Delegation: the power of someone else

Smart Vs dumb.

I’ve made some great decisions but also plenty that weren’t so great. What’s the difference between them?

Try this. Write down ten decisions, five smart, five dumb. They can be about anything, business, sport, personal. Then look for some common threads. Years ago, I did this on the back of a napkin.

This is what I found.

With smart ones, I knew what I was doing, was good at doing it, and sought help where I knew I needed it. Dumb ones were the opposite. I didn’t really know what I was doing, wasn’t good at it and was so afraid people would discover my lack of expertise I didn’t ask for advice. 

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Leadership? No Worries

Things to do about that fear stuff.

The deep end can be scary. When I was sixteen, I led an advance party to prepare the site for our annual cadet camp. Small beer, you would think. But not for me.

I was chosen because I’d performed well in other roles but this was different. When I assembled the team, I had no idea what I was doing. The main task was to create tent lines for about 300 cadets. I explained the job to the team. Then everything went quiet.

What got us started?

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Beating Inertia

What’s your big opportunity?

You probably know that you or your firm can go better. You are aware of specific strengths and you know you could knock the cover off the ball if you really gave it your best shot. Trouble is you don’t seem to get around to it.

Can you do anything about it?

There’s a couple of roadblocks you need to clear. The first is that you only need one idea, not lots of them. Having too many great projects can create more inertia than not having any.

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Handling negative situations

To feel better, feel worse.

How hard is it to keep that sunny outlook going when you are surrounded by negative people?

For some reason, we feel we should be above this, that we can maintain our personal dignity despite the environment conspiring to press all our buttons.

Can we actually escape it?

I wonder. Many people learn to not react. That gets you part of the way. It also avoids escalation. In the words of my daughter, a closed mouth gathers no foot.

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Management theories: yours or theirs?

Has management advice actually made any progress?

Doesn’t seem so. Prominent business leaders, management gurus, and leading academics – all three have a history of failure.

It can happen anywhere, anytime. I worked for three years in Singapore in the 1980s. Each year someone was designated “Businessman of the Year”. All three nominees suffered ignominious reversals before I had left, including gaol time.

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