As a leader, you are probably carrying around lots of tools. Some you picked up long ago. Others you’ve kept accumulating with the years and the relentless march of technology. The question is, do you have the RIGHT tools to do your job?
If you’ve ever met a novice backpacker, you might notice they’re weighed down with all kinds of stuff. On the other hand, it’s amazing how little an expert backpacker takes with them into the woods!
The more experience they get, the lighter their backpack gets. Why? Because over time, they learn what they really need and—more importantly—what they don’t.
We leaders can take a lesson from this. The thing is, we can tend to operate on autopilot, and we don’t stop to reexamine what we’re carrying around. Maybe some of the tools work great for us. Maybe some once worked well, but they don’t anymore. Their time has passed.
In fact, maybe many of the items in our backpack aren’t tools at all—maybe they’re just rocks that weigh us down, slow us down, and make us less-effective leaders.
Quint Studer and I just released an updated edition of our book Rewiring Excellence: Hardwired to Rewired. In it, we talk about how so many of our long-held processes, practices, and behaviors are outdated, have gotten too complicated, or maybe don’t even work at all. (You can read more about the book here.)
My question to you is this: Do you need to apply the “rewiring” principle to your (metaphorical) leadership backpack?
I invite you to dig through your backpack and ask yourself about each item:
- Do I use this tool? Did I everuse it? Realistically, willI ever use it?
- Are these the right tools for the current environment or terrain I’m in? Am I paying close attention to the role I’m in and the employees I have right now?
- Do my tools need updating? Are there updated versions?
- What process am I following because “we’ve always done it that way”?
- Are there new technologies I assume I should be using because everyone else is, but they’ve become unintentional rocks? (Maybe they aren’t working at all…or maybe I need to use them in a different way.)
- Does my to-do list need culling? Are there any “to-dos” that need to become “to-stops”?
The main way to answer these questions is by looking at outcomes. If it’s working, keep doing it. If it’s not working, you might need to tweak it to make it less complicated…or even stop doing it altogether. (Isn’t that a liberating thought?)
Most great leaders have a “lean-and-mean” backpack. Not because they started that way, but because they were willing to sort, question, and let go.
You can do the same. What could you set down today that would make more room for what really matters in your leadership?
