“Think of what you have rather than of what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.” – Marcus Aurelius
Leaders are trained to focus on problems. We’re supposed to be identifying things that need fixing, and then either fixing them or helping those we lead to fix them. It feels like that’s what we’re supposed to do, and some of the time, it is.
One of the unfortunate side effects, though, is that a lot of leaders tend to only see problems. No matter what fantastic thing happens, it’s not good enough, or there is some downside that needs to be focused on. Celebrating achievements or acknowledging and being grateful for positives is seen as a poor use of time. Much better to spend that time finding more things that need fixing.
There are a lot of issues with being entirely problem-focused, but one of the most important is energy. When I started my career 25+ years ago, the word energy was hardly ever used, least of all by me. Now I think about the importance of energy on a daily basis.
Leading an organization in the 21st century is an extraordinary challenge. What feels like constant change, whether around people or technology or markets or customers or whatever, can be exhausting. We need to guard our energy like never before.
Constant attention to what’s wrong is exhausting. When all we do is point out what’s wrong and what’s a threat and what’s going poorly and what we messed up, it wears us down. Just as importantly, it wears down everyone around us.
That’s true even if we have good intentions, which we do. We think we’re doing our job and helping the organization, but what we’re often doing is creating an environment where no one’s ever happy, nothing’s ever good enough, and none of our achievements seem to matter.
Certainly, problem-solving is part of our job as leaders. We shouldn’t ignore problems just so we have more energy. Many of those problems need to be addressed. But we will always accomplish more when we focus on strengths and opportunities than when we obsess about weaknesses and threats.
Think about the tone you’re setting as a leader. Are you exhausting everyone around you with your fault-finding? Or are you making time to recognize the positives all around you? The choice is yours, and it’s an important one. Choose wisely.
