Derek Brawley

Forget the concept of being open minded that’s way too broad and you will get lost in it. Instead look at your sales tool kit, everything from products to sell sheets and place an expiration date on them. The target being that you must force yourself to refresh your tools and your pitch on a regular basis. If you have been pitching then same sales deck for a year it is time for you to change it. Some people may argue that if it work don’t change it but this fails to consider the value that forcing yourself to improve and change creates in your mind. The concept of an evergreen sales tool is boring, stay fresh! Once you have an expiration date on your tools it triggers your brain to be on the look out for new ideas. Be change.

Keep it simple. Try to narrow down 5 key decisioning tools that help you on board and offboard idea's quickly. The faster you can eliminate an idea that is not a winner, the more time you have to find and work on idea's that will bring you to the next stage. Figure out your 5 must have criteria and focus on understanding how to identify if your idea's meet these criteria quickly. Then take every idea that fails and move it to a parking lot that you can review quarterly to see if any idea's have become more relevant with changing business conditions.

What I see happening all the time is that project manager become inhouse experts who are seeking advice and guidance from those that lack the same depth because they have other priorities. Here's where mentoring comes into play. Establishing eternal mentors that key project members can run strategies and idea's off creates space free from the internal project and management noise. I found my first mentor about 6 years ago and today I work with 8 to 10 CEO's and cofounders on a regular basis to discuss industry challenges and market concepts. Having a safe place to bounce ideas off and the opportunity to watch others navigate challenges really gets us thinking. Find mentors for yourself and your people.

Start with motivation, a team that is stuck needs a reminder that they can win! Gather up a list of historic accomplishments and do an analysis of what your team did right, why those idea's worked and what made the implementation a success. Sometimes we need just side step pushing and focus on understand success in order to open the door of creativity again. Sharpening critical thinking happens when our team is relaxed, feeling trusted, supported and recognized; create an environment for this to flourish.

The first step is to understand your industry and how an alliance can have a positive impact. Here you're looking for common challenges or leverage opportunities that can be best achieved with a collective approach. If you look at a challenge and can see the solution is within your grasp individually, this is not a measure to introduce as rational for an alliance. An alliance needs to have a clear challenge that is beyond the grasp of an individual player to really garner support but at the same time it must be a reasonable request that makes sense and delivers benefit to all. Classic opportunities are challenges to red tape rules and industry regulations where multiple voices can encourage state and or regulatory bodies to embrace change.

Just as important as asking the questions, you must take detailed notes on the responses and other information shared by the gate keeper. Upon completion of your call immediately draft an organized and precise summary and send it to the gate keeper. This step cements the discussion, adds value to questions asked and gives the gate keeper an opportunity to correct your interpretation. Now you have a document to base your actions on and reference as you move forward. You'll appreciate it when the going get's tough.