You Can’t Win If You Lose Your Voice

Jan 19, 2010 by Rebecca

It is so tempting to try to be everything to everyone.  People are very free with suggestions and comments.  It is hard to maintain the ballance between giving these proper consideration and letting them muddy your idea.

I see this all the time in my coaching practice.  Often clients will belong to one of two groups, the ones that give too much importance to people’s opinions and the ones that have a hard time dealing with any type of constructive criticism.

The ones that give too much importance to the constant buzz of suggestions and criticisms run the risk of diluting the very things that make them special.  They often are hesitant to write down a well formed business or personal plan.  Then they grasp onto all the outside ideas that come at them without really doing a pro and con list to make sure it isn’t spreading them too thin, or making them loose the very idea that originally was a real winner.

It is much easier to protect yourself from this mission creep if you have a written plan for whatever endeavor you are embarking on.  Ones you have this plan in place, check it periodically to make sure you are either staying true to it, or making fully rational decisions in changing it.  When you are pondering a change that someone has suggested, think about how that change will impact the overall goals and mission.

You can’t be all things to all people, and you can’t win if you loose your unique voice.