Many of us are working more autonomous than ever as one-person businesses, consultants, freelancers, work-at-homers. There is a whole new generation of workers used to being self sufficient in everything; juggling a sales role with doing the accounts. But however talented you are, and however well-tuned your instinct is, it’s essential to have someone else to bounce ideas off, to provide a reality check, or just to look over a proposal or important document.
I call them my ‘WYT?’- ‘What d’You Think?’ - people. And I have a few of them: people who have good ideas, others who will provide a fresh perspective on a problem, my wife to be really honest with me about whether something is good enough or not. I have a WYT relationship with my friend/ associate Richard – he calls it a buddy system (and blogged about it here). But whatever you call it, make sure you identify people in your life who you can call upon as mentors, sounding boards or just a fresh pair of eyes and ears.
You may be adept at being multi-dimensional, but you can still benefit from a completely fresh perspective.
4 comments:
Hi Ian, Great post, I am an avid reaader, learner, by nature I want to challenge the status quo, in other words I am al always asker of WHY. But also I constantly ask to my wife, coworkers/partners, business associates - What do you think? before I place a call, before I send an email, etc. At first I thought that was a sign of weakness, then realized it was more a sign of leverage, a sign of strength, a sign of security.
Thanks Juan. I think it's also important that people are instinctive and put their ideas into action without too much analysis or preparation. But that doesn't mean, you can't run your idea past someone first, it can help make your idea stronger...
I have a select group of people that I bounce ideas off of regularly. I think it's important! For many reasons. Really, it helps refine your thoughts and the "big idea" you're having. I feel like it helps you execute better.
Thanks Richard, yes, always good to have a fresh perspective from someone else, a good reality-check!
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