One Meeting Mentor

I once had lunch with a professor from my MBA program. He has an extremely distinguished business career. He has worked for some very large and well known companies, and still does. He's well qualified from an academic credentials standpoint as well. There are few people I could find to get the kind of advice he gave me. 

His specialty is strategic planning. As a matter of fact, I found my niche in his class:  I enjoy finding solutions - solutions that deal with achieving goals. Yes, I'm fine at coming up with solutions to solve tactical, day to day problems, and usually, I'm spot on, but looking way in to the future is another matter. I can see the end result pellucidly, however, figuring out all the steps it takes to get there is another matter. Making those long range plans is always difficult because things can turn on a dime...  If one aspect of the external world changes or wasn't considered, the plan often becomes unworkable. Most of the circumstances we face are inevitable. Is there going to be a major earthquake on the west coast someday. Inevitable, right? We don't know when, but we can be pretty sure it's going to happen. We may not be able to predict when challenges in our own lives will arise, but we can be sure they will. Finding the inevitabilities is difficult, but it can be done. 

This was the insight I received from my mentor, and I don't mind sharing it with you. I have some amazing strengths, he said, that I could come up with really good solutions much faster than most people. It was a wonderful compliment and affirmation, of what I thought to be true. However, there are two sides to this coin. I do have the ability to make snap judgements,  and most of the time they are good, but what do I miss by going so fast. Maybe my snap judgements are correct, but looking at the alternatives allows for contingency planning. 

Contingency planning is a big game of "what if." I was listening to the book on CD, "Blink, the Power of Thinking without Thinking", and it said that people who mentally play the 'what if" game are less likely to to become locked with panic and be unable to act in a stressful situation. Inaction when action is needed the most can be deadly.  The ability to plan something far into the future is incomplete without looking at, (a) the alternative courses of action to get to the desired end, and (b) as many of the obstacles, changes, or circumstances that can arise to throw the plan off course. Some people say that a large percentage of success is just showing up. I'm pretty sure one can increase that percentage significantly by showing up prepared and looking for the unintended consequences of an action or plan. 

My take away from my one meeting mentor... My greatest strengths can be, or lead to, my greatest weaknesses - snap action.  Look at ALL the alternatives, and play the what if game. 

We all have our uncommon strengths. This is why I like the phrase, "Everyone is a Hero!" (my own little branding effort). However, man can be so strong in one area of his life that the dominance in his thinking blinds him to other areas that are equally important. According to the theory of brain plasticity, strongly ingrained behaviors take up more of our neurological real estate, so it follows that we must consciously remove our own blinders.

On this subject, you might enjoy the book "What it Takes to be Number One" by Vince Lombardi Jr. (Vince Lombardi's son). In it you may conclude that one of the greatest football coaches of all time had some amazingly glaring weaknesses. Don't we all...