From the moment I woke up in the morning, I started telling myself I had to go to the bank. I said it in the shower. I said it at the breakfast table. I said it in the car on the way to dropping off the kids.

I said it as I passed the bank and headed straight for work.

Grr!

Does this happen to you, too? Routines are hard to break. Monday through Friday, we have our specific route we run. It’s so ingrained in us, that it is hard when we need to change course or make a detour.

The same applies to our work world, too. When a customer asks us to do something a little differently, or if an employee wants to make a change, sometimes we are hesitant. It throws off our routine. It disrupts our day. It makes us uncomfortable sometimes.

However, most of the time we need to slow down and take a step back. There’s nothing wrong with trying to do things a little differently. Sure your day might be taken off course, but I’ve found that sometimes the scenic route is the best way.

Many years ago, when I was very new in business, I interviewed a woman who seemed to fit exactly what I was looking for.  She was well spoken, well groomed, and understood my industry precisely.  In essence, the perfect candidate – who became the perfect employee…for about a week.  The alarm bells started going off when I found out she wasn’t doing an integral part of her marketing job – attending business and networking functions.  As it turned out, this unfortunate woman had both anxiety issues and Miniere’s Disease, a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance.  It was nearly impossible for her to spend time in crowded rooms because the ringing in her ears and inability to understand what others were saying only amped up her discomfort and resulting anxiety.  I never thought to ask my new-hire ahead of time if she would have a problem with going to several meetings a week that would be crowded and loud. To me, that was just a normal part of this outside sales job – but her prior experience had been calling on one customer at a time in an office setting.

The same often happens to us in marketing our businesses.  Some slick salesperson who really knows their ‘pitch’ comes in and says all the right things – shows all the right benefits – and really looks like they can fill that need we have of bringing new clients through the door.  Unfortunately, a few weeks or months later, we find out it wasn’t actually such a great match for our needs, as evidenced by the results – or lack thereof.  As the uneducated side, we don’t always know the right questions to ask to ensure we don’t have our own marketing failure like my hiring failure.

For example, a buzzword often heard in the world of internet advertising is how many “hits” a website gets.  To the unknowing, 50,000 hits a month sounds like an enormous amount of traffic for a website.  Unfortunately – a “hit” isn’t really a visitor to a website – it’s merely a request for information to a web server.  Every single graphic on a page will count as a hit when someone visits the site.  So if a website has, say 25 graphic images on a page, then there were only 2000 visitors.  Once we account for the fact that the average person visits the site 2-3 times a month, it may well be that what we thought was 50,000 was really only 700-1000 unique visitors.

Take the time to educate yourself fully on any media you choose to use to market your business.  Ensure you have the right match for the right job you need done.  Whether you do research on the internet, or ask friends and business acquaintances – learn the right questions to ask to avoid paying too much for something that isn’t going to produce the results you are looking for.

Belonging to a play group with more than a hundred and fifty women may lend itself to drama, but we want our kids to interact and socialize with other children, right?  So we moms tolerate the drama and do our utmost to provide them the best experience possible.  At a recent function, I happened to look across the room and see another mother who appeared to be getting progressively agitated while watching the children play.   A quick check on my children showed they were playing nicely-no fighting or bickering –all smiles.  After a double take to make sure that those were my children, and satisfied that aliens had not usurped their little bodies, I walked over to the now-frustrated mom.

She flashed an apologetic half smile as I approached; seemingly all that she could muster.  I returned a quick smile and nonchalantly asked her how things were going.  Amazed at how a simple question could open up such a large proverbial can of worms, I proceeded to listen to her 20 minute explanation for her current attitude.  Two of the women in the group weren’t paying a lick of attention to their children.  While they were busy socializing, their children were acting up; wrestling and roughhousing and potentially endangering other children.  After she calmed down, the two of us were able to move over to visit with the two ladies, and gently point out the challenges that were being created by their excited toddlers.  No feelings were hurt (other than the toddler that got told “no”!) and we all walked away happier.  Later that night, as I recalled listening as she unloaded her angst about the need to not only watch her children, but also other kids as well, I thought about how we as business owners monitor our employees.

Are we actively aware of what all our staff members are doing or do we rely on others to monitor them?   As the leader of a business, sometimes we have to get back to basics and ensure that each staff member has the same vision and mission in mind and is actively working towards accomplishing that on a daily basis.   My situation with the other mom also reminded me not to just listen to what people say with their mouths, but also to “listen” to their body language.  Seeing a fellow mother’s discomfort, it only took one simple question from me to allow her the freedom to express her frustrations and gain a real sense of relief through my support and understanding.  Take the time to ask your employees how things are going; allow them to vent their frustrations and share their challenges.  It will prevent them from becoming bigger problems in the future by addressing them early – which results in a more productive work environment.