I serve on the board of a regional theater in Greensboro, NC called Triad Stage. The other day, we had a meeting and someone used a phrase that really got me thinking.
Ideas are like children in the attic.
The bad ones come down first.
The phrase applies to sales leaders because when we face a challenge, we often have to weed through a lot of bad ideas to get to something that works.
Isn’t that the essence of sales leadership? Finding solutions to whatever may challenge the team? And sometimes the biggest stumbling block when it comes to seeking those solutions is separating the wheat from the chaffe. The good ideas from the bad ones.
I’m not sure whether the first ideas to be introduced are always the bad ones, but I do like the proverb as a helpful rule of thumb.
So, regardless of what the proverb means, how do you know when an idea is “bad?”
- It doesn’t solve your problem.
- It will create more problems for you.
- Nobody will get behind it.
- It stands in the way of another worthwhile goal.
- It requires steps you’re not able to take for some reason.
How about you? How do you know when an idea is a bad one?
