I don’t know of a single leader among the hundreds I’ve coached over the last few decades who wouldn’t nod their head and say something like, “Yup. That’s about right.” when they see this quote from the book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution:
You don’t hear leaders saying, “I wish I were better at driving strategies that require people to do things differently.” What you are more likely to hear is a leader saying, “I wish I didn’t have Tom, Paul, and Sue to deal with!
Why is that?
Why is it that there’s not a single leader who wouldn’t immediately acknowledge the truth in that statement? They wouldn’t question it. They wouldn’t disagree with it.
They wouldn’t even have to think about it.
The “I wish I didn’t have” phrase could result from a number of things. While it could be disappointment in the lack of leadership, that doesn’t usually trigger the “I wish I didn’t have” lament as much as the lack of accountability and responsibility that undermines what leaders are trying to accomplish.
You may think that the leader just wants them to “step up” … take a more active role in getting things done. That could be true, but isn’t that the kissing cousin of a failure of accountability … of NOT “stepping up” to be more responsible and accountable to achieve the assigned goals?
This is is what I want you to consider
Who do you wish you didn’t have?
Most importantly … what are you doing about it?
