by Being a great leader requires specific skills and mindset.
I have often seen the mistake of promoting people who are good at their area of specialty to leadership roles, only to eventually destroy the business unit because they did not have the necessary leadership skills or the mindset to attain them.
Most parents have to lead personally and professionally.
In the home, we lead our family. At work or in our business, we lead our employees.
When I first moved into my home 25 years ago, the front steps were rotted and needed to be replaced.
So, I found some scrap wood around the property and built a “new” set of steps.
I was proud of those steps. They were not perfect, but they did the trick.
When Dad came down for a visit, he looked at the steps, paused, and then said, “Well, it’s just a bad job – you should have waited for me.”
I was crushed.
As leaders, we must let employees (and our kids) to try and learn from experiences and decisions.
Would you be able to do better? Maybe.
Would it matter? Maybe…maybe not.
Sometimes it is not a matter of doing it better as much as it is doing it different.
We must choose what, really, is important.
Making a Big Mac the same way every time is why people come to McDonald’s – they know what they are going to get. In this situation, process and quality is important.
Creating a document for internal use at your consulting firm does not have to be perfect, so let your employees try – and give them constructive feedback on how / why to improve.
You might be able to do it better, but if you do everything, how does that help your employees?
Would it not be better to coach them to produce quality, so you can focus your time on more important matters…like getting more work?
They may surprise you at what they produce.
