You see what happens is that when you spend so much time studying something, you slow down your thinking. You become so familiar with the material that you do not have time to think of all the myriad of other questions that may arise. In other words, you stop asking questions. You get so comfortable with your learning that you almost forget questions that you never thought of before. The end result is that you never learn new things at all!
Well, in today’s world you must have questions. If you do not, you cannot succeed. You can fail at everything if you do not ask enough questions. You cannot operate a complex organization or serve as a corporate leader if you do not understand why it is you are doing what you are doing and why it works. You need to take my corporate turnarounds and my University examinations seriously and make sure that you have the knowledge base in place to accomplish whatever goals you have set for yourself.
The first question that I asked myself when I took my corporate turnarounds and my university exams was “Why am I doing this?” I mean, what is the purpose of this? Why are you doing what you are doing? Why are you doing it in the first place? What is it that you want to get out of this experience? Asking these questions is what gets people moving in the right direction and getting the results that they need.
Second, in answering the question, “Why am I doing this?” you must also ask yourself, “What are its benefits for me?” This is another way of asking the question, “Why am I doing this?” Corporate leadership is not all about making money. It is also about having an impact on other people and their lives.
Third, in answering the question, “Why am I doing this?” you must also ask yourself, “What are its costs?” Now, I am not talking about costs of losing potential clients or customers. I am talking about the costs of repeating your action in order to bring your goals of success into fruition. Every time that you repeat an action, you have to estimate the cost of that action.
Finally, in corporate leadership, when we look at the person who is leading the charge, we must ask ourselves, “What is the Cost?” The leader’s actions, whether good or bad, may not result in a positive outcome. But the people who are being led do not get to choose what is good for them. They are merely following the leader. If you ask, “Why am I doing this?”
You must then answer the next question for me. Why am I not doing what I am told to do? Sometimes this simple, yet profound question can be the root cause of the conflict or problems in the organization. If you follow and execute the plans that you were given, everything will go right. If you do not follow the plan, or if you execute it does not work, then something must be wrong. If you want to know how to take my corporate turnarounds and my whole direction in this company, then you must be ready to ask the tough questions.