Treat the Root Cause - Not the Symptoms
An extremely important part of life or sales or whatever you do is finding/treating the root causes of problems, not symptoms of issues.
Think of it this way:
If you pull a muscle while working out, sure, you can ice, heat, and apply icy-hot to the strained fibers of the muscle. But that isn’t going to fix the strain, and that certainly isn’t what caused the pull in the first place. You pulled your muscle because you weren’t adequately warmed up before moving full speed, or because you’re not flexible enough at large.
In order to truly fix, and PREVENT this type of behavior from happening again:
Become more flexible. Do yoga more often, or simply stretch more frequently post-workout
Adequately warm up - raise your pulse, and go through a mobility sequence for your body that significantly decreases the chances of your pulling something
Think about the above concept in all areas of life!
From a sales perspective, someone doesn’t buy something from you right away. You need to figure out exactly why they aren’t buying!
If people aren’t getting along or there is a disagreement, the answer isn’t to simply, get everyone in a circle, hold hands, and sing kumbaya, you need to talk to the other person, or people, and figure out what the true root cause of the issues are.
If you start and end at the surface level, you’re never going to make anyone happy. In fact, the opposite will happen, and people will begin to boil, and get more and more upset, because
An interesting and accurate observation of humanity is the following:
We judge others on their actions, but we judge ourselves on our thoughts
Think about it! We’re all obnoxiously quick to judge other people based on what they do. However, usually, we have no idea why they did what they did!
What is the personal background with this type of experience/background
Do they have significant pain associated with this type of circumstance
Have they had a ton of prior experience with this sort of thing?
Focusing on the root cause mindset helps fix the above dilemma!
When we approach issues with the root cause mindset - we’re forced to think about, talk to, and ideally jointly come to the same conclusion as the other person. Rather than judge / guess what other people are thinking, you can UNDERSTAND and then KNOW the best way to move forward for all parties involved.
Action items:
Try to activate a reframing mindset when you’re in the middle of a conflict.
Reframing is your ability to look at a given situation from someone else’s point of view.
Examples:
Customers - what value are you giving them? - is the buying process optimized?
Employees - what are the problems they are facing? - where are they weak/need coaching?
Investors - are expectations aligned? - does the narrative make sense?
Reframing will help you get to the root cause of why people are not aligned. As always, it helps to overcommunicate as well :).
Till next time!