Shift Your Mindset and Learn to "Think Like a ..." -- Why Going Beyond Your Silo Can Change Everything for Your Career

It's February already and it's easy to lose sight of any "business resolutions" we might have made for the New Year. So how about you work on one simple resolution that will help you now and forever ... by committing to stepping outside your silo (your functional area at work, your department, your campus, etc.) and getting excited about learning from others? It's time to "think like a marketer" or "think like an IT professional" or "think like a finance expert."

Call it "thinking like a ..." or "speaking their language" or even "playing nice with others." It matters, and it makes us all stronger.

No matter how good we are at what we do, there are risks inherent in not understanding the full business ecosystem and in not fully appreciating how to talk with and work with people in other functional areas.

Think Like a ...

If you run the IT department, it helps to know a little bit about accounting and whether a server is considered capital equipment, or desktop computers are depreciated over time or expensed in the current fiscal year.

If you're an oncologist, it helps to spend some time with the operations leaders at your hospital to understand the practicalities of scheduling treatments that require inpatient recovery time. It also helps to understand the responsibilities of the legal and risk management teams as it relates to the clinical trials you'd like to lead.

If you're an accountant, it helps to understand the people, projects, and strategies behind the numbers. Knowing how a proposed investment is projected by the customer-care division to reduce the cost of ongoing client services by 30% is vital to working within the greater context of your organization.

Broad Thinkers, Strong Leaders

TOGETHER, we succeed. But it's difficult to succeed in business -- whether you're a business owner or a manager, director, or executive -- because we were educated SEPARATELY (by "majors!") and we work largely in silos. We have spent our careers gaining more experience and professional development (conferences, certifications, etc.) in our own areas of practice. We go deeper into our areas of functional expertise without ever purposefully broadening ourselves.

There are many ways to broaden your perspective. You can get your MBA, or seek out cross-departmental projects, or simply make some new friends in different professions and start asking really great questions about what they do and how it connects to the kind of work YOU do.

Earning your seat at the table, so to speak, involves first speaking the language of everyone in the room. A narrow viewpoint is career quicksand. What might you do this month to broaden your perspectives and get yourself to more solid ground?

#ThinkLikeAMarketer #Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment

https://www.amazon.com/Think-Like-Marketer-Everything-Business-ebook/dp/B07T32F351/