No, I mean here, not Here.
When we all started out in Radio or Records, I don’t believe any of us saw ourselves in the positions we currently hold or certainly not doing the things we do every day. How did we get here? Did we aspire to do nine jobs simultaneously, often with diametrically opposed philosophies that tap into our areas of weakness as well as our strengths? Did we see the need to spend a great deal of time trying to work on weaknesses which are there precisely because they are areas in which we have absolutely no interest or passion? I don’t want to be an accountant and worry about all those little categories you people create for the money that we are spending. I want to be an artist and create a real communication of passion in areas of man’s greatness, not crunch numbers for some Vice President of Numbers Games dealing with Wharton people all day. We were born to break rules, or at least stretch them as far as they would stretch, and now we are required to not only write the rules but then enforce them upon the people we used to be. What the hell?
“The purpose of life is to fight maturity.” – Dick Werthimer
Hmmmm. Do you think Dick went to Wharton? No, my bet is he played guitar way too loud and way too late with way too many friends around.
In small business I totally understand the need to accomplish tasks not of our liking because that’s the nature of small business. We hire contractors to do the things we can’t or don’t want to do and focus on the things that put us in the position to open a business in the first place. Right? So what’s the deal with BIG business and the BIG picture people making us all move to the left brain when we are demonstrably good working from the right side? STOP IT!
Today, let’s try harder to draw on people’s strengths and support them in every way we can to further develop those strengths. Go with people who are passionate in their area of expertise and make it safe for them to go there while respecting the same of those around them.
I have always loved management retreats precisely because each of us on the team had very different strengths and we could get away and learn about each other’s passions and then try to do a better job of drawing on them in the future. That’s part of what makes a good team better and in simplest terms why some companies have great leaders and why some never rise above good.
Take the team out and encourage them to express why they are passionate about their department and where they would take it if they could. My bet is you’ll see the rest of the team pitch in and cover their weaknesses so they can each better utilize those individual strengths and focus more on Why We Are Here!
Garry Leigh
