The Power of Discernment

Remember You Have The Choice

Last week I talked about why you should love listening to your customer complaints. Today I’m going to write about the power YOU (in fact, anyone) have (I’ve learned that this is one of the most important things to shape your life and business).

You possess a power that can determine the quality of your business life (and personal life too). This power is called discernment and it is the skill (or lack thereof) to discern the people with whom you want to associate or spend time.

• Discernment is choosing which customers to target
• Discernment is choosing whether or not to work for a particular boss
• Discernment is choosing vendors with which you want to work
• Discernment is choosing which employees get promoted or who you want to hire

These are all important decisions in your professional life. The ability to discern between the people who are good for you to get close to and who are not, is a skill. It’s an important skill because the quality, growth and healthiness of your business is directly related to the people (your customers, your employees and your vendors) around you.

• Hiring an employee with a negative attitude … lowers morale and harms your customer service
• Deciding to continue working with a boss who doesn’t respect you... harms your work
• If you are focusing on the wrong customer segment and/or wrong marketing tactics to attract customers…it harms your revenue

The inverse is true too.

•    Hiring an employee with great attitude and ethics … creates an upbeat environment in business
•    When your boss respects and supports you, your professional life benefits
•    When you understand your customer segment and market the right products … you grow your business

The ability to discern is a skill that’s worth developing in running a healthy and successful business. However, many people never develop this skill. This occurs because many people (including myself at some stages in my life) assume that we have no choices.

The first step in developing your discernment skills is to realize that you have the inherent right to choose which people you do and do not want in your life.

•    You can invite those you want in your life to be a closer and bigger part of your life
•    You can distance yourself from the people you do not want in your life
•    However, if you waive your right to choose... you will never develop your ability to discern

Recognizing that you have a choice in all of your professional (and personal) relationships is the first step to developing discernment.

Make it a Great Day!