You’re Too Close to See the Answer

Have you ever spent days going around in circles over something in your business, only to have someone ask one question that completely changes how you see it?

I’ve seen this happen plenty of times, and it’s one of the reasons I think business owners need to be careful about spending too much time inside their own heads. When you’re dealing with something every day, it’s easy to get caught up in the details.

The trouble is, when you’re running a business, there’s rarely a shortage of things to think about. A staff issue turns into a question about accountability. A client complaint makes you wonder whether your systems are working. A difficult conversation with your business partner brings up something that happened three years ago.

Before you know it, one problem has become five, and you’re no closer to sorting out the original one.

Sometimes, what you need isn’t more time to think, it’s a different perspective.

I’ve seen the value of this through the work we do with business owners. Someone will bring a challenge to the table that they’ve been wrestling with for weeks. Another business owner listens and says, “Have you thought about looking at it this way?” It’s not necessarily a brilliant strategy or some complicated business principle. It might be a simple observation from someone who doesn’t have all the history attached to the problem.

And that’s precisely why it can be useful. They’re not carrying the frustration, so they can look at it with fresh eyes.

That might be a business partner, a mentor, an advisory board or a group of business owners who understand what it’s like to carry responsibility for a business. They don’t all need to work in your industry, either. In fact, someone from a completely different industry might see possibilities you’d never considered.

The important thing is having somewhere to take the things you can’t easily talk through with your own team, and people who are willing to give you an honest perspective.

Because there’s a limit to what you can see when you’re looking at everything from inside your own business.

You don’t have to wait until something becomes a major problem before you ask for another opinion. And you don’t have to assume that struggling to find an answer means you’re not good enough at what you do.