WHAT IS UNCOMMON SENSE?

If you spend enough time in the business world, you will meet leaders with all different kinds of smarts. Book smarts. Street smarts. Emotional smarts. Smarts that come from years of real world experience. Some people rely heavily on just one category of smarts. Others put all of their smarts together and simply call it "Common Sense."

This book isn't about having "Common Sense." Common Sense is no longer enough to succeed today. Instead, today's world has become increasingly an era characterized by "UnCommon Sense."

What is "UnCommon Sense? UnCommon Sense requires that you put together everything that you have learned with three other components:

1) Heart (care, compassion and concern),

2) Emotional Sensitivity and Guts (intuition and the ability to "thin slice" situations coupled with the willingness to pull the trigger and leap into action) and

3) Courage (a good sense of when to stretch and/or break rules and when to set new precedents by using disruptive thinking).

Before I offer you numerous examples of UnCommon Sense, I want to honor time tested elements of Common Sense. There is a lot to be said for Common Sense. Let me offer you Dr. Tom's Top 5 Bits of Wisdom that I have learned from books, in the street, as a psychologist, coach and counselor, and from the school of hard knocks.

BOOK SMARTS

1) Numbers don't lie. Particularly the bottom line. Thoughts, dreams, wishes and hopes are all terrific, but at the end of the month you have to pay salaries and rent. Money talks. Everything else walks.

2) If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Know the right metrics. Have the right processes in place. Look at them frequently and be agile and ready to adjust to changing situations in the ever- changing world.

3) Find out what the world wants and then find a way to sell it to them at the right time in the right place in the right way. Some businesses don't check in often enough with their customers and potential customers to make sure that they have the right product at the right price, a product which can be readily available and supported.

4) Get it in writing. Goals. Contracts. Expectations. Boundaries. Limits. Talk is cheap and doesn't stand up as well in court.

5) The new concept du jour is "evidence based." Make sure that you have solid research and experience with new tactics before you put them into action. Review "best-in-class" practices, adjust them to fit your environment and then implement them.

STREET SMARTS

1) Everyone has to have their own unique hustle (be it 3 Card Monte, The Naked Cowboy or The Purple Cow). Make sure you have something unique to offer.

2) The world is not fair. Fair is where pigs win medals. In this world, you get what you take or what you make happen.

3) Play for keeps. There are no do overs. There is no free lunch. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true (particularly if it comes from an unknown Benin official who offers to send you $5Million dollars via email.)

4) The easiest people to "sell" a product or an idea to are greedy people. Those people love to get a "deal." Most salespeople fall into this category.

5) The real value of a product or service is what it costs in the open, unrestricted, street marketplace.

EMOTIONAL SMARTS

1) Feelings matter as much as, if not more than, logic. People buy ideas and products emotionally and then justify their purchases with logic.

2) You usually catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. People like to deal with other people that they like. They also like to deal with other people who they think like them. Be likeable. Like others.

3) It is easy to talk "at" other people. Most people really want to be heard and more importantly to be understood. Communication involves suspending your judgment and becoming curious about what they have to say. What you say matters, BUT how well you listen matters more.

4) Trust and credibility are the 2 factors that drive relationships and businesses. They are the most precious commodities in any relationship. They can only be rebuilt twice in a life time, if damaged.

5) Communication must be intentional, not accidental. It is important to think carefully about everything you say in emails, phone calls and personal meetings. Use "emotionally evocative language." Imagine if you were able to deal with the issues of the day AND plant seeds (of hope or doubt) about the future in every communication. You would be well ahead of the game when it comes time to sell your ideas.

REAL WORLD SMARTS

1) What you did in the past doesn't matter very much. You can't fix yesterday. You can only influence and fix today and tomorrow. You never really own winning. You just rent it. And the rent collector comes every day. Just when you think you can stop running as fast as you can, someone else runs right past you. There is always someone else out there who may want it more than you do. They are willing and able to work harder than you do if you get complacent. Never relax.

2) No matter how good you are, you can always get better. The best in class are always striving for feedback and continuous improvement. They are always looking over their shoulders to see what is around them. They are willing to borrow, steal or import the ideas of others to make things better. The best companies today import 50% of their ideas from outside the company.

3) Politics are everywhere. There is no such thing as an apolitical situation or organization. However,...