Think…

As I travel from client to client, I’m reminded of this truth.  We have way too many teams, far too many leaders, and countless individuals that are far too passive.  They are NOT thinking. They think that they are.

Therein lies the danger.

And yet every day in a million little ways they look side to side and they look up hoping to find the answer.  And then they wait.  In fact, they mostly wait.  They want the answer.  The simple mistake is they want someone to give it to them.  Someone to tell them which way to go and how to go there.  They don’t want to THINK.

Wake up and think about the road you are on.  Are you on the road you have decided?  Is this road headed in the direction of your big dreams?  Are you ripping up the twists and turns fully alert, alive, and engaged in your OPUS? Are you trusting your senses or still looking side to side for one more piece of analytics to give you the answer?

Are you thinking?

Are you creating an environment that encourages your team to think?

Are you creating an environment that encourages your team to convert their thinking into new productive action?

Are you leading by your example, by your moral authority, by your willingness to take down the guardrails and trust them to keep it on road?

The road ahead is full of ambiguity and anything but safe.  Countless teams are in a fight for their life.  Many have died already.  The road ahead offers twists, turns, no guardrails, signs that are outdated and obsolete, sharp cliffs on both sides of the equation, and demands our full attention, 100% of our energy, full engagement, and a passion to master our craft.  Repeating the old model, putting it on cruise control, or going in reverse will simply lengthen the slow death.  Think about it…

Those that survive and thrive will share this attribute.  They will think more and they will have more depth to their thinking. Their leaders will build a team that thinks. Their leaders will build a team with great diversity of thinking. These leaders will turn more and more of this thinking into experiments.  Some of these experiments will morph into real, productive action.  Productive action that navigates the road less traveled.  These teams we’ll read about in 2020.

Are you building one of these?