| On the reality show Shark Tank, entrepreneurs seeking an investment make business presentations about their company to a panel of investors (aka “Sharks”).
During each presentation, the Sharks question entrepreneurs about their business model, financials, and strategic plans for growth.
And when an entrepreneur estimates or speculates in response, the Sharks explode in exasperation! They are incensed, even insulted, that an entrepreneur would ask for money based on mere guesses about the health of their business.
Shark Robert Herjavec frequently scolds, “You gotta know your numbers!”
Sharks recognize that guessing doesn’t produce greatness.
Where are we guessing at the expense of our own greatness?
- We don’t know our own numbers.
- We don’t know our people’s strengths, weaknesses, and career goals.
- We don’t know our boss’ priorities and needs.
- We don’t know our customers’ needs, wants, obstacles, or upsets.
- And then we assume others know our strengths, weaknesses, goals, needs, wants, obstacles, and upsets.
Why don’t we know? Why do we make assumptions about what others know?
We’re so busy! Right? We’re putting out fires. We’re consumed with emails, meetings, and calls. How quickly the urgent trumps the important.
But perhaps all that busyness is merely a diversion. Perhaps we:
- are afraid to know the reality of a situation
- dread making changes to improve the results we produce
- don’t want to be responsible for success or failure
So how do we stop guessing?
- for fitness, we have heart rate monitors and scales
- for financials, we have spreadsheets
- for vehicles, we have dashboards
- for people, we have assessments and surveys
But to really own a situation and the results we want, we need to ask better questions and engage in intentional, sometimes unnerving or uncomfortable, conversations.
When we’re committed to greatness, we must stop guessing and start gauging. |
