snh 2018
As the bookkeeping and accounting landscape changes, many of you might choose to move into a more advisory role with you clients. After all, in this extremely confusing world, who DOESN’T need some good strategic advice?
But what is a Strategic Advisor? What skills and abilities might you need that you are not using in your current role?
One of the necessary skills is the ability to THINK strategically. What does that mean, you ask?
According to Google:
“Strategic thinking is a process that defines the manner in which people think about, assess, view, and create the future for themselves and others. Strategic thinking is an extremely effective and valuable tool. One can apply strategic thinking to arrive at decisions that can be related to your work or personal life.”
Unfortunately, that definition doesn’t really tell us much about how to think strategically.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say on the topic:
“Strategic thinking includes finding and developing a strategic foresight capacity for an organization, by exploring all possible organizational futures, and challenging conventional thinking to foster decision making today.”
Strategic thinking does not come naturally to everyone, or we would all be doing it really well, all of the time. Strategic thinking at its best is logical and based on analysis. But human beings, unlike machines, are often motivated and influenced by factors that clearly interfere with and defy logic.
In this article I’m going to talk about some of the factors that might get in the way of clear strategic thinking, along with a few tips on how to deal with them.
Inevitably, at some point you will run up against a client who can’t get out of their own way. They have had some negative experiences, perhaps a failure or two (or three) and the emotions associated with those experiences are getting in the way of their ability to think logically and strategically. They become overly cautious, stuck, unable to move forward or act on your advice, fearing failure or some other negative consequence. This is a frustrating situation for both you and the client.
"You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there." Edwin Louis Cole
Here’s what you and your client really need to know. All businesses, business owners, and entrepreneurs experience setbacks. Even the most successful people experience their fair share of failures and catastrophes. What separates the successful from those who never realize their dreams boils down to one crucial factor: Mindset
Pick someone that you admire and delve into their story. I’m willing to bet that at some point they encountered what appeared to be an insurmountable setback. An immovable obstacle. A gi-normous failure. And yet, they persevered.
What do you do when things go horribly wrong? When you get sucker punched and knocked down onto the floor? I’ll tell you what I do. I lie there, and I feel sorry for myself. I tell myself to give up, that it’s impossible, that I can’t do this anymore. I blame myself and I blame everyone else. I wallow in it. And here’s what I’m NOT doing – I am NOT thinking clearly and strategically.
I stay in this state until I can’t stand myself another minute. That usually takes about an hour. But if the failure or problem is huge enough, I can potentially wallow for a whole day or more.
And then something miraculous happens. A little glimmer of hope in a corner of my brain says, well, maybe, if I do this a little differently……, and I start to bounce back. The key here is to grab onto this glimmer of hope when it appears. If you smash it back down (and I know, it’s very tempting to do just that), and tell yourself not to fall for it, because another failure is just around the corner, then you’re sunk.
So, what do you do if you, or your client, has been sucker punched, and they don’t seem to be picking themselves up off the floor? How can you get them to stop focusing on protecting themselves from another failure or problem, and start thinking strategically again?
Our thoughts create energy and energy creates our actions (or in-actions). The good news is that we can control our thoughts. All it takes is a little awareness, and a willingness to question ourselves. When we first experience a failure or setback, we might feel a lot of self-doubt, helplessness, and despair. When we are in the midst of blaming ourselves for something and feeling helpless and even apathetic towards changing it, we won’t take any action that will cause change. We will stay on the floor, knocked out of the game. Some people stay there indefinitely. They never bounce back.
But there are several ways that you can help your clients pick themselves up and get back in it. Below are three of them:
- Make them angry. This might seem completely counter-intuitive. After all, who wants to make their clients angry? This technique should only be used if your client is exhibiting helpless, victim thinking (for example “things never work out for me, so why bother…” ). Ask them about what really angers them about the situation, and get them to feel that anger. While anger as a motivator is not positive and ultimately not sustainable, it does get their juices flowing enough to break the cycle of wallowing and start doing something about it. As long as they can move beyond the anger and don’t allow themselves to become consumed by it, anger can be a good temporary solution.
- Ask them the question: “how can you bounce back from this? Or how can you resolve this issue?” Notice that I didn’t say to TELL them “you can bounce back from this.” While giving them a pep talk might feel like the right thing to do, they most likely won’t believe you, and they won’t internalize it. On the other hand, asking someone how they can do something, has a remarkable effect on their brain. Their natural tendency will be to search for an answer, and in that search for an answer, they will start looking for and discovering ways to bounce back.
- Get your client to connect with their purpose. We all have a reason, a “why” we do what we do. If your client understands what their deeper purpose is, then they will be able to motivate themselves to pick themselves up and keep moving forward. Your purpose is something you care deeply and feel passionately about. It doesn’t have to be noble or grand (although it can be). If you know your purpose, it will be the driving force behind what gets you out of bed in the morning, and it will keep you going through all of the ups and downs. If your client seems resistant to moving forward or unable to see the big strategic picture, ask them why they do what they do. Get them to talk about their vision and purpose. That could very well get them thinking about the future again, giving them the clarity they need to think strategically and take positive action.
If you would like to learn more about how to gain clarity, control your mindset and think strategically, join my workshop at Scaling New Heights 2018, The Hidden Key to Success as a Strategic Advisor, presented by Donna Leyens, MBA, CPC.