Daily LEADERSHIP Tip / He Bet It All

Day 49

Earlier this year I was working a brilliant client who excelled in many ways as a leader and productive member of his company, but he had one weakness that needed boundaries.

He was addicted to risk in business... but that is not all.
 

He never defined his "Death Line," as Jim Collins would say.  A Death Line is the situation that removes you from the game.  Once you cross it, you are "dead."  
 

Collins' talks about this in his book, Great by Choice, that we are applying to our Clients' business in our 20 Mile Challenge program.  Collins gives the example of climbers on Mount Everest who took unnecessary risks and died, versus the more prudent explorers who lived to climb another day.
 

One factor in this executive was some people, personally and professionally, no longer believed in him.  Some even thought he was a loser.  That hurt.  (You do not see this in those articles that encourage failure in business, but the reality is that funders and power people like success A LOT MORE than failure.)
 

This particular Client had to comprehend (deeper knowledge than "understand") that one of his primary motivators was to prove these other people wrong.  That is unhealthy, and I suspect, rarely a successful strategy.
 

What to do?
 

1.  Perspective:  Discuss on a business not a therapy level his primary motivation:  Prove others wrong.
 

2.  Focus:  Help him define one part of the business to focus on, and that must be his primary time commitment weekly.
 

3.  Boundaries:  Define financial boundaries and "bullets, not cannonballs" (small risks to test his ideas without killing his company) for him to pursue that confirm his approach to achieve his #1 focus will succeed.
 

4.  Accountability:  Without accountability he will subconsciously avoid #1-3 above and go back to his risky behavior.  Most of the time we talked daily.
 

It is FRIDAY!  How are your 3 Strands this week?  Are you achieving them all?  I hope so.

Be disciplined.  Confirm your focus daily on your weekly 3 Strandsand daily W.I.N.(What's Important Now)...  and those of your team in an encouraging way.
 

Let me know if you need help.

Be a Systematic Leader - because inconsistency hurts
 

Thank you.