It’s your business. You are the final decision maker; you are accountable to the board, or perhaps there is no board and you are the founder/owner. So where do you go when you need advice? Have you established a mastermind group or advisory board? Do you really have “all the answers?” Who questions your answers?
Leaders often make the mistake of trying to leave room for creativity by being less than clear on the goals they wish to achieve or the mission they intend to accomplish. Call it “purposeful obfuscation.” I’m sure the idea is to not be too prescriptive in their directions, thus leaving room for interpretation. Good intentions with potentially unintended negative consequences.
There’s a 17 month old boy running around our vacation home. He is just full of joy and curiosity. Everything is exciting and needs to have a word attached to it. He is adding words to his vocabulary at an amazing rate. The adults seem not to be able to move fast enough to “baby proof” the place or answer all the questions about “whatz at?” When did we grow out of that joy and insatiable curiosity? How do we get it back?
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Depending on your point of view, we in the USA are either cruelly over taxed or don’t pay our fair share of Federal Taxes. The TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party crew thinks we are over taxed. I like to make sure I take advantage of all the tax breaks I can find, but in the end, I’m grateful for the fact that we earn enough income to have to pay taxes. My spouse and I also expressed liking to actually sign the checks to pay our bills. No on-line checking for us. How crazy is that?
“My job is pretty prescriptive. I know I have so many parts to complete on the production line and you’ve given me the tools, training and autonomy to do that. So I appreciate the thought that if I reach a stretch goal for production you will reward me with a bit of a bonus in my paycheck. Not every time, every day, but for special projects, recognizing my extra efforts is appreciated.”
“I know you keep trying. And I know somehow, it isn’t working. You keep fiddling around the edges trying to figure out what will motivate me to do what YOU want. Stop breaking your pick on this. You can’t motivate me. There’s only one person who can motivate me and that’s ME. You are not doing your job as a manager if you fail to create an environment where I have some autonomy.”
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