Team Leadership Culture
  • Team
  • Leadership
  • Culture
  • Myers-Briggs
  • Trust Me
  • Short Book Reviews
Top Posts
Obituary
REPOST: Four Functions, Three Rules
ROUNDUP: The Rise of AI
REPOST: Facing Adversity Series
ROUNDUP: Curiousity
ROUNDUP: Deep Work
REPOST: Character vs. Competence
REPOST: Opposite of Victim
REPOST: Listening With the Intent to Understand
REPOST: Performance vs Trust
  • About
  • Services
  • Resources
    • Trust Me
    • Short Book Reviews
  • Contact

Team Leadership Culture

  • Team
  • Leadership
  • Culture
  • Myers-Briggs
  • Trust Me
  • Short Book Reviews
Tag:

Productivity

BlogCulture

Enjoy the Journey

by Ron Potter October 21, 2021

Shane Parrish, my favorite blogger, offered the following quote—

“Become addicted to the process and results will follow. “

I believe many of us who are used to charging ahead and getting things done have a hard time coming to grips with this quote.  It just seems like we should be focused on the outcome and the results more than the process.

Simone Biles

Simone is considered the best gymnast of all time.  She has had four gymnastics elements named after her — one on beam, one on vault, two on floor.  She seems to be able to locate herself in space, regardless of what her logical brain is trying to tell her.  When she is high in space over that beam, her mind is able to locate herself and her body in relationship with the beam or the floor.  There is nothing quite like her ability to do so.

So when she pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics, everyone was baffled.  Why would she do such a thing?  One of her own explanations likened it to being blind all of a sudden but with everyone expecting you to continue to perform your regular job.  But I was blind!

Her quote that caught my attention was “The outpouring of love and support I’ve received has made me realize that I’m more than my accomplishments in gymnastics which I never truly believed before.”  Italics are mine.

The point is she never realized that her self-worth was more than what she could and had accomplished as a gymnast!

More Than Your Accomplishments

This is the heart of the issue that most high achievers deal with.  They (we) assume that our self-worth is dependent on a high level of accomplishment. 

This is a dangerous tightrope.

Just like Simone, her original feeling of not being able to compete at that high level equaled failure.  Her quote above about being more than her accomplishments shows that she was dealing well with what originally felt like a failure.

What Keeps You Up At Night?

Is it a task or accomplishment?  Are you thinking about everything that has to be done but you haven’t accomplished?  Is it thinking about what you have to “do” first thing in the morning (Saturday and Sunday included)?  Does it feel like you have to instantly respond to emails or texts 24/7 because something might need to be done?  Have tasks and the need to accomplish them taken over your life?

When I was first going into the consulting world 30+ years ago, I had an interview with the head of the Detroit office of one of the large consulting firms.  As I talked with the general manager he asked me, “If I need you and I call you to immediately come to the office, but you’re at your son’s birthday party, will you be will to leave and come to the office?”

I was so blown away by the question I didn’t even know what to say.  I asked the manager “How did you handle those situations?”  His answer was, “I got remarried!”

He was willing to sacrifice his family in order to get the job done.  His wife divorced him and he eventually remarried with no kids.  That ended my interview.  I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my family (and life) and he wasn’t willing to hire me if I wouldn’t make that sacrifice.

He seemed happy.  He had the corner office high in Detroit office tower, an entire section of the company working for him; he was well paid, etc.  But he may have been the saddest person I ever met.

Become Addicted To The Process

As Shane says, become addicted to the process and results will follow.

What’s process?  If you’ve been a reader of this blog, none of this will be news but your process should include:

  • Being Humble.  We all want to stand out and be seen as the best.  But what people remember about you will be your humility, not your arrogance.
  • Build Team.  There is an abundance of research and experience that indicated teams outperform individuals.  However, that’s only true if the team is functioning as a unit rather than just a group of people.  Especially a group of people who are there simply to do what the arrogant boss tells them to do.
  • Build relationships.  People want to know that you care for them and know them as human beings, not just about what they can accomplish.  People are motivated to work hard and be innovative if they believe their teammates and their boss know them and care about them as human beings.
  • There are many other processes that you can be focused on but start with these three.  The results will follow.

Meaningless Photo

This is a photo that really has nothing to do with the blog but when I saw this photo of Simone and Shaquille O’Neal together I couldn’t resist including it.  Enjoy!

 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
BlogTeam

Overused Teamwork

by Ron Potter July 9, 2020

Team Leadership Culture: Teams first.  I’m a big fan of teamwork.  However, when it creates an overcommitted organization and conflicting priorities it is counterproductive.

The foundation of this post was inspired by a Harvard Business Review article, The OverCommitted Organization, written by Heidi K. Gardner and Mark Mortensen.

The Overcommitted Organization

In the article, they talk about the dysfunction that can happen when people are assigned to too many teams at the same time.  They break it down to the following pros and cons:

PROS: By assigning people to multiple teams at once, organizations make efficient use of time and brainpower. They also do a better job of solving complex problems and sharing knowledge across groups.

CONS: Competing priorities and other conflicts can make it hard for teams with overlapping membership to stay on track. Group cohesion often suffers. And people who belong to many teams at once may experience burnout, which hurts engagement and performance.

Increased Pros or decreased Cons

So now we face the question: Is it worth increasing the PROS at the expense of decreasing the CONS?

My answer is a clear NO!  Look in more detail at the expense of the CONS.

  • Difficult to stay on track.
    We have looked at the cost of distraction many times in this blog.  Our social media and instant communication can and will negatively affect productivity.
    In fact, we can become so distracted on a regular basis that it reduces the brain’s ability to concentrate and think deeply.  These are two features that we need more today than ever!
  • Group cohesion often suffers.
    Without group cohesion, there is no team!  Teams that tell each other the truth with respect and fully commit to team goals (regardless of personal or department goals) is at the core of great organizations.  Group cohesion is essential!
  • Burnout.
    People who experience burnout experience reduced energy, brainpower, commitment, drive, and many other aspects that make them top performers and good team members.  Avoid burnout!

PROS

In my mind and experience, the list of pros is actually cons.

  • Efficient use of time
    It’s been proven that the only people capable of multi-tasking are highly trained fighter pilots.  And even these highly trained individuals are not capable of transferring the multi-tasking beyond the cockpit when their life depends upon it.
  • Brainpower
    It’s also been proven that teams function better when multiple brains are open about a problem or situation.  However, using “one” brain across multiple teams does not increase multiple team’s “brainpower.”
  • Solving Complex Problems
    Complex problems are solved with deep thinking and moving in and out of team subgroups.  Complex problems are not solved by having one brain on many teams.  In fact that leads to burnout and reduces the ability to solve complex problems.

The Overcommitted Organization

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not opposing what Gardner and Mortensen are stating in their article.  In fact, they use experience and solid research to prove their points.  And, they reach the same conclusion that I did.

One paragraph right near the middle of their article says

Launch the team well to establish trust and familiarity. When fully dedicated to one team, people learn about their teammates’ outside lives—family, hobbies, life events, and the like.  More important, it forges strong bonds and interpersonal trust, which team members need in order to seek and offer constructive feedback, introduces one another to valuable network connections, and rely on one another’s technical expertise. (Italics are mine)

This is a powerful conclusion that reinforces everything I have learned and experienced.  Teams that establish trust and have an environment of constructive feedback are the most beneficial.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
Blog

Coronavirus and Deep Work

by Ron Potter March 26, 2020

I know, I know, enough of the Coronavirus already.  We’ve been self-isolated and at this point have no idea what to believe is true and what is hype.  What I do know is the interesting journey I’ve been on in relation to Deep Work.

Deep Work

The COVID-19 virus may be offering the opportunity that you’ve been looking for to stand-out in a crowded world.  In his book Deep Work by Cal Newton he makes some great points about Deep Work and the lack of it.

One of the things that Cal says is:

To remain valuable in our economy you must master the art of quickly learning complicated things. This task requires deep work. If you don’t cultivate this ability, you’re likely to fall behind as technology advances.”

“A McKinsey study found that the average knowledge worker now spends more than 60 percent of the workweek engaged in electronic communication and Internet searching, with close to 30 percent of a worker’s time dedicated to reading and answering e-mail alone.

This state of fragmented attention cannot accommodate deep work, which requires long periods of uninterrupted thinking. At the same time, however, modern knowledge workers are not loafing. In fact, they report that they are as busy as ever. What explains the discrepancy? A lot can be explained by another type of effort, which provides a counterpart to the idea of deep work:
Shallow Work: Noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”

How not to be replaced by a computer

The “easy to replicate” emphasis is my note.  Why did I highlight that particular statement?  Because when something is easy to replicate it means that a person who makes less wages can easily to the same work.  More importantly, a computer can be taught to do easily replicable work.  Your job is in danger of becoming computerized if you don’t shift from shallow work to deep work!

How do you counter this danger of being replaced by either cheaper labor or a computer?  You learn, practice, and become good at and known for your deep work and deep thinking.

Cultivate Deep Work (Thinking)

You can pick up almost any article, magazine, podcast or post that will tell you how to survive working from home.  These sources talk about

  • Get started early (don’t let your day get away from you before it starts)
  • Act like you’re going to the office (wrong, take advantage of doing things differently)
  • Have a dedicated workspace (good idea, but focus on making it a non-interruptable workspace)
  • Go to coffee shops, libraries, public lounges (may not be a bad idea but discipline must tag along as well.  You can’t go to a coffee shop just so you can enjoy your favorite drink)  And during the pandemic, many of these public places are not even available to us.
  • Stay off the public media! (Great suggestion.)  Regardless of where you’re working from, stay off public media.

What you really need is the discipline and focus for deep work.

Living a life of Deep Work and Thought

As Cal Newton closes his book he says

Deep work is way more powerful than most people understand. To leave the distracted masses to join the focused few, I’m arguing, is a transformative experience.
The deep life requires hard work and drastic changes to your habits. For many, there’s a comfort in the artificial busyness of rapid e-mail messaging and social media posturing, while the deep life demands that you leave much of that behind.”

Take advantage of the opportunity being offered

We’re all looking for a silver lining to the isolation caused by our current pandemic.  Take advantage of the forced isolation to become a deep worker and deep thinker.  It will pay rewards that you can’t even think of at the moment.

 

2 comments
1 FacebookTwitterEmail
BlogCultureCulture Series

Culture – Involvement: Team Orientation

by Ron Potter November 7, 2019

The Team Orientation of Involvement contains several wonderful elements.

  • Cooperation is Encouraged
  • People are not isolated pieces
  • Teamwork is used over Hierarchy
  • People see the relationship between their work and the work of the team (teams)

Problem Solving

I think one of the first things that get in the way team orientation is that corporate leaders and members are problem solvers.  Don’t get me wrong, problem-solving is a wonderful skill and is the reason why most people get promoted in organizations.  But it can also be the first thing that gets in the way of good team orientation.

Email Overload

As a consultant, I was often asked how to reduce the amount of email that was a burden to everyone.  I always looked at three things:

  1. Why was the email sent?
  2. What was the response?
  3. Who was cc:d on the email?
Why was the email sent?

The answer to this question was always something like:

I gave this person an assignment and they were looking for an answer or a solution.

What was the response?

The answer to this question was almost always – I sent them the answer or solution.

Who was cc:d?

The answer to this one always seemed a little more cynical.  It would go something like – Everybody and their brother

Immediately eliminate 40% of email

The solution to almost all overload email is accountability.  This incorporates questions one and two.

I would suggest to the leader that they stop reading email with the intent to respond.  And start asking themselves the question “Why am I receiving this email?”

Because corporate leaders are good problem solvers, their immediate (non-thinking) response is to figure out the problem and send the answer.  However, if they look at every email with the first question being, “Why am I receiving this email?”  their response becomes different than providing a solution.

Why am I receiving this email?

Some of the responses I’ve heard from the Leader:

  • I don’t have the right expertise on the team
  • The person sending the email doesn’t like the answer their getting from the team
  • The person doesn’t want to be held accountable for the solution.  Now they have an email to prove that I gave the solution, not them.

This last answer is hardly ever seen by the leader (they’re problem solvers.  They feel good about themselves for giving answers).  But it’s the reason many emails are generated.  It’s an easy way to get the monkey off their back and onto the back of the leader.  And the leader seldom notices.

Answer with a different response

I suggest that the leader answer the email with a simple question, “Why are you sending me this email?”

40% of email will cease!

This response sends the message “I’m not accepting the monkey”.  Figure it out.  It’s why I gave you the job.  Come to me with solutions, not questions.

Notice that this one response touches three and maybe all four of the Team Oriented Culture elements.

  1. Cooperation is Encouraged – It encourages the individual to work with their peers.  Cooperate.  Engage!
  2. People are not isolated pieces – It’s not just one person solving a problem (or their boss solving it for them).  Again, they need to engage with the team and peers.
  3. Teamwork is used over Hierarchy – I’m starting to sound like a broken record here but it’s not a top-down solution.
  4. People see the relationship between their work and the work of the team – Decisions are not made in isolation.  It’s not just the boss who sees the big picture.  The individual must understand it as well to provide a workable solution.

I used the example of email but it can be any electronic media.  In fact, texting adds a sense of urgency that makes the leader feel they must give a solution rapidly.

But, it can also apply to one-on-one meetings and even happen in team meetings.

Solution or Team Orientation

This idea that the leader should also be the problem solver is at the heart of most of these team orientation issues.  It’s a tough habit to break.  Don’t just solve the problem,

  • Encouraged cooperation
  • Make sure everyone functions as part of the whole, not just individual pieces
  • Don’t perpetuate the hierarchy, build the team
  • Make sure everyone understands how their actions and solutions impact the team

Create a team orientation, you’ll get better involvement.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
Short Book Reviews

Great at Work

by Ron Potter November 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: The key to top performance is focus! There a lot to this book but this line summarizes the key message: “Whenever they could, top performers carefully selected which priorities, tasks, collaborations, team meetings, committees, analyses, customers, new ideas, steps in a process, and interactions to undertake, and which to neglect or reject.” Easily said. Difficult to do. Especially for High Achievers. High Achievement is what got you here. Focus is what will get you to the next step.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
BlogCulture

Restoration or Revenge

by Ron Potter August 9, 2018

Team Unity is the most powerful productivity booster that can be applied.

There are several “multipliers” to team productivity. One is trust. Another is respect. And you need both in place to build unity. But unity is the greatest productivity booster of all.

Whenever people are involved there will always be conflict and friction. It’s just the nature of things. How we respond to the conflict and friction will determine the value of the team.

Revenge is a power play. When you take a tit-for-tat approach to conflict and friction it’s because you want to maintain power over the other person. Teams are not built on power, they’re built on unity.

Unity requires reconciliation. Reconciliation requires giving up power and control. This doesn’t mean you need to give up your beliefs and assumptions or cave into another person’s need for power and control but it does take humility. The original definition of humility meant tremendous power under complete control. Being under control means self-control, not controlling others. Restoration helps build trust.

Restoration means reaching out to others. Listening to their point of view. Not arguing or countering every point they make but attempting to understand their background, experiences, beliefs, and assumptions that are leading to their position. Steven Covey addressed this approach in his 7 Habits of Highly Successful People when he said, “Seek to understand first before being understood.” Few people seem to have the patience to fully understand the other person before expressing their point of view but when it does happen, it is very powerful.

However, there are occasions that despite the effort to understand and reconcile, the other person may not be willing to reconcile. In these cases, there is an ancient process that says bring one or two others with you to help reconcile. That doesn’t mean that you bring one or two supporters to overcome your “opponent.” It does mean to bring one or two others to help assure that the process is facilitated well and that both sides are completely understood.

If after making the effort with a good facilitator or two, reconciliation still seems to allude you, this is an issue that needs to come to the team. Letting it fester in the background or simply agreeing to disagree will never bring the trust and unity needed to build a great team. Great teams reach unity and commitment. Without unity and commitment, the full power of the team will never be realized.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
Short Book Reviews

Why We Sleep

by Ron Potter July 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: This may seem odd to find in a business library but this is a shocking book about how we’re depriving ourselves of needed sleep in the service to productivity. When in fact we’re both fooling ourselves and damaging our productivity levels. Read this book.

 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
BlogTrust Me

Achievement-Motivated Leaders

by Ron Potter June 11, 2018

We recently discussed leaders motivated by passion. Along with passion, a desire to achieve motivates a leader to a higher level of focus.

I have concluded that leaders with an achievement-motivated style (balanced by humility) have the most constructive approach to work. Typically, they do not waste time on projects or matters outside their vision. They determine what is important, that “something great,” and they seek to achieve it.

For more than twenty years, David C. McClelland and his associates at Harvard University studied people who had the urge to achieve.

McClelland’s research led him to believe that the need for achievement is a distinct human motive that can be distinguished from other needs. [His experiment involved asking participants] to throw rings over a peg from any distance they chose. Most people tended to throw at random—now close, now far away; but individuals with a high need for achievement seemed carefully to measure where they were most likely to get a sense of mastery—not too close to make the task ridiculously easy or too far away to make it impossible. They set moderately difficult but potentially achievable goals.

I’ve determined, based on our experience, that achievable goals are those with a 70 to 80 percent likelihood of success.

McClelland maintains [that]…achievement-motivated people are not gamblers. They prefer to work on a problem rather than leave the outcome to chance.… Achievement-motivated people take the middle ground, preferring a moderate degree of risk because they feel their efforts and abilities will probably influence the outcome. In business, this aggressive realism is the mark of the successful entrepreneur.…

You can read more from McClelland’s theory here.

Another characteristic of achievement-motivated people is that they seem to be more concerned with personal achievement than with the rewards of success. They do not reject rewards, but the rewards are not as essential as the accomplishment itself. They get a bigger “kick” out of winning or solving a difficult problem than they get from any money or praise they receive.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.” Every January millions of people watch the Super Bowl. During the awards ceremony after the game, we see players with big smiles. What are they shouting about? Not about money or fame, but about the ring. Each player on the winning team gets a championship ring—a symbol of reaching the pinnacle of the sport. Nothing else compares to having that ring. It is proof of the ultimate achievement in football. That’s what motivates an achievement-oriented person.

Lastly, achievement-motivated people need feedback. They seek situations in which they get concrete feedback that they define as job-relevant. In other words, they want to know the score.

People with a high need for achievement get ahead because, as individuals, they are producers. They get things done.

Sometimes, however, when they are promoted, when their success depends not only on their own work but on the activities of others, they may become less effective. Since they are highly job-oriented and work to their capacity, they tend to expect others to do the same. As a result, they may lack the interpersonal skills (I refer to this as the encouragement or humility leadership style) and patience necessary for being effective managers of people who are not as achievement-motivated.

Achievement-Motivated Leaders

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
BlogCulture

TV or Reading

by Ron Potter May 10, 2018

A few years ago, I became hooked on a TV series. Over time I judged it to be the best written and acted series I had ever seen. Because of the magic of Netflix, Amazon, and others, it’s now easy to go back to previous shows and watch them again as I have been doing lately. I’m not going to say which one it was because everyone has different taste in entertainment and I’m not trying to promote mine. I’m just saying that well-written TV can and does capture my attention.

However, I stopped watching TV news years ago and feel much happier avoiding it. And nothing really changes if I watch it or not.

I’m also a reader. I wasn’t always a reader but have become an avid reader. I read non-fiction material in the morning (related to my work or interests) and fiction at night (for the fun of it).

I’m often asked how I’m able to read so many books in a year. The short answer is less TV, more books.

My favorite blogger is Shane Parrish at Farnam Street Blog. I credit Shane with increasing my interest in reading because I was fascinated by how much he reads and how much he is constantly learning. Shane writes: “Newspapers are focused on things that change. You can’t run fast enough to keep up with this world and yet while you may think it’s valuable, the information you receive is full of noise. Farnam Street focuses on helping you learn things that don’t change over time — It’s an investment. What you learn today becomes the scaffolding to solving tomorrow’s problem.” While his quote is focused on newspapers and not TV, I believe it applies to TV news as well.

My interest has also been sparked by what we’re learning in the field of brain science about the impact of TV versus reading. In general, we’ve come to think of TV as bad and Reading as good. However, sometimes I watch TV in the form of movies or documentaries about the books I’ve also read. One such example is a book titled “Boys in the Boat” about the rowing crew from Washington that competed in the 1936 Olympics. PBS also did a documentary called “The Boys of ‘36”. I enjoyed both but is one form better for me than the other?

Brain research tells us that the more hours of TV watched:

  • Increases aggression levels
  • Decreases verbal reasoning
  • Lowers communication levels with others
  • Increases risk of Alzheimer’s

The more reading we do:

  • Increases brain connectivity related to language
  • Increases alertness
  • Delays cognitive decline
  • Decreases risk of Alzheimer’s
  • Increases communication levels
  • Reduces stress levels

Why?

TV is passive, fast-paced and shallow (not enough time for details).

Reading allows for more depth and at the same time forces the use of imaginations!

Read more. Watch less. It’s healthier.

1 comment
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
BlogTrust Me

How Focused is Your Energy?

by Ron Potter May 7, 2018

The sun is a powerful source of light as well as energy. Every hour of every day the sun showers the earth with millions, if not billions, of kilowatts of energy. We can, however, actually tame the sun’s power. With sunglasses and sunscreen, the sun’s power is diffused, and we can be out in it with little or no negative effects.

A laser, by contrast, is a weak source of light and energy. A laser takes a few watts of energy and focuses them into a stream of light. This light, however, can cut through steel or perform microsurgery on our eyes. A laser light is a powerful tool when it is correctly focused.

Leaders cease to be powerful tools when they are out of focus and their energy is dispersed rather than targeted.

Rather than resembling a laser, too often we seem like the sun, just going up and down, splashing our energy anywhere and everywhere.

David Allen, one of the world’s most influential thinkers on personal productivity, argues that the challenge is not managing our time, but managing our focus. He believes that with all that is being thrown at leaders, they lose their ability to respond. However, he is quick to add that most leaders create the speed of it all because we allow all that stuff to enter into our lives.

What happens to our energy? Allen says,

If you allow too much dross to accumulate in your “10 acres”—in other words, if you allow too many things that represent undecided, untracked, unmanaged agreements with yourself and with others to gather in your personal space—that will start to weigh on you. It will dull your effectiveness.

Not only will your effectiveness be dulled but so will your power. Instead of being like a steel-cutting laser, you will be like the sun, putting out energy with no focus. There needs to be focus because life is not just about running faster or putting out more energy.

With so much going on around leaders, focus may seem impossible or improbable to achieve. Employees, phones, pagers, e-mail, cell phones, problems, crises, home, family, boards of directors, and other people or things demand so much. We tend to spend our time managing the tyranny of the urgent rather than concentrating our efforts on the relevant and important things that make or break an organization.

So what should we do? Is it possible to better focus your focus?

I have found that two personal qualities combine optimally to create a leader of highly developed focus: passion and achievement. These form the boundaries of focus.

 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
Short Book Reviews

Only Humans Need Apply

by Ron Potter February 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: The shift to technology-based work is pushing us beyond the information age. If you’ve been an “Information Worker” you should learn how to augment technology to keep yourself relevant.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
BlogCulture

The Number One Habit You Should Drop to be Successful

by Ron Potter January 18, 2018

Success.com recently published a list entitled “10 ‘Harmless’ Habits to Drop If You Want to Be Successful.”

Based on the experience I’ve had with successful teams the last several years, I would say just being successful at dropping the first habit will get you a long way toward success.

Number One: Saying Yes When You Want to Say No!

I’ve taught many teams recently the true meaning of the word decide. Top corporate teams are filled with high achievers. They have all been getting things done since an early age. They’ve been rewarded in academics, sports, arts, and business for getting things done. Getting them done faster and in more volume than anyone else. They’re “doers”!

So, it’s very natural to believe that when corporate leadership teams get together they should decide what to do!

But that’s not what the word means. The “cide” part of the word means to cut off, put to death, publicly execute. Think for a minute about the words pesticide or homicide. The one habit that is keeping most teams and leaders from success is concluding that they should be doing more and more. Corporations and individuals don’t have the resources, energy, time or fortitude to keep doing more and more. Successful teams and leaders decide what to kill, what to stop doing.

There are so many variables related to success and failure in the auto industry that I honestly don’t know if this one issue will spell success or failure for General Motors (GM). But, I need to applaud their courage in shifting their measure of success from being the number one car maker in the world by volume. That seemed to be the driving force in GM for decades. But today, they’ve decided to stop producing vehicles in many parts of the world. That takes courage. Will it be successful? I don’t know. As I said, there are many factors to success and failure. But I do believe that deciding where to stop putting your resources is a big factor.

Saying No is Difficult

I really don’t know many leaders who reward and praise their people for not doing something. But they should. Research and my direct experience with many great leaders validate that focusing on the top three issues you face is the best route to success. Rewarding your people for not doing the 10th item on their priority list (and 9, 8, 7, …) will lead to more success than you can imagine. Leaders and organizations never have enough resources to do everything. The assumption is they just need more resources or more productivity out of the resources they have. That’s the wrong assumption. The real answer is assuming you’re trying to do too many things. Deciding not to do the low priority items will help you realize that you have all the resources you need to accomplish your top priorities. And it will lead to greater success as well.

Figure out how to say No!

The Power of a Positive No by William Ury is a great resource. Deciding to say no will be one of the most productive practices you ever learn.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Rss
  • About This Site
  • About
    • Clients
  • Services
  • Resources
    • Trust Me
    • Short Book Reviews
  • Contact

About this Site | © 2024 Team Leadership Culture | platform by Apricot Services


Back To Top
Team Leadership Culture
  • Team
  • Leadership
  • Culture
  • Myers-Briggs
  • Trust Me
  • Short Book Reviews
 

Loading Comments...