Take a Reality Check

I don’t know exactly how your business is going, but there is one thing of which I can be certain: it could do be doing a whole lot better. And, when you finally pause for a moment of quiet reflection, you will realise the same thing. It should come as no surprise. It applies to all of us.

What stops us improving our performance? Quite simply, we know too much.

We are the experts in our business. We spend most of our waking hours either working in it, working on it, or thinking about it.

We may even spend our sleeping hours dreaming about it.

The consequence is that when we need to get unstuck; when we need more options to choose from; when we need to stay on track, knowing so much means we either recite all the reasons why not, or we end up being overly complex and abstract.

When we want to clarify our thinking, identify the real issues and reach a better solution an external reality check is always useful. Working on the immediate issues with someone who is not so closely involve, who can take a more utilitarian approach, can do wonders.

They can usefully cut through all the moonshine and ask the sort of intensely rational, down-to-earth questions that clears the fog of self-obsession, like: “Yes, but what are you actually going to do and when?

A young engineering graduate fresh out of Cambridge was being interviewed recently. As the end of the job interview approached, the HR Director asked, "And what starting salary were you looking for?"

The engineer said, "In the neighbourhood of £140,000 a year - but depending on the benefits package."

The HR Director said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 6 weeks paid holidays, full medical and dental cover, a two-thirds final salary pension scheme and a FX company car renewed every 2 years starting with…say…a red sports Mercedes?"

The Engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?"

And the Director replied, "Yeah, but you started it."