Have you ever considered that some of your "good behaviours" could be sabotaging your success in real estate and/or in life?
Is Society Teaching Us To Be Prudent Or Poor?
Society teaches us the importance of exercising prudence. We have been taught the value of: "being conscientious", "exercising restraint", "don't be too hasty". What if I told you some of these so-called "good behaviours" could be sabotaging the success in your company and in your ability to make successful decisions in real estate and in life if they are taken too far?
Interestingly the CIA has been aware of when these good behaviours gone bad as early as World War II and recognized how these behaviours when taken to the extreme can be used to sabotage the enemy's institutions. These tactics have been taken from the CIA manual developed in WWII, The Simple Sabotage Field Manual which was declassified in 2008.
As you read these you may discover you have heard or seen these behaviours in practice many times before... and all the time we thought they were merely being prudent.
Exerts From The Simple Sabotage Field Manual
(a) Organizations and Conferences
(1) Insist on doing everything through "channels." Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
(2) ,Make "speeches," Talk as frequently as possible and at great length., Illustrate your. "points.. by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate "patriotic"-comments,
(3) When possible, refer all matters to ' committees, for "further study and consideration." Attempt to make the committees as large as possible - never less than five.
(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
(5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision, CD Advocate "caution." Be ureasonable" and urge your fellow-conferees to be "reasonable" and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
(7) Be worried about the propriety of any decision - raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
I'm sure we can all agree we have seen some or all of these behaviours practiced before whether it is by someone in your company, when you watch government debates or even in yourself. These tactics can be narrowed down into 4 different types of saboteurs. Do any of them relate you to?
Which One Of These Four Saboteurs Could Be Getting The Better Of You?
In summation, here is a brief description of how these 4 saboteurs could be impacting your ability to make successful decisions in real estate and/or in life. Bare in mind this is merely for reference and is not to suggest you throw caution to the wind but if you find any of these behaviours keeping you paralyzed by fear of making a mistake you may want to take a moment to re-evaluate your approach.
Take the quiz and see which of the 4 tendencies could be impacting you.
The 'Close-Minded' Saboteur
This style of saboteur never permits short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite the decision making process. If you suffer from this saboteur, you may find yourself backlogged with so many things to accomplish but not enough time to get it all done. You like policy and you are the first to admit your 'I's are always dotted and your 'T's are always crossed. You must complete every step from A to Z and no shortcuts are permitted or there will be chaos and it will not be done "right". Although you may feel this smart policy approach to systems is the best approach unfortunately when taken to the extreme it presents a problem when your procedure doesn't perfectly fit the task at hand.
The Big Committee Saboteur
Do you find when presented with a problem, you like to get as much input as possible from as many different people as possible?
Wouldn't you also agree that after consulting so many people you are left just as, if not more, confused and still may not have a solution to the problem?
The 'Living In The Past' Saboteur
Beware of the 'Living In The Past'. This style of saboteur will often want to go back and revisit past problems, re-open them and begin the problem-solving debate.. again. There are 2 reasons why someone may want to do this:
1. They naively believe they are being conscientious perhaps overly conscientious and do not feel the solution you settled on is the best solution.
2. This person's ego was hurt because they're opinion, maybe even yours, was over-ruled and secretly wants to re-open the discussion in a last-ditch effort to win.
The Overly Cautious Saboteur
Beware of the 'Overly-Cautious' Saboteur, this saboteur can cripple you in your desire to be pragmatic. You feel you are exercising 'good-behaviour', after all isn't being cautious a good thing? You may have heard some people refer to you as a 'perfectionist', but when being overly-cautious prevents you and/or others from from coming to a solutions if you are overly fixated on the problem.