Today, I met with a handful of clients. It was a good day. One, however, will stick with me for awhile. One of my clients was particularly upset about a couple relationships at their place of work. Seems that a few were not happy with my clients performance and were very open and upfront about their displeasure. Great, I told him. That is really good news, I said again with some emphasis added.
He looked at me a bit puzzled and asked for an explanation. I told him that he didn’t need to worry about his detractors that told him to his face. You can turn these relationships easily or you can easily compartmentalize them. Every leader and every system is filled with folks that don’t agree with the leaders direction. No problem here. The problem performers are the ones that smile at you as they stab you in the back or sabotage your operation. These are the ones that you’ve got to look a bit harder to find. These are the folks that bring us down and throughout the history of time, have brought down countless others.
Your job, remember, as a leader is to “look harder.” You’ve got to look harder to find the real problem children in your system. The worst problems are the ones that surprise us with their gutless attack from behind. Like Techumseh challenged his team long ago, “you’ve got to look harder.” Too many leaders, today, are asleep at the wheel and only upset by the harsh words of their detractors.
Today, my client got a reminder that he is worried about the wrong folks. Today, my client focused on the “damn few” that are ready to “go downrange” with him. The damn few, high performers are all any leader needs. And, every leader needs to look harder to find the sneeky few with sabotage up their sleeve.
Who are your damn few, my friend.
What are you doing to earn their trust and lead them downrange?
Tell me more…
BUILT TO LEAD 