Struggle Less, BE More

No doubt you’ve had the urge to do some spring cleaning over the past few months.

Hopefully, you’ve dropped a lot of clutter, thrown out some old, worn things and even dropped some of your activities and obligations that have been weighing you down.

Those are all things I encourage leaders to do in order to struggle less, so they can be more.

Here are three challenging ideas to help you DEEP clean in your business.  You might also find they apply to other areas of  your life as well.

Idea #1:  Let Go Of Your Bad Ideas

Bad ideas get implemented because they start as potentially good ideas at the time.   We then realize they aren’t working so well, but things like habit / inertia / fear keep us from changing again.  If you know that your incentive system, the way you schedule, the way you hold staff meetings, the rule or policy you have about…anything, has turned out wrong…have the courage to drop it.

Idea #2:  Get Rid of The Wrong Tools

You know that having the right tools for the job is important.  So why do some of those people in your organization spend half their day wrestling to make their tools work?  Computers, are one or our most common tools…and the best and fastest have become very affordable.  So why is that person (or you) straining to see the screen or waiting so long for programs to load or wishing they had that piece of software that would make the routine things they do every day, less of a hassle?  Get rid of the chairs that wreck your backs, the lights that cause you to squint, the forms that don’t fit the situation perfectly, the phone you have to apologize about using…etc.

Idea #3:  Part Ways with the Toxic People

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why toxic people- employees who make life miserable for their fellow workers and for customers and clients, continue to have jobs.   I know the short answer is that changing things is difficult.  But please…if you have employees OR clients who distinguish themselves from all the others by being a menace to everyone they meet…let them go do that somewhere else.   Everyone in your organization will want to throw you a parade.  One exception (maybe): If you have a vital employee, who is toxic to others: the very least try and shield everyone else from their affects.  The productivity you’ll gain will be worth it.

Even though these three ideas seem common sense, the reason why many leaders never get to this level of cleaning is because they are unaware.

The antidote if this could be you: ASK your people if there are any bad ideas or wrong tools to drop, or even toxic people issues to address.  If they trust you, they will tell you.

If this has you thinking about your work personally, spend some time reflecting on these three ideas, and make some changes  so you can struggle less and be more.

(This post was previously published in the June 2010 issue of Business Leader http://www.businessleader.bz/ )