When faced with options & yet not been able to
make a choice, perhaps one needs to look at the desired outcomes or
results. Begin with end in mind, is what
we have all heard. When we know our destinations, short or long, we start
planning and acting in a manner to take us close & reach our destinations
or outcomes. In professional lives we have our goals / KPIs which keep us
focused. Thankfully someone does it for us in corporate life. When we work on
our own or just purely in our personal life situations, determining what we
wish to achieve in short time frames would help us think better and make great
choices when options are generated or thrown at us.
I am sharing a piece from a “coaching conversation”
that may help readers in working their way up and out of confusion or dilemmas
in same or similar situation. The client operates independently as a financial
services professional with a very small team. In this business for last 2 years,
he has had many options thrown at him to develop new businesses. He has seen
them as opportunities to grow & make money. Read on further.
Quote
Client: I am taken up by various options bordering
on distractions that do not allow me to focus on my business. People in my
network keep approaching me with business ideas and show their keenness to fund
me and / or work with me on same. These business ideas excite me & I do
spend time evaluating them. Somehow these fizzle out and / or do not meet my
criteria of investment of time & money. Resultantly I spend considerable
time evaluating and end up losing time for my own business. I would like to be
more focused & less distracted by seemingly good business options.
Coach: What makes you think these are options?
Client: Well, they are all part of financial
services business that I have been part of past 8-10 years. So people who know
me and my experience tend to approach me with ideas and options to pursue. All
these are money making opportunities.
Coach: How do you currently evaluate these options?
Client: I currently look and estimate the market
& opportunity size, competition and returns including time to break even.
Any options that meets the criteria, I would pursue otherwise I drop.
Incidentally I have not chosen any in last 12-18 months.
Coach: So, in what ways these evaluation parameters
either been helpful or not?
Client: Not at all, I still get approached by people
with at least one idea each week and then study and evaluate and that takes up
my time, energy and effort. That is why I call it a distraction.
Coach: Which nature of options would you look
forward to and is most likely to meet your evaluation criteria?
Client: Options closest to my current business of
investment plans for high net worth individuals.
Coach: You seem quite clear and confident. So what is
that are you doing currently to attract such options?
Client: Nothing at all. I just keep getting other
options than what I really desire.
Coach: In your view what could you possibly do to
attract options that you desire?
Client: Well I guess I have to go out and offer
people such options and seek their views and commitment. I can also ask the
people approaching me with ideas, which I reject, to look at some ideas /
options that I have. Who knows they may agree and that would be win-win.
Coach: How would you now be different in same
situations?
Client: Firstly I will use filter of options offered
against it being closest to my current business. If it is not, I will not even
go ahead with any evaluation. Secondly I will create some ideas / options which
would be offered by me proactively in my close network and seek commitments. I
think these would help me stay focused. In fact I realize, I have been
complacent, in I have not been going out with my ideas to sell and have waited
rather wasted time.
Coach: You seem quite clear. You had mentioned all
the ideas are money making opportunities. With your new approach, you are
likely to reject most of them, how do you feel about it?
Client: As I mentioned, I was taking up options for
evaluation because I myself was not clear on something– first being, I wanted
it to be closest my current business and secondly I have much more money to
make by expanding my own business line than put effort in starting a new
business. I would now put a plan in place, shrug this complacency, and go ahead
with execution.
I have clarity now that those options were not
really the options & hence I was not making a choice among them.
Unquote
This coaching conversation (with permission) has
been quoted to facilitate readers think about their situations and their
dilemmas when faced with multiple options. The process of making a choice
begins much before. We need to consider what options we really have on the
table and which ones are not there that we need to have. Choosing among
available options is not really the same as creating options that we really
need to, before we evaluate and make choices.
Some questions asked here by the coach, could be
applied. Coaches are trained to facilitate new & improved thinking leading
to positive change in client. When reading through the conversation, one can
notice that coach is just asking questions and client while responding is
sharing his mind. This process itself throws up new thinking and insights for
the client and therein lies the transformation and energy to act further.
