options Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

22
Apr 21
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Falling Down Often Starts With a Choice

Tags : choices decisions falling down options persistence

Lots of things are the result of a decision or choice. Falling down happens. It happens to nearly everyone and everything in one capacity or another. What are your choices?

By now you’ve probably heard all the rhetoric.

Don’t look where you don’t want to go.

A backup plan means you’ve already failed.

Analyzing alternatives is a lack of focus.

While there may be some valuable nuggets to consider in this type of rhetoric, it may also be helpful to know when enough is enough.

You guessed it, finding the magical balance between persistence and quitting while you are ahead is ideal.

Have you ever experienced the feeling of falling down?

Consequences of Failure

The consequences of failure can be huge. With some hard work, persistence, and a little luck you might land a high-paying job or get a business rolling that yields substantial wealth.

Can it all come crashing down? Yes, and everything seems to have a beginning and an end.

Great jobs, great businesses, and great communities. They rise and they fall.

Giving up too easily is problem. Holding on too long is also a problem.

Then there is the case where you had no choice. The plug was pulled. The carpet ripped out from under your feet without any fault of your own. This too happens.

Falling Down

All or nothing is a gamble. Anything without risk has little or no reward.

Digging deep matters. Acceptance that no one is coming to bail you out might spark the fire in your belly that you need to persevere.

You made a choice where to start. It may be obvious or it may require some deeper thinking to discover the moment the decision was made. You can make a choice about where and when to stop too.

In the case where failure hit by no fault of your own, you make a new choice for a new beginning, or to crumble down in the ashes.

It’s is funny how many things happen after someone says, “There wasn’t any other choice.”

Make your next decision with eyes wide open about the consequences.

At some point, the cavalry is not coming.

Hearing this may make a difference. Experiencing it is a game changer.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

20
Aug 20
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Workplace Options, For Better or For Worse

Tags : choices options perfect workplace decisions

What are the options? Many people in the workforce are often considering their workplace options. Not only related to their career, but related to business decisions, employee decisions, and the directional decisions of the organization.

In the United States, we are in a presidential election year. Many people chatter about the presidential campaigns currently underway, and to generalize, my best guess is that somewhere around 50 percent of the population will agree on one of the candidates.

As in any election cycle, a question to consider is, “Who isn’t running that should be?”

It matters because the voters are really only voting on the best option.

Always the Best Option

Frustrated hiring managers are faced with hiring the best available option. There may be many people better suited for the job opportunity, but they either didn’t apply or perhaps the compensation package didn’t fit.

Marketing and advertising managers have to make the most of a budget. A Superbowl commercial may be effective to boost sales, yet it may not be affordable to most small businesses. Instead, they set direction best on the best available options within their budget.

Job seekers look for options. A computer science graduate may be able to earn a substantial income in technology hot spots throughout the United States, yet he or she may choose to live in a small rural town in Montana. Other options exist, but they are not suitable for their personal framework of choices.

Workplace Options

People and organizations are always living with choices. They are living with choices based on finding a balance within options.

The elected official is the best option out of those seeking the position. A candidate who gets the job is the best of the options. Advertising options are the best value within the budget. Career pathways somehow weave their way into existence as the best option within the framework of the individual.

In the workplace, there may not always be a perfect option. Waiting for one may be the biggest mistake of all.

For better or for worse.

-DEG

27
Dec 18
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Magic Marketing for Business, Career, or Life

Tags : choices focus magic marketing options

It often seems like more should be better. More coffee, more dessert, or more menu options. How are sales? Are you satisfied with your career or life choices? Do you need more of something? Magic marketing could be required.

It is funny how our first approach to solving many problems is to do something more.

Is More Better?

In the workplace, when teams believe they have communication problems they often suggest more communication.

When we need more sales, we often contemplate how to increase the budget for more advertisement.

If we aren’t getting where we want to be in our career we think about more skills, more credentials, or just more job opportunities.

Sometimes this logic is known as the spray and pray approach. While I’m not sure of the exact origin of spray and pray, the analogy often described is the farmer spraying pesticides all over the field and praying that it keeps the insects away.

Another common analogy is the Chinese restaurant menu. Hundreds of options, so many that you don’t know what to choose.

More options, choices, people, jobs, careers, skills, customers, and products, none of these in more quantity may create the outcome you desire.

Magic Marketing

Is there such a thing as magic marketing?

Marketing is sometimes counterintuitive. People dream of that place where the lines of supply and demand, opportunities and sales, and job openings with applicants perfectly intersect.

In all these cases, more is not necessarily better. One job opening with the right applicant is perfect. A menu with three choices may be better than a menu with thirty-three choices.

Position your business marketing, your career pursuits, or nearly anything in life on not being more, but being better.

Magic marketing is about focus, not spray and pray.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

23
Jan 18
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More Options and Undecided Customers

Tags : customer service decisions marketing options

One concept is that people aren’t buying because they lack the option that they need or want. Whether it is buying an idea, a product, or picking the best apple from the bushel. Counting options can create undecided customers.

It is an easy trap and one that businesses often fall into. If people are not buying, what we are selling it must mean we aren’t selling the right stuff. Of course, that could be the case, but what should you do?

More Options

Many businesses and marketers will expand the menu. They are convinced that what they are already offering is important, valid, and desired, otherwise it wouldn’t be on the menu, so their solution is add more options.

To the novice marketer lots of options seems like the right path. If we don’t have it, we’ll create it, or offer it as an option. Options cost, but it feels better than losing the sale.

However, more options often doesn’t close the sale. It makes the buying decision even harder. In some cases, it makes it so much more challenging that the customer walks away, still thinking, but cannot decide.

Most consumers pride themselves on making good choices. Given more options, the safest choice is sometimes no choice right now. They will wait, studying the options, they will think about it more.

Undecided Customers

Choosing our Netflix movie, hiring the right candidate, or picking the wonton soup from the Chinese menu all occurs after we’ve filtered. More options doesn’t make the choice easier, it makes it harder. It is the greatest way to delay a choice, make the customer work harder, or just not buy at all.

Having something for everyone seems appealing, until no one can decide.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

24
Feb 17
4

Big Decisions, Removing Options, and Permanent Choices

Tags : choices decisions options risk

Are you facing a tough decision or choice? What is it about big decisions that often leave us struggling to make the call?

About eight months ago on a 114 degree day near Phoenix, Arizona, I found myself riding in the back seat of a big, dark, tinted window SUV. I was on business related travel and was able to get connected with a very reasonably priced private driver.

This wasn’t Uber, it wasn’t a cab, but a professional business service that chauffeurs people in that area.

While on a ride from a business meeting back to my hotel I engaged in some small talk with the driver. After a few minutes I noticed that the driver was very well spoken, appeared very knowledgeable, and his business savvy was quite impressive.

Being somewhat intrigued, we continued to talk. I learned that he was originally from the east coast with a very noteworthy professional career. I asked him about his move to Arizona, how he made the decision, and if it was the right choice.

His story was interesting but the details are not what really matter the most. What matters the most is one specific sentence that he shared. He said, “Every big decision that we make in life is always the right decision at that time, at that exact moment when you make it.”

Like a heavy meal of pasta and bread, it hit the spot and has stuck with me ever since.

Big Decisions

Sometimes when we are faced with big decisions we get too caught up in the details. It’s easy to become worried about what is the right choice or the best choice, and sadly we often inappropriately weigh the risks.

Confidence might sometimes be a factor, but most of our struggle often comes from the feeling of what we have to give up. Additionally, it might be about the feeling of permanency with our choice.

Consider a decision to move a thousand or more miles away from home. A career choice or a new job offer, and we certainly can’t forget about the idea of getting a tattoo or marriage. All of those things might feel permanent, and with that feeling of permanency there is added pressure.

Removing Options

The challenge for most people exists in the removal of options. Like a multiple choice question on an exam, deciding means we have to eliminate something. Some choices are easily removed because they just don’t fit. As the options become fewer the pressure might feel more intense.

Businesses often feel this pressure when deciding on their marketing mix or building a brand. Lots of options or being all things to all people feels more comfortable. The feeling is that you’ll never miss an opportunity.

Unfortunately as a result prospective buyers can’t decide so they move on to the vendor who has exactly what they want. Fewer options make deciding easier.

Individuals sometimes find this challenge with big decisions such as buying an automobile, a home, or booking that once-in-a-lifetime vacation. The more choices or options, the harder it is to decide.

Perhaps in life or business the easiest way to make big decisions is by becoming more comfortable with removing options.

Make the big decisions, even when it feels like it might be permanent.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: options

Apr 21

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Consequences of Failure

Falling Down

Aug 20

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Always the Best Option

Workplace Options

Dec 18

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Is More Better?

Magic Marketing

Jan 18

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More Options

Undecided Customers

Feb 17

Big Decisions

Removing Options

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