“The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.” – Theodore Roosevelt
When I visit with leaders, rarely do I find them to be lacking in ideas. They usually have a bunch of theories about how to grow, how to attract & keep the best people, how to provide a better product or service, and so on. Very seldom do they just throw up their hands and say they have no clue what to do.
The problem isn’t a lack of ideas – it’s too many ideas. I don’t mean that having lots of ideas is a bad thing. I mean that if you have lots of ideas and try to implement all of them at once, you end up with a lot of watered down execution that doesn’t really move the needle for your business the way those ideas should.
To some degree, we all have a fear of failure. One of the ways we combat that fear is by following the old line of not putting all our eggs in one basket. We try a bunch of different things, thinking that if we try enough stuff, eventually something will work and everything will be great.
The problem is that we try so many things that none of them are great. Even the best ideas don’t matter if you don’t execute. Companies tend to be disappointed with how an initiative turned out and they blame the idea itself, when the real culprit is poor execution, often driven by lack of focus.
So don’t try and be all things to all people. Most of our organizations don’t have the resources for that. Be the best thing for some people. You have to decide what that thing is and who those people are, but then go full speed in that direction.
Don’t get distracted by trying to do so many things that they’re all mediocre. Figure out who you are and who you want to be – and then be great.
