Don't be a YES man

We’ve all heard about “servant leadership”.  Sounds like a noble thing.  And we should be serving our team.

But we should do it in the most important ways, not the ways they think we should.  Your team doesn’t necessarily know the highest value use of your time (hopefully you do).

With some leaders, the team members figure out they can delegate to the leader by giving you problems to solve and tasks to do.  If your too much of a yes man, a pleaser, you wind up working for them.

This is fine if you have a small business, don’t want to grow, things are going good and you are happy.

Saying YES to anyone (inside or outside your business) who asks for a bit of your time, which in the end is all we have, is to lose control of your direction.

Empower your people to handle the stuff they come to you with, and say no to outsiders who want your attention and time, and use more of your time to do the thinking, make the decisions, and take the action that will make the future far better than today.

Start now.