I Wish I Did.
A bad boss learns of something she does not know and thinks ‘I don’t need to know it’.
A good boss learns of something she does not know and thinks ‘I wish I did’.
Blind and Indifferent.
Bad bosses are more concerned about how they want the world to see them and are therefore blind and indifferent to how the world does see them.
What They Don’t Teach Leaders.
You know how flawed you are but your followers don’t and yet they’re following you.
Your followers are waiting for you to lead.
You’re wrong - often.
Some of your followers know more than you.
Some of your followers don’t like you.
Some of your followers are acting.
Most if not all the people who teach you Leadership have never led.
You get physically, emotionally, and spiritually tired.
You don’t have as much power as people think.
You’re the only person who doesn’t get to pass the buck.
The Awful Realisation.
My feelings of self-doubt are really the awful realisation that the best opinion the client will get is mine.
The Judicial Oath.
‘Without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.’
The judicial oath has a lot to offer good decision making.
Most and Few.
Many are perfect in the planning.
Most are near enough in the doing.
Few are there for the learning.
Blameworthy.
Say what you will about Blame.
But there’s something virtuous about being worthy of it.
There’s Always One.
I opened my first meeting with new staff with: ‘I'm not going to give you a speech about loyalty or commitment to the organisation. I’m guessing I know why we’re all here, and it’s not because we’re motivated to serve the boss. I suspect if any of us won the lottery tonight, we wouldn’t be back here tomorrow.’
Then Bob said: ‘I would.’
Sit at The Elbow of Power.
The best apprenticeship to learn the value of good decision making is to sit at the elbow of power.
To vicariously make decisions with the luxury of distance, time, and non-accountability, and the benefit of seeing the results.
To discover for yourself the steps to a good decision.
Breakwater.
A good decision is like a breakwater or sand bar dissipating the strength of emotions and assumptions rushing in with the momentum of quick resolution.
Hit Pause.
A Good Decision is a Pause button.
Freezing our life so often carried forward by pure momentum and habit.
Allowing us the opportunity to ask:
What am I feeling?
Where am I headed and why - and how far have I come?
What information is available to me that I have been ignoring?
What unthinking biases have I been operating under?
Who else is in this with me?
Hard questions.
Which is why few ask them.
The World at Our Feet.
The world wants us to be the best we can.
It delivers water to our taps, electricity to our devices, collects our rubbish and keeps our homes and streets largely free of threats.
Shops and markets and restaurants and cafes and convenience stores.
It paves roads to our doorstep, builds parks, gyms, courts, and boat ramps.
Schools, universities, libraries, and internet for us to learn.
Hospitals when we’re sick, airports when we need to travel, and highways, ports, flight paths and shipping lanes de-conflicted and open for our exploration beyond, with passports and embassies and vaccinations.
The world wants us to succeed.
Whether Two or Two Million.
The duty of every organisation - whether consisting of two people or two million - whether two thousand dollars value or two billion - is to direct its superior size and resources towards elevating each person.
Yet it is almost a rule that the opposite is true.
The organisation - meaning people within it - uses its power to suppress the individual.
