| |
|
|
Unreasonable Requests
by Paul Lemberg
Published on this site: March 31st, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the
unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to
himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable
man." - George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists.
It is probably the number two task of leadership - asking.
You ask people to do things, and when they do - well, stuff
happens.
But what really extends your ability to make big things happen
is asking for things that are "unreasonable."
What is unreasonable? Asking people for things you have no
right to expect from them, which under ordinary circumstances,
you would expect them to say, "no." But asking anyway.
The trick is to expect them to say yes, and not worry about
whether they do or they don't.
Create a game in your business. The game is for everyone to
continually be unreasonable in what they ask of each other.
And not just internally - externally as well. Include all
your stakeholders in this game. (You choose whether or not
to tell them about it the game.) Do you think this game could
rocket your project forward?
If making requests is not a normal activity for most people
in businesses, unreasonable requests are doubly abnormal.
Most of us don't want to risk rejection - so we ask for small
things, easy things, wimpy things, and make it easy for people
to say yes.
Keeping your requests small is a good strategy if you are
no-o-phobic, but it limits your results.
The action in your business is moved forward in direct proportion
to the size of your requests, so to move things along quickly,
you have to ask big.
Think of what changes would make your requests unreasonable.
Whatever you were going to ask for, ask for more. Whenever
you wanted it, ask for it sooner. Whatever you were willing
to pay or trade, ask for it for less, or free. You get the
idea.
Make your requests
- Larger.
- Bigger.
- Faster.
- Cheaper.
- Outrageouser.
Make them unreasonable.
Business Coach http://paullemberg.com,
Paul Lemberg is the President of Quantum Growth Coaching,
the world's only fully systemized business coaching
http://quantumgrowthcoaching.com
program helping entrepreneurs to rapidly create More Profits
and More LifeT. Guaranteed
|
| |
|
|
