Attributes of successful managers: Always have a plan B

One of the major differentiating factors between successful managers and not so successful managers is the way they visualize end.

There is an organization, say X Inc., which wants to train its people in leadership. Two different salesmen – Mr. A and Mr. B – from two different organizations are bidding for the order. Both these salesmen have performed quite well through their career, and this deal, whosoever wins it, shall help him secure a promotion. Mr. A boasts about it. He’s already narrated to his colleagues the things he’ll do on winning this order. He has been talking about it since 3 days!

On the other hand, Mr. B, although confident of winning the order, has kept mum on the deal. Mr. B has been planning in his mind the things that might go and the ways to mitigate them. Worst come worst, if they lose the deal, how to ensure his promotion and survival in the market. This habit of Mr. B, to think through the outcomes, and plan for the negative ones has often paid him in the past. It had helped him to be ready with the choices, when things went wrong. Hadn’t this habit of his helped him when presenting the initiatives to his boss last year?

X Inc. arrived at a decision. It dropped its decision altogether to go for the training presently. Following which, Mr. A was heartbroken, and couldn’t help but wonder what went wrong. He called the executives at X Inc. repeatedly, but couldn’t do much. Mr. B, on the other hand took this positively. He talked to executives at X Inc. to know the details and future scope. He asked for the referral from the related people, if any, and went about his business of selling there.

The key difference in the above example is that though both Mr. A and Mr. B failed in the above scenario, Mr. B knew how to take something of value (referrals) from the above scenario, whereas Mr. A was left banging his head. Sooner or later both would get promotions, but the result there again would depend on their preparedness to deal with the worst.

Always have a plan B, in case the plan A was to fail. Don’t market the Plan B, lest it demoralize the team, but always be prepared. Our human destiny is largely shaped by what goes inside our skull vis-à-vis what happens outside our skull.