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The goal of the leader should not be to come up with all of the great ideas. It should be to develop an environment that inspires and encourages others to come up with and share great ideas.

Work on building a culture that supports the team, that encourages team members to take calculated risks, and to think outside the box. Do not punish those who try something new, as long as it was ethical and wasn’t done haphazardly. If you do punish those who try new things, you kill their creativity. If you criticize their ideas publicly (not just poking holes in their ideas or playing devil’s advocate, but are dismissive or rude), don’t expect them to share their ideas or thoughts in the future.

Everything that we do or say has an impact on those around us. It takes a lot of time to build the right culture, but with just a few negative actions, you can undo all of the work that you’ve tried so hard to build. Stay positive. Be encouraging. And don’t be the bottleneck for your organization. All of the great ideas don’t have to come from you. If they do, you might be in trouble.

Idea:

Simplicity is the work of geniuses. If you want someone to do something, reduce the barriers for them to do it. If you ask someone to do something that is difficult, inconvenient, or confusing, they will be less likely to even attempt what you’ve asked.

How to implement:

Keep your ask simple, keep the directions simple, keep the task simple. Be clear and concise in how you present the ask. Ask them if they have any questions about what it is you’re trying to get them to do. Then get them to verbalize the agreement and repeat back to you what you’re agreeing on and when it will get done.

The reasoning behind the “how to”:

This last part of the “how to implement” is often overlooked, but very important. You want them to repeat back to you what needs to be done so you know that you’re both on the same page and that nothing was misinterpreted. You and the other person should have an agreed-upon deadline to minimize frustrations. If someone thought it would be done in a day and the other person thought they could get to it within a month, there will be a lot of frustration due to a lack of clear expectations. And lastly, having the other person verbalize all of this (where they are actively engaged/participating) will make them feel more bought-in to the action plan. If they feel like it’s their own, like they have ownership of it, they will be more likely to finish it.

It’s great to have heroes in your life that can swoop in when there’s a problem and save the day. It’s even better to be the hero of your own story. But do you know what’s the best? To be in a situation that doesn’t require a hero in the first place. Sure, the hero can be on standby, but instead of reacting to circumstances, let’s be proactive in not letting the situation escalate to where a hero is needed. It’s the boring answer, but it’s true.

I understand that not all situations that require heroes to step up are a result of mismanagement. But if you find that there are recurring issues at work or in life (“fires” that continually have to be put out), you are probably lacking effective processes.

Try to think proactively, not reactively. After you’re done putting a fire out, think about how the fire got so big in the first place. Ask yourself, “what could we have done differently to avoid letting this happen?” and then work to solve those issues.

Don’t have problem blindness. Sometimes, when you are in an industry for so long, you think, “Well, that’s just the way it is. We can’t do anything about that in this business.” But is that really true? Is that the way it always has to be or is that the way it is right now because of how you are approaching the situation? Can you do something different to achieve a different outcome? Think outside of the box. Diverge from the status quo. To be revolutionary/innovative, you have to do things differently. To do things differently, you have to think differently.

Do yourself a favor and work hard to avoid needing a hero now, otherwise you’ll have to battle the stress of needing/being a hero later.

“Our clarity becomes clouded and suddenly we find ourselves spread too thin. Ultimately our success becomes a catalyst to our failure. The only way out of this is through essentialism.” – Greg McKeown

If you don’t say no, the world will dictate your life and what becomes of it. Even though saying “yes” may have helped you get to where you are, at some point you have to say no. If you don’t, you’ll become less effective with what you aim to do and instead of helping others or yourself, you help no one. You must learn to say no to the trivial many so that you can say yes to the vital few. You have to decide.

This is true for not only saying no to others, but saying no to yourself too. You may have so many good ideas, but if you try to pursue all of them, you won’t gain traction on any of them. As Steve Jobs said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done.”

So what’s the lesson? Do not let yourself get spread too thin by not saying no. You can be good at a lot of things by saying yes to everything, but to become great, you have to say yes only to the important things.

“Numbers and goals don’t drive people. People with a purpose drive the numbers and achieve goals.” – Jon Gordon

The first key to success for any business is to have hard-working, motivated, and selfless employees who believe in the company’s vision. Having the right people on the bus (go-getters) will be a better driver of success than goals just written on a board or pushed out to the team.

The employees have to see what the leadership team sees. They want to know where we are going and that what they’re doing is part of a greater purpose. Pair that shared vision and greater purpose with a positive team culture and the numbers will follow accordingly.