So many times people told me I can’t do this or I can’t do that. My nature is that I don’t very listen well. I am very determined, and I believe in myself. – Chantal Sutherland, model.
Whether working for for-profit or non-profit business or even on a personal level, I have spent more than half my life in the problem solving ‘business.’ Sometimes I am not sure if I was born with a solutions-oriented mentality, or life events caused one to develop. My nickname among those closest to me is “the options girl.” My motto has always been “there has to be a way, if only because there has to be.” I have never found an obstacle that cannot be overcome, though not always the exact way I would have liked.
Through all my activities as an attorney and consultant, I kept noticing a disappointing trend. Even with all the resources available on the internet and in print to break through our barriers and overcome obstacles using different techniques and mindsets, people and events all over the world demonstrate an inability to solve problems or see problems differently. Race, culture, religion, gender, or geography make no difference.
Instead of “thinking outside the box,” people just make bigger boxes. Instead of “breaking all the rules,” too many don’t even know what the ‘rules’ are – not even their own personal rules.
In some ways, it was my moment of despair, for the very first time. I finally realized not everyone thinks about solutions and options like I do.
I also realized how liberating it is when people are able to make that shift from seeing ‘no way to move forward’ to seeing ‘the world of possibilities.’
You want to know how to get unstuck, even if how you became stuck is beyond your understanding. You want to know how to make your life more productive, efficient, and enjoyable. You want to know specific techniques you can use to move forward – whether business or personal. Even if you don’t have the desire to be a leader, you want to be solutions-oriented, if for no other reason than to just have fewer problems.
Now is the time. We cannot afford to wait. Business, personal, and world situations require solutions-oriented leadership – solutions-oriented mindsets. We need options that lead to innovations in business and society, so our families and lives are enriched – so we can move toward more than co-existence, to social prosperity.
Solutions-Oriented Leadership is scheduled to be published by the end of 2016. The book shares many of the techniques I use or have observed in others. Everything is straight-forward. No theories. Just practical advice often illustrated in stories of real people struggling to grow in an ever more complicated world.
In the meantime, sections of the book are being shared on my blog page @AskDeedra.