Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM MARCH 2015 40 Libby Wagner Culture Coach Libby Wagner, author of The Influencing Option: The Art of Building a Profit Culture in Business, works with clients to help them create and sustain Profit Cultures. www.libbywagner.com RO I hope as you are reading this, I'm enjoying some spring skiing at one of my favorite mountain resorts: Crystal on Mt. Rainier (Washington), Deer Valley (Park City, UT) or Beaver Creek (Vail, CO). I learned to ski as a kid, and though I'm not a double-black- diamond enthusiast, I love being outside in the mountains, in the wide open spaces and taking some time out from my work of writing, speaking and consulting. It's a great re-energizer for me! I don't like skiing when the visibility is bad. I become my most fretful, worried self and I clench my muscles in an attempt to control my body on the mountain. Even when I know that I'm likely on a run with others, some more or less skilled, and they are making it down. My skiing buddy Freddie is a former ski instructor and she's spent years saying to me, "trust your skis . . . trust your body," but this doesn't seem to help much when I'm thousands of feet up on the mountain and I'm not sure if what lies ahead is a cliff, a tree, a rock or a nice, wide run. It's the ambiguity of the fog or white-out that creates this anxiety. It is the fear of loss of control that makes me leave my body and reside in my head. When, in fact, my body's knowing will save me from any danger. There are similarities in business. There are times when the conditions are sunny and clear and you leave your desk for the day imagining you know what lies ahead—what's down the road or on the horizon. And, there are times when the weather (or market or industry) news seems all about storms, tornadoes or fog. The thing is that you will never be able to escape some ambiguity, some unknowns about your work, your customers or the marketplace. There is always going to be some level of unpredictability or unease. In other words, you can't skip the ski day or hang out in the lodge watching football if you own or run a business. You've got to show up and deal with things that might surprise or confuse you. I do think Freddie has a point: "trust your skis . . . trust your body." I think in business, the equivalent is to trust the solid things you can count on and trust your intuition and common sense, which you've honed through your experience and history. These things: your tools, gear, resources and those intangibles inside you, will help you navigate ambiguous terrain. For example, trust these things: • Processes and policies that have a solid foundation of working for you with proven results. • Lessons you've learned from your successes and your failures. You know which ones to repeat! • Products or services that have demonstrated consistent success. • Elements that solidify or strengthen your brand. You can also trust these things: • Check your gut feeling; if you knew the answer, what would it likely be? • People who will tell you the truth, no matter what. How can you practice dealing with ambiguity and trusting those things that are solid for you? • Keep the end in sight. Keep your mission in mind. Stay the course. I can make my way down a mountain slowly and carefully if I need to. It's not as much fun and not my original plan, but in the end, I need to get down the mountain—that's the vision. How can you keep this in mind for you? • Have criteria through which you evaluate your options. Most times when there's fuzziness or fogginess in a business sense, we react by coming up with a bunch of different ideas to solve it. Or we begin idea shopping. Select a criteria first, so that when options or possibilities emerge, you spend the right time on the right ones. • Stop. What. You. Are. Doing. Take time out for reflection, pausing, breathing. It seems counterintuitive, but you must arrest the urge to clench your muscles and the potential for spinning out of control. There is wisdom in your knowing and in your experience as a business leader or owner. What does that voice say? IT'S FOGGY OUT THERE: DEALING WITH AM BIGUITY

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