Indirect Routes

I’m always asking for advice.

Asking people what’s worked for them, what hasn’t, what their recommendations are is a big part of the ways I gather information. Sure, I filter that info through my own circumstances and personality, and keep those things that ring true…but it’s the gathering, the listening that helps me to inform my choices. It’s one of the parts of the Profile Phriday posts that I enjoy the most…hearing firsthand what has worked for people, and what their suggestions are.

LPC over at Privilege writes about her top requirements for doing a good job here. Her first and last are things that I don’t think about very much…closing. When I was selling pianos (for that fateful, ramen-noodle-nourished year), that was my mantra. Close. The. Deal.

(I was a horrible salesperson.)

But it occurs to me that, even in the arts non-profit world, that I could stand to close a little more often. Not because I’m selling anything (although I am, constantly, when talking to people outside my colleague circle), but because I’m keeping the end goal in my front brain.

What are the small steps you take to do your best?