Do you sometime have issues with the way other people do things? Perhaps it is your spouse, your kids, your parents, a client, prospect, or colleague. They may organize the office in a certain way, which in your mind, is the wrong way! Perhaps they are building a proposal and not doing it the way you do. Does that drive you crazy? Perhaps it doesn’t drive you crazy, but don’t you sometimes want to say something and try to “help them out” to “do it right?”
Me? Never! I am not like that at all. O.K.—maybe a little bit.
When I am delivering a workshop on how to build winning proposals, a one-on-one mentoring session on getting meetings or doing discovery sessions, or whatever, I always preface by saying, “This is not the only way. This is our way. It has been successful for us and our clients for over 16 years, but I recognize and acknowledge that it is just one way. It is successful, but there are other approaches. Please take the best of what you like and use it. Perhaps merge it with other ways; perhaps use all of it. The choice is yours. But understand that I am not saying this is the be-all and end-all to sponsorship success.” Then I show them what has made us and our clients successful.
However, I often forget that preface—that disclaimer outside of formal sessions I deliver. It often upsets me when I see people doing something that I think will not produce the greatest possible outcome for them. Sometimes, I post on social media that I think the approach is wrong. Or I address it one-on-one with them. What I need to remember is that there are many roads leading to the forum. Mine is not the only way. Some of those roads will have roadblocks, but that is a learning opportunity for the person who took that path. Sometimes, it may be a shortcut—and it works. Other times, it may be a detour, but they will get there eventually.
I have learned that, in today’s world, as a leader and a mentor, you can only provide the tools and direction. It is up to the other person or organization to choose their path. Then I need to be there to congratulate them on success when they get there, whether they took my path or not. And if the route they took is a dead end, I need to be there to help them back onto the path toward success. It is sometimes hard to do, but critical for my own development and that of others.
As I thought about all of this recently, and was trying to deal with a situation that bothered me, someone said something to me that stuck. They said, “Everyone’s recipe for success is different. It’s like vegetable soup. Nobody makes it quite the same.”
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