Some years ago, I had the opportunity to join a prestigious company as a senior executive. I inherited a large, talented team that needed new leadership.
I was to be that leadership.
In preparation, I wrote pages of plans and ideas. I wrote out more pages of expectations. I articulated my personal values.
And then . . .
The muse, my brother, or some other angel observed, “Maybe you should hack this down to two, maybe three things that matter and start there.”
So, I did.
I boiled my strategy down to one thing: “Find horses riding in roughly the right direction and ride them.” These were not stupid people. It would be insulting to come in and tell them to change directions. I didn’t know enough, and I hadn’t earned that right.
Better to put attention on things that looked about right and get momentum going. Easier to change directions with a moving horse.
I distilled my pages of credo to one thing: “Be a True Pro.” Whatever you think that means, do that. We’ll work out the rest later.
Leadership is a lot of things. Keeping things simple, keeping things real is where it starts.