15 effective ways how you can transform substandard business ideas into good ones (3 of 3)

Find the silver lining

Whenever your team suggests a pathetic idea, encourage them to brainstorm and think more- to dig deeper. Instead of dismissing the idea altogether, tell them that you like the thought behind it or its element. Ask them for further suggestions, or ways they would criticize their ideas. And if they do, what are the necessary solutions they would come up with to eradicate the said criticisms. In this way, you forge your employees to look deeper and analyze their ideas. Who knows, you might even stumble onto the holy grail of your next mastermind project this way!

Mentors can help

Often the person who tends to come up with inappropriate ideas is misguided about the company’s purposes and goals. Assigning a mentor to help this situation can work wonders. They can guide your team through and rectify the goals and aims of your company, state them through distinct, obvious speech to your employees instead. This can either be a temporary or a permanent solution, but if this could prevent the frequent popping of bad ideas for the upcoming business meetings, why not? Keep conducting periodic check-ins to allow course corrections before the completion of a project.

Find a middle ground

Make diplomacy and concord your prime weapons. As much as you cannot dodge the popping up of an idea that might not align properly with the prospects you’re trying to chase, turning down the idea altogether can make you come off as bossy and unapproachable. The recipient of your turndown might be capable of formulating better ideas for some other project. Don’t lose out on that.

Instead, come to a middle ground. Be diplomatic in your approach, acknowledge their idea politely- you don’t have to necessarily take it up. When your whole group is heading towards one single direction, chances are the outlier will fall in line too, even if they think that their idea outdid yours. This strategy will not only help you decline the idea politely but will also prevent your employees from stating ideas all together in fear of rejection. They’ll bring their thoughts to the table, you just have to weave them together whichever way best suits you.

Come out of your bubble

Often we tend to form a small little checklist of what a good idea is. We’re always so surrounded by the company’s objectives, products, and primal goals that we restrict our idea of a ‘good idea’ be based upon only one primal aim. This could harm the development of your business. Maybe the idea you perceive as ‘not so good enough’ is good but just doesn’t check all the points on your ‘good idea’ checklist. The bad idea might have grown out of this ‘bubble’. Breakthrough your bubble of thought where a single perspective dominates. Try to look at the bigger picture.

Seek others’ opinions

It’s very much possible that whatever perspective that failed to be a good one according to you, might work otherwise for someone else. Accept and invite their takes and thoughts too. Asking for various opinions from your trusted colleagues only gives you numerous workarounds to your project. It will make it easier for you to pen down the ideas that you foresee taking your business venture forward. If Newton could devise his whole theory on gravity just by seeing an apple fall from the tree, you never know what life-changing perspective you might stumble across just by asking for help and advice from a few more people. If at all you find an opinion not quite working for you, you have the option of dropping it anyway.

Being the mastermind of your own business teaches a lot of human values and work ethics. Ways to propagate agendas the right way, negotiation and improvisation, teamwork, and most of all- how to maintain healthy human connections. It’s a given that taking a business forward will make you face conflicts, differences in opinion, and disagreements. You have to handle them gracefully. Acknowledge your employees, appreciate their efforts, be the mentor that they need. After all, they’re only looking up to you.

As Phil Jackson said, “The strength of the team is each member. The strength of each member is the team.” Acknowledge, appreciate, and grow!