Why You Don’t Know What You Need to Know Right Now and Ways to Fix That in a Hurry

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“I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was supposed to do that. . . “

“What do you mean I overstepped my authority? You told me to do what I thought best.”

“You did WHAT?!?!”

Funny, sad, ironic – we live in an era where we can reach out to anyone, at anytime, anywhere across the globe – yet we don’t talk to those working for us, with us, or among us, be it around the corner, down the hall, or even standing next to each other in the same room.

It’s why you don’t know what you need to know right now.

Communication.

Or, rather – lack of communication – is why we’re constantly apologizing to our staff, our colleagues, our business partners, even our better halves.

It’s why arguments, disagreements, anger, and frustration with each other happens.

It can turn a positive, fun, and enjoyable corporate culture into a living hell.

And it’s dangerous.

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I met with a young person recently, that began as an intern, and was now charged with the task of building the business by his bosses – the owners of the business.

He told me he doesn’t use contracts, but if I wanted one, that I should just “send me anything, and I’ll sign it.”

That kind of attitude could easily cost not only this person his job, but his bosses their company.

Luckily, I’m a nice guy, and just walked away from the company.

I don’t do business on a hand-shake alone.

Though, it’s an example – a blatantly serious example – of how dangerous lack of communications in business is.

The former intern, now business developer, should have been given clear expectations of what is expected in his new role. And, you’d hope that he’d be bright enough to communicate with his boss anything that wasn’t covered, BEFORE taking action.

Because, if I wasn’t such a nice guy, I could have easily given him a lengthy contract, filled with page after page of legal mumble jumble, which he’d sign, giving me some outrageous thing that could easily bankrupt the business.

Think that never happens in business?

Years ago, investigative journalism television show “60 Minutes” did a piece about various male executives in the auto sector, taking clients to strip clubs on the day the “big deal” was to be signed. They did this, because the other male executives would be so caught up with the naked chicks, they wouldn’t notice the last minute changes made to the contracts they just signed.

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Granted, this is a form of distraction – not a lack of communications. However, it paints a nasty picture of how low corporate ethics and values may be at some companies.

So low, that a lack of communications could be a fatal blow to a business’s bottom-line.

Which brings us back to why you don’t know what you need to know right now.

Because you’ve been doing what most people do at work these days – NOT talking to your staff, your teams, your colleagues or even your boss.

Here’s how you fix that – right now.

Get to Know Your Colleagues Communication Styles

Think about who you’re communicating with and how they communicate with you. Introverts think through things on their own – so email with a follow-up call after they’ve had chance to absorb and think about it works best. 

Extroverts like to talk through a solution, so a face-to-face meeting, where you mention the issue, and let them talk, probably is the best course of action. They may also enjoy using a whiteboard, to work out their problems in a mind map.

Meet More Often, But For Less Time

Finding time when everyone can get together is tough enough, but don’t waste precious time. Shorter meetings provide a definitive end time to the meeting, making everyone focus on what needs to be done. Having more frequent short meetings – say a 10-minute checkup the next day – sets the expectation as to what everyone should be accomplishing by the next meeting, and this pattern connects people, while improving the overall workflow process.

Get Out of the Office

I’ve been known as a coffee shop fiend, for constantly taking people out to grab a coffee to discuss important and even mundane tasks. It’s a great way to break the ice, get to know your colleagues, and to establish an open communications dialogue between you and those you work with. Going out for drinks after work, grabbing lunch together, even walking to the parking lot or subway are also great ways to connect with colleagues, and open the doors of communications.

Be Mindful of How You Respond

Quick – your colleague is yelling and screaming at you. Do you:

1.  Yell and scream back
2. Try to talk loudly over their yelling to drown them out
3. Talk softly, slowly, and deliberately in between their outbursts
4. Walk away, ignore them – how dare they yell at you!

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The correct answer is 3 – talk softly, slowly and deliberately in between their outbursts. By lowering your speaking voice, you take the passive stand, and force them to listen to you. By slowing your speaking style, you send out a wave of calm, over their angered storm. And by waiting for them to stop talking, before you talk, you are showing you are listening to them – instead of just brushing them off.

If the yeller is relatively normal, they’ll calm down, so you can both work through the problem, rather than getting into a yelling match, or worse, a fistfight.

Be aware of how your responses can improve the situation, or make matters worse. Try to aim for a calm collaboration, rather than heated debates. Think about what your body language is saying, your tone of voice, your level of volume – all can be just as important as what is actually said.

The main thing from all of this is to get you to communicate with each other. Because not knowing what you need to know right now, is killing your business.

So You Want to Start Your Own Business? What's Stopping You? Maybe This...

What's holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

So many people tell me: "one day, one day, Jordan, I'm going to start my own business."

Why not today? Because "one day" never seems to come.

We are indoctrinated into society, thinking the normal way of life is to go to school, get an education, and then get a job.

And that was a decent way of life for most, up until the past decade or so, when jobs -- good jobs with real benefits, job security and a decent wage -- disappeared.

Yet for most of us, we still hold on to outdated beliefs, thinking we got our education, so finding that good job won't be hard. Everyone can find work.

Looking for work these days is like picking through stale leftovers. Big businesses continually cut costs by axing good jobs, and replacing them with project-based hourly temporary contracted gigs.

The biggest thing holding people back from being their own boss is this misconception from days long since gone. 

For those that were lucky enough to get -- and still have -- a decent good job -- fear is the next big stumbling block to entrepreneurship. 

Everyone knows someone looking for work.

Years ago, I started going to meetups to grow my social network. When you first meet someone new, one of the most common questions you ask, or are asked, is: "what do you do?"

We tie so much of our identities to what we do for a living, it has become another stigma in society -- because if you don't work, you don't exist.

When I first started going to these meetup events, everyone had a job. Now, more than half -- I'd even guess over 70 percent -- are unemployed or underemployed.

Big business has cleaned house to the point where: "I'm in between jobs," has been replaced with the more direct: "I'm looking for work," as a standard response to: "what do you do?"

So those who have a decent job, and see their colleagues, friends, even family members, be let go, and replaced with temporary contractors, they fear leaving their decent job to make their own way in the world.

But that fear works two-fold, not only do they fear leaving, they are in constant flux, fearing that they will be next -- that one day they will be replaced by a temporary contractor.

Fear is a funny thing, in a so unfunny way.

Science tells us fear is a natural instinctive response we all have as human beings, to preserve and safeguard our lives. The fight or flight instinct -- our fear response -- kept our ancestors from being eaten by a bear, keeps our kids from sticking their tongues to frozen street poles (or not!), and keeps us from quitting our secure day jobs.

However, the later isn't so much a fight or flight response, as it is in our heads.

And this brings us to the biggest roadblock to entrepreneurship -- our own attitudes, mindsets, and ways of thinking.

Anyone can be an entrepreneur.

Anyone.

Your boss, your best friend, your ex, even you.

However, the first step in any journey requires you to open up your mind, and make that first step.

If you tell yourself: "I can't do this, this is crazy!" Then you never will be an entrepreneur, or do anything else that you think is crazy.

However, if you put all doubts on hold, take a deep breath, and take that one giant leap, you'll be on your way to conquering crazy, overcoming fear, and learning that our society's misconceptions of going to school to land a decent job are false.

Congratulations! You are ever closer to making your own way in the world, rather than depending on others to constantly employ you.

Because there is no greater dependency in life, than having to depend on someone else to write your paycheque.

How You Eat Your Oreo Cookies Determines Your Success at Entrepreneurship

Which type of Oreo cookie eater are you?

Are you a dunker?

Maybe you are a splitter and licker?

Or do you just pop it in your mouth?

We're talking about the famous chocolate-vanilla cream filled cookie -- the Oreo -- and how you eat them, because that may determine whether or not you've got what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

Some dunk their cookies in milk, others split them open, and lick out the cream filling, and some just take bite after bite until they are all gone.

So which one is the sure fire sign you're an entrepreneurial type, and more importantly, why?

Dunkers are builders, they see they've got a great thing -- the Oreo cookie -- but look for ways to make it better, by adding milk.

Dunking Oreo Cookie In Milk

Entrepreneurs are constantly seeing necessary needed things, and looking for ways to improve them. Just ask former Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs -- he took the standard cell phone and turned it into a mobile office, gaming system, and personal assistant all in one.

People that take the time to carefully pry open their Oreo cookies, revealing the sweet creamy goodness in the middle are meticulous adventurers, willing to take risks, yet they know how to take care when needed.

Someone like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg fits the conservative risk taker -- he took a risk by combining the best of the social networks at the time, to create Facebook. And he's constantly adding new ways to monetize the free Internet, by collecting, using and selling our data -- yet he knows when to take care when the media and governments start raising concerns about privacy.

It takes practice to carefully pry open the cookie.

Then there are those that know ideas don't happen by themselves, they need to be bold, and brave and just do it -- so they just pop the cookie in their mouths.

Anyone who's seen the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" would have told Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors, that creating an electric car company was a bad idea -- the oil industry would trample him like they did General Motor's when GM released the first fully electric car in the 1990's.

However, Tesla's Model S not only is already on back order anywhere in North America, it was awarded the best car of the year by Motor Trend Magazine and made history by becoming the first non-gas-powered vehicle to ever win that title.

Sometimes it's best to just go for it and pop it in.

So the truth is, anyway you eat your Oreo cookies, you have the right stuff to be your own boss.

All three are excellent traits to have if you want to be an entrepreneur.

Dunkers build, splitters and lickers plan, and poppers do.

You need to be a builder of brands, relationships, products, services, even your own personal brand as you ultimately build a company. So dunkers -- the builders -- are a much needed character trait of all good entrepreneurs.

Just ask Richard Branson, that started his empire by building a major record label out of nothing more than an idea in his parent's garage when he was a kid.

Being in business for yourself is very risky, but you need to take the time to plan, to prepare and to be ready. People that pry open their Oreo cookies and lick out the inside embody all of these attributes, just ask anyone that has tried -- and failed -- to separate cookie from cream. It's a delicate balancing act indeed.

All entrepreneurs have great ideas. An idea -- we are told -- is a dime a dozen. Which is why it's important to take the best ideas, and make them happen. We can sit in our homes, offices, or in the park, thinking up amazing ways to change the world for the better. But unless you actually act on any of these ideas, nothing happens. So those that pop Oreo cookies in their mouths show us the necessary sense of adventure needed to tackle the risks of being an entrepreneur, and going out and just trying it out.

So there you have it -- three different ways to eat a childhood classic and how each one is an important element in being an entrepreneur.

Now go out there and change the world.