A short article this time around, given my time constraints this weekend – yet one which I hope particularly small business owners will gain some value from. There is a clear lesson to be learned from this story…
I was informed during the week just gone that a particular Kiwi business owner had engaged a trusted and respected external business consultant to advise them on defining their future involvement in their business – a business which they had developed from a blank canvas over multiple decades.
The part that I was particularly interested in was learning that the competent and well proven business consultant who had been engaged was carefully selected by the business owner due to the owner’s perception that the consultant had aligned values and was of similar mind/ had similar perspectives. In other words the business owner had engaged a consultant knowing that it was highly likely that this advisor was going to agree with most perspectives/ views that the business owner would bring to the fore.
So what’s the folly here ?
Simple. If we engage “Yes People” to bounce our thoughts/ perspectives/ opinions off in order to seek ratification of our ideals/ vision what do you think the nature of the response is going to be from such people ? Answer: a response that mirrors our own perspectives.
And what is the value of receiving self-affirming opinions of others in relation to our own thoughts/ views/ intentions/ plans ? Answer: next to zero/ nil.
The above situation is of course a beautiful example of a “self fulfilling prophecy”. And the most ironic aspect of all is that the business owner would have paid a handsome sum to engage their carefully selected advisor – for that person to “go with the flow” and be a passive receiver of input from the business owner.
I’ve worked with various Boards over the years, and have never been one to take a “complacent” role in Board meetings. In fact in most cases I’ve led these meetings. On one occasion I recall a director speaking in a semi-concerned manner to another director about the high level of my contributions to these meetings. The director who was being queried replied, “It’s a good thing that a CEO demonstrates a willingness to constructively challenge Board members’ perspectives”.
The moral of this story is, if you – as a business person/ owner – genuinely want to change some aspect of your organisation/ how your business operates, then look to engage people who are prepared to communicate their truthful objective opinion of your business’s situation…even if that means that your ideals get challenged along the way to whatever extent. You cannot hope to transition from your status quo by engaging people who knowingly are predisposed to agreeing with you.