know all there is to know about this system, this situation, this person…and we forget something truly fundamental:
Things change.
Sometimes it happens fast but, more often than not, it happens over time.
Change is a process, not an event. You usually don’t realise it’s happening at all until you look back and think, ‘Wow, look how different things are now than they used to be!’
As SBLs we have to constantly check-in with ourselves to test our assumptions so we can be as objective as we possibly can be in order to make the best decisions we possibly can and, to be objective, we need up-to-the-minute data to make sound and accurate judgements.
Relying on what we ‘know’ can sometimes mean that we are actually misinformed, and this can lead to all kinds of problems. Only by being open to new information, and the possibility that our thinking might be out-of-date, can we be sure that we’re making truly informed decisions and taking appropriate action.
Sometimes, the more we look, the less we see.
So, how about you?
What areas are you assuming that you ‘know’ inside and out?
What might you need to update your thinking about?
As I said, it could be about a situation, a system or a person…it could even be about you.
Ask as many questions as you need to, to find out exactly what you need to.
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