The Answer Is in the Question!

Many of us go through life looking for answers that will lead us to fulfillment in life or to career success. Very often the answers seem so hard to obtain. So we spend most of our time asking the same questions over and over again, searching and waiting for the right answers.

Has it ever occurred to you that you might be asking the wrong question?
Someone once asked me, "I have a good job at a great company but my dream is to have my own start-up company. It is hard to take the risk because I have a family to support. What should I do?"

"What I am hearing is that you have been asking yourself the question, 'What would happen to my family's finances if I quit my job?'". I pointed out that the question kept him focused on his problem. I suggested that he asked himself a different question,

"How do I start a business while maintaining financial stability for my family?"

This question opens up creativity and imagination and encourages the seeker to look for options to overcome his challenges while pursuing his goal. It fosters ideas such as the possibility of working on developing his business at night while he is still at the current job, or of reinvesting his stock option to generate an extra income stream as a safety net.

Many years ago, I worked for a U.S. personal care company in Asia. One of the products I managed was a line of tampons. The product category only had 1% usage rate because it was considered very intrusive in a conservative culture.
One year we ran multiple focus groups. I was sitting in the observatory room, eavesdropping on the consumers, when I heard some very unusual comments about the product. I had an "ah ha" moment and subsequently wrote a new marketing plan to shift the focus from brand advertising to educational and PR campaigns.
A few months later I was asked to drop by the sales meeting and share the new marketing strategy with the sales team. With the new strategy, I explained, product sales could grow by more than 30% during the peak season. The reception was cold.

Five minutes later, as I was waiting in the lobby for the elevator, a saleswoman who was in the meeting came up to me and told me what happened in the conference room after I left. The sales director said to the sales team,
"I have never seen any growth in our tampon sales in the 20 years since I joined the company. The marketing team had tried different campaigns to improve the revenues but all resulted in little change. How could a 30% growth be possible!?" He smirked. The whole room broke into laughter, according to my colleague's account. I remembered feeling a chill running through my body when I realized that I had become a laughing stock in the company. I was mortified

I gathered just enough strength to get back to my office. I called the production manager. The sales team was very powerful in the company at the time. Without their buy-in, I would not have the authority to change the sales forecast numbers that the production department would use to increase their production of the product. I told him about the challenge.

"What can be done to avert the product shortage? What is possible?" I asked. The product had to be imported so if the sales exceeded the previous forecast, the shortage could go on for months.

"Well, are you certain about your growth projection?" The production manager asked me.

I told him that this strategy had never been tried before but the research indicated a strong consumer fear which the new strategy was designed to overcome. There was no past event that I could use as a reference. However, if this were the right strategy, I was confident that we could generate 30% growth based on historical store data for similar products.

"As you know, I cannot increase the order size because the sales projection has not been bumped up. Hmmm.... Let me think about what I can do." He said, weighing the requirement to comply with the sales forecast already in our system and the potential of a product shortage. In the end, he came up with a great idea to hedge his risks. He decided to order from our European plant the same quantities as the original forecast but a few weeks earlier than usual. If sales picked up, he would request air shipments. If the sales remained flat, we would ship the order by sea.
Soon after the new marketing strategy was implemented, the tampon sales started to increase. The educational materials we created were flying off the shelf so quickly that I had to order more after just 2 weeks. The production manager, who was watching the sales activities closely, requested air shipments so we did not lose sales momentum. We were easily able to achieve the projected sales growth.

You see, by asking different questions, they triggered different responses and results.

"How could this be possible?" casts doubt and focuses on concerns.

"What is possible?" encourages brainstorming new ideas to achieve the goal.

Are you ready to challenge yourself or do you want to remain hindered by the obstacles you believe you face? Instead of asking yourself why you never have time for things that matter to you, ask yourself how you can make time for things that matter to you.

If you are feeling stuck and unable to make progress toward your goals, try asking a new question that encourages you to overcome the obstacles and points you at a new direction that you haven't looked at before.

So what is the question you have yet to ask yourself?

Change Perspective Change Outcome

I was on a panel yesterday. At the end of the discussion I was asked to give one final advice to people who are going through career transition.

"Focus on what you have, not what you don’t have. Focus on what you can, not what you can't!" I said.

There was a company that wanted to find out why they had more men in management position than women and why men were more likely to apply for open positions in the company than women. The findings were interesting. The survey showed that men felt that they were qualified to apply if they met 60% of the requirements whereas women felt that they were qualified only if they had met something like 80 % of the requirements.

You see, one group of people were focusing on what they had. That gave them a lot of confidence to apply for the job. On the other hand, the other group, or the women, were concerend about what they didn't have so they would not apply unless they had about 80% of the qualifications.

A shift in perspective can change the outcome. When you change how you look at things, the things you look at change. Many years ago I worked for a personal care company. I managed 3 product categories. I was baffled why the company had always put most of the marketing dollars into just one category leaving the other 2 categories with little marketing budget. So I took a look at the 2 "orphan" categories. I noticed that although the overall markets for these 2 products are smaller than the "favorite" category, they were growing much faster and growing steadily. We had a product that had stayed #2 in the market for over 10 years. I was curious why it had been #2 for so long without ever making it to #1 position. I did a little research and got a pleasant surprise. Our product had everything that consumers were looking for in this type of product but the company never realized the strengths of the product and never positioned itself as the brand leader. I convinced the management to change the marketing strategy. In less than 12 months, the brand became #1 in the market.

"Believe in yourself so that other people can start believing in you!" I said to the audience.

What is one assumption you have about your life that you could challenge to open new possibilities?

If you believe in what you want to do, you will make it happen.

Dream Big. Celebrate Small.

Do you often feel like you are not achieving your goals and frustrated by status quo? Is a dream just a dream and not really attainable?

Some people don't know what to do with their life. They feel like they are floating around endlessly without direction. Know that you are blessed if you have a dream. So I say "Dream all you want. Dream big!"

Have you ever celebrated little progresses you made along the way to achieve your dream or are you just holding off and holding off until the big day?

If finding your dream job is your goal, then congratulate yourself when you start checking out the jobs online because you just stopped the inertia and took the first step. Give yourself a big pat on the back when finish your resume because you know you have taken another big step. Looking for a life partner? Celebrate when you take the step to go to a networking event or put up a profile page on the online dating site. Create a check list of all the steps you need to take to accomplish your goal and check them off each time you take the next step. A big check mark! Get excited about progress that you are making. End goal shouldn't be the only thing we celebrate. Rally the little but strenuous steps that you took to get closer to your dream.

Dream big and celebrate small so you will continue to keep your sight on the goal and maintain your enthusiasm. Try it!