Do you see things in black and white or in shades of grey?
Many people see things in black and white; remember George Bush, “you’re either with us or against us”. When people are having an argument they see themselves as “right” and the other party as “wrong” but in many cases there is no right or wrong there is a grey area in between and there are arguments to support both points of view or courses of action.
It appears that one of the traits successful business people have is to see things in shades of grey. This allows them to change the way their business operates and not accept the argument that, “we’ve never done things like that before”. It also frees you from wanting perfection. If things get a little better each day and each week then by the end of the year things will be a lot better.
You can use this business mindset and ‘grey’ way of thinking in all areas of business, compiling your marketing email newsletter, negotiating with employees over pay rises, negotiating a pay rise for yourself, keeping up with technical material or coming up with new creative ideas – no one person has all the answers and sometimes it pays to listen and change your mind (just a little) and give yourself a performance break!
In business, my advice is be a squirrel not a zebra!