A thought by John C. Maxwell from his
book, Leadershift (p. 94). HarperCollins Leadership. Kindle Edition. (Click
on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
It isn’t an option, leadership demands
it.
John says, “That includes tough
conversations. And their difficulty increases when the issue is not easy and it
involves people on our team. But we should never delay tough conversations. The
more you wait, the more difficult they become. Why?
·
Silence to most
people means approval.
·
When people have to
fill in the blanks themselves, they do so negatively.
·
Problems left
unaddressed have a snowball effect: they become larger and gain momentum.
·
Problems left
unaddressed cause inner erosion: we lose respect for ourselves internally.
·
The Law of
Diminishing Intent is in effect: The longer you wait to do something you should
do now, the greater the odds that you will never do it. One of these days
becomes none of these days.
He goes on, “Back in the days when I
directly supervised a lot of staff, I used to tell them, ‘Never worry about how
you are doing. I will let you know immediately if there’s a problem.’ I don’t
sit on issues. If I need to have a tough conversation, I have it as soon as
humanly possible.
“You’ve probably heard the saying that
all’s well that ends well. I also believe that all’s well that begins well.
That’s what establishing up-front expectations does for you as a leader. It
helps you begin well so that you can challenge people to become their best.”
Good advice. Tough advice but good advice isn’t it?
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