Remember this gem from childhood: Anything worth having is going to be hard work. A quarter century later (or more for some, but this is our final 25th anniversary edition and it works for me) you realize they were right. Some of the hardest lessons in leadership, too, are also the most important.
Lessons like how to follow a winning strategy. Strategy is guidance for how you want to run your business. It includes input from others, both what you adopt and even what's not included.
Strategy should be followed fairly strictly, but not to the point it works against you. Case in point, a couple years ago, my kids introduced me to the game app 2048. Beware: It's addictive. Essentially you pair like, even-numbered tiles together until they add up to 2048.
My son realized that if you move down every time possible, it keeps your larger tiles at the bottom so it won't block you from adding smaller tiles together to create more, larger tiles. So the three of us applied this strategy, and the same day my daughter achieved 2048. Shortly after, I did too. My son could not do it for months, and boy did it tick him off that his little sister did, even though his strategy theoretically worked.
Why? His unwavering application of the strategy. My daughter and I mostly stuck to it, but we were also opportunistic. After I explained this to Jacob, he got the 2048 square almost immediately, too. Have a strategy, but take advantage of unforeseen opportunities as well.
The same can be said for employees. Assuming your employees have certain basic skills and motivation, appreciate your employees for who and what they are. Figure out the difference between molding them and trying to change them. Bridle a creative with putting numbers in a spreadsheet all day, and the work will not get done properly or, at the very least, less efficiently. That employee's morale will suffer, which will affect the employees around him or her, too.
If you try to change an employee neither of you will be happy with the result. But you can take advantage of his or her skills and interests. Take what they're good at, find a way it can serve the business and let them be great at it.
As a leader, you realize you don't have to have all the ideas. You don't even have the best ideas many times, or projects you were on the fence about may perform beyond anyone's highest hopes. Taking advantage of others' unique skillsets, and turning them into an interesting endeavor for them and a revenue driver for the organization is a winning combination.
Being simultaneously an independent person, yet dependent on others for success can be scary. The main issue is whether you can get everyone else to see your vision, and fighting the temptation to just do it yourself. It's not good for the individual or the organization.
Not everyone thinks like you or is motivated in the same ways you are, and that's great. I'm a type A personality with a love of competition, and in the beginning I thought so was everyone else. Can you imagine if everyone at your credit union was really type A personality? Complete chaos. I've definitely learned to step back and appreciate the balance other personalities bring, and what can be learned from them.
Employee responsibilities can be tweaked to better suit them, messages can be adjusted for the audience, and opportunities should be taken; but, never falter on values. My position at CU Times is to lead both advertising and editorial to ensure the business is successful. We are successful because of the commitment of both the sales and editorial teams to independent and useful content that attracts our audience.
I thought taking on this dual role three years ago would become an agonizing struggle because I was straddling both, sometimes conflicting, sides. The truth is it's not easy, but when everyone is pushing in the same direction it helps. We've set expectations internally and externally through adherence to our values.
These lessons are so simple most you probably gleaned from reading Dr. Seuss as a child. Embrace uniqueness, creativity, and daring, and leave things better than you found them.
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