Have you seen the video of Madonna sitting in a bath with rose petals, talking about how the Coronavirus is the “great equalizer”?
Broadcasting from that luxurious, pampered scene, the Coronavirus seems to be many things, but the great equalizer isn’t one of them.
Madonna may mean we all have the same chance of dying from the virus, rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy, tattooed Rockstar or middle-aged married guy living in coastal Florida. Although I reject that thinking for reasons that I won’t get into here, I do agree the Coronavirus is the great equalizer; however, for quite a different reason than Madonna is likely thinking.
The great equalizer comment does apply to your business right now because much of what we know about business will likely be significantly challenged post-Coronavirus.
Successful business people like me and you know how to strategize, plan and execute, both in times of prosperity and economic downturn. We compare each new opportunity to one that we’ve seen or experienced before. Successful business leaders will also, in fact, be hampered by confirmation bias.
Confirmation bias is the unintentional tendency to process information that is consistent with one’s existing beliefs, especially when the issue is highly important or emotionally charged. So even though there is no precedent for the Coronavirus impact, the temptation is great to equate it to something similar in your past experience. And, when you and I make it similar to another event, we may miss something big in the solution we create. Inexperienced business leaders aren’t usually encumbered by this bias since they don’t have the depth of experience to draw from.
Summing it up, leaders with significant amounts of business experience and leaders with little business experience know approximately the same about what a Post-Coronavirus world will look like. This is the great equalizer that I see in business right now.
We can use the great equalizer to our advantage. Experienced business professionals, we could for at least a few moments, put aside what we know about business in order to determine the best path for our business. It is time to approach the problem with a beginner’s mind, listen to inexperienced business leadership voices on Zoom and use this input constructively.
I’m interested in your thoughts about this great equalizer topic! What do you see when you think about our Post-Coronavirus world with a beginner’s mind?
Please share your comments with me.
Jeff@COOForYou.com
888-588-0357