November 2023 7th: Play the fool and ask for advice
Good managers are good at gathering useful information. They know the importance of gathering useful information. They extract information from people by saying they don't know even if they know something. They are very good listeners, and before they know them they've extracted a lot of useful information. Managers of successful companies are often good at playing the fool and asking for advice.
People who like to talk, like to brag, and people who are bad at listening to others are not suitable for management. They make business decisions based solely on their own intuition and experience. If you're lucky, you might be able to ride the wave of good results. However, if you leave your business to chance, you are more likely to fail.
When moving people, money, or goods, or when you need to make a business decision, pretend to be a fool and ask for advice. Be sure to listen to the opinions of multiple people with different viewpoints. When doing so, try not to state your own opinions or thoughts first, so that the other person can express their opinions freely. Also, don't just listen to the other person's superficial opinion; dig deeper and ask questions to get to the essence of the other person's opinion.
A manager's ability to make decisions will greatly differ depending on whether or not he or she can play the fool and ask for advice. Most of the causes of business failure are insufficient information gathering and management decisions based on assumptions. To avoid making mistakes, pretend to be a fool and ask for advice from multiple people in different positions.
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