The Power of 'Solution Mindset'

It was the 21st of December 2010. I categorically remember the date since I had plunged into a challenge which I always envisaged to be my strength.

I was given the challenge to convert the sales area from Red to Green i.e., converting the area from poor performance to high performance. The situation was tough considering that all the execution parameters for the role I was stepping into were going through their own struggles. I came back home and that night I took a resolve that I will make it happen. I couldn’t sleep since my mind was wavering on the steps that I need to design to arrive at the way forward.

The next 15 days were grueling for me. Sipping a cup of coffee and sitting at the office, I was making notes of all the market visits that I had done. As I was thinking about the probable reasons, I came across a few challenges which emerged quickly on the surface:

- Communication gap between teams was visible

- Team leaders were not addressing the problems at the appropriate time

- Escalation of highlighted issues was not reaching the relevant level

- Ego clashes between supervisory level were resulting in poor support systems for the people

- There were a lot of field vacancies which were not getting filled on a timely basis

- There were gaps in the training systems of the new employees and these gaps were visible in terms of their performance and understanding levels

- Shortcut approach to leading in the short term was the mantra being followed instead of analyzing the impact of the activities from a long term perspective

The next 3 months went on like a roller coaster ride for me. I traveled across geographies that I was responsible for and focused on the above-mentioned pointers. The belief which states that ‘Your focus determines your reality’ started to become true for me as well. Since I was focused on solving the issues and challenges at hand at the root level, I only got the solutions that I desired. Results started to come in from the 4 month onwards. Amongst the 10 sales areas in the country, my area was sitting at No. 10 and the movement brought it to No. 8 and the happiness level of the team was beyond imagination since, after several months, people were about to receive amount beyond their salary in the form of incentives.

By the end of 6 months, we had reached the halfway mark and stood at No. 5 and what was appearing like a fairy tale to people was actually a desire which was made a reality through a sheer focus on solutions. The famous saying by Earl Nightingale i.e., ‘Every individual is a sum total of his/her own thoughts’ is so timeless and relevant today as it was many decades ago.

Our usual monthly review meetings started to become fun since there were rewards for top performers and a lot of boost for those who were lagging behind. I couldn’t believe what happened in the 9th and 10th months. We emerged as the No. 2 and No.1 sales area respectively and this feat continued much beyond the period that I was responsible for this role.

What did I learn from this?

What is there for anyone to learn from this?

I gave the following messages to people on numerous occasions following that success:

• You have to be a magnet to the solution, not a magnet to the problem – I followed this principle day in and day out and the results were visible not only for me but for a whole host of people who were part of this journey.
• If you can speak, you can Influence. If you can Influence, you can change lives – This saying worked wonders for me since I kept speaking to the people and kept identifying on how they could perform better.
• People connect to People – This was the answer to the ego hassles. It is important to communicate and resolve issues else they grew within and start to become a monster of its own.
• What you learn should be implemented since only execution can bring results. If I only had wished the improvements to happen, it would have just remained at that. I had the desire and efforts followed to fulfill the same.
• Escalation for growth is always appreciable and everyone just loves it. I was clear that it isn’t important to show who is right or who is wrong however what is important is ‘For any business to succeed, the concept has to be right’

There were a lot of self-limiting beliefs in the team members which was removed with time and success stories that they created by themselves. The only difference that happened was to see things with an open mind. This has been my story which made a difference by focusing on Solutions!

Did you resonate with this story? Comment below with your thoughts…