quickpoint: Getting Out of the Way

Think about this:

Everyone has the potential to perform better
Potential is blocked by interference
Interference can be reduced by focused attention
Focused attention can be simply and systematically increased

Alan Fine writes in You Already Know How to Be Great, that most often dramatic performance improvement does not come from gaining new knowledge; it comes from getting rid of the “interference” that gets in the way of using the knowledge and capacity we already have.

“When managers or leaders become so obsessed with policies, procedures, and their own ways of doing things” they can “become disconnected from results. They begin to micromanage. They divert employees’ attention away from learning and creating and toward trying to remember and comply. What an enormous loss of possibility!” How many times have we seen this (or even participated in it)? “We have to do it this way for the sake of order and consistency.” Really? And what are you sacrificing in the process? Probably far too much. What are we putting in the way of those we lead?

Fine asks, “Was it possible that much of the specific technical instruction I’d been giving my students was not only not helping them but was actually getting in the way?”

Additionally, in our own growth process, we can focus so much on the techniques, the lists, and the steps of leadership that we miss the essence of leadership. The relationships. What is getting in your way?

Related Interest:
  You Already Know How to Be Great