Page 251 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

236 Just Promoted!

Opportunities to Succeed Abound—You Can Make Them Happen,
and Every Day They Come Your Way
Opportunities are the constant. The ways in which each of us thinks, feels, and
acts are the variables. We can control the way we view ourselves, others, and
the world around us. Opportunities will be there, and we can grab them even
when they surface as problems.
Superior leaders are extremely positive. They are energetic when others are
complacent and calm when others are frenzied. Being “on the line” is a chal-
lenge to superior leaders who choose to be accountable to themselves first,
feeling that if they can manage that hurdle, the rest will fall in place. They look
for and find opportunities to shine.
For Brad, every business encounter is an opportunity. Contacts are oppor-
tunities for new business. He is always seeking an opportunity to determine
which customer’s needs the competition has not identified, is not aware of, or
is not meeting well. “You know, Brad,” said one potential client, “if I could
combine your knowledge of the field with your competitor’s technical expert-
ise, we’d have a perfect program.” This piece of information gave Brad insight
into his competitive strengths, information on where he needed to improve,
and an opportunity to suggest a joint arrangement that would get him a part
of a contract he thought he had lost.
Another winning attitude Brad has toward his losses is the persistence to
know that in a little while his lost contacts will see his competitors’ short-
comings and be open to reconsider working with him. So, in effect, all con-
tacts are potential successes, to be maintained.
Similarly, Brad sees lost business as an opportunity. Early in his career, he
learned that most angry customers want to be heard. They do not necessarily
want you to go away. Rather, they want you to hear their complaints and find
a solution. They have already invested much time and effort selecting you, and
they do not want you to fail. So Brad uses his company’s failures as opportu-
nities to meet with the customer, listen to his or her grievances, solve the prob-
lem, and keep the customer apprised of the progress. One unhappy client said,
“Yes, I was very unhappy with the job your company did, but I thought your
project manager or you would call back. I thought we’d try to analyze what
went wrong, and we’d learn from it.” Another client said, “Yes, it was a disas-
ter—but it was really our fault. We simply didn’t know what we wanted, and
we didn’t manage you very well. You should have called.”