Listening to Your Team

There are an awful lot of ways to get from A to B and the only real discriminator is time. If the building’s on fire then we all have to react a certain way, but if we’re trying to build the pyramids then that’s a different type of leadership problem or if we’re all just trying to take a tour group from here to Niagara Falls, that’s a different type of leadership problem.

Remember that anybody who is going plus or minus 89 degrees of the direction you’re going is still going the same way you are. If they’re 89 degrees away from you, a little bit of where they’re going is still the direction that you’re going. If you’re building’s not on fire or if you’re not about to get run over by a steamroller, then maybe the initial route that they’ve chosen is in fact a better one than yours.

Take advantage of the time and the creativity of your people in order to get to the objective that you have set for them as the leader. Constantly keep checking back and then evaluate and make sure that each of those steps is being iterated and eventually, hopefully, you will not get run over by the steamroller and all of you will arrive at Niagara Falls safe and sound.