Have you ever experienced too much of a good thing? Mental overkill traps work against business….
Do you slip into gullies that work against the brain’s hardwired system…? If you fail to get results you’d hoped for … perhaps overkill 
approaches are at fault. How so? Here are a few common places that overkill works against human brainpower:
1. Long golf tees– can lift your ball too high so you lose control of the direction.
2. Extravagant gifts– can embarrass clients who fear they could never repay in kind.
3. Deep focus– can cause Hebbian learning and block current ideas and insights.
4. Frequent winging– can replace solid facts and accurate figures with fluff at the surface.
Do you see another area where overkill can limit your mental possibilities and outmoded tradition can perpetuate harmful mental misperceptions?
The good news is that by simply rebooting the brain in a few small areas ... and cutting back on overkill ... you can increase your business intelligence.
Watch successful business leaders .. pick up on their knack for balance. Instead of asking, “Is this or that possible,” why not ask instead, “ How can I make this or that happen without overdoing it …?” Then simply approach it in a different way… based on less overkill and a better fit…. What do you think?
This might sound odd, but I tend to shy away from people that are too complimentary. It's always nice to hear a compliment and it's certainly nice to have someone around that always looks on the bright side, but too much of that "good thing" makes me skeptical of someone's feedback.
I wonder about their motives and agenda. I also wonder if they have anything constructive to add - don't they have ideas on how we could do better or do something differently? Do they think we only want to hear the good news?
Now the other extreme is equally concerning (100% criticism all the time) - but I can often learn more from a critique than a steady stream of compliments.
In considering your other posts about creativity and critics - there is a time and a place for everything. The hard part is knowing when different concepts and actions apply and when they don't!
Posted by: ann michael | September 22, 2006 6:13 PM | Permalink to Comment