I recently “got my colors done.” You know, where somebody drapes colored cloth around your neck and you decide which hues are most flattering for you. I’m a Winter. But I have the existing wardrobe of an Autumn. Which is to say I maybe should toss out everything in my closet and start over, now that I know what I SHOULD be wearing.
This is sometimes how people feel when they attend one of our leadership classes or listen to our podcast or read one of Scott and Tammy’s books. They learn a bunch of new ways to think about being a leader! They’re excited! They want to start fresh! And then they go back to the office and remember that they have the same old problems and the same organizational culture and the same employees to work with. And you can’t always toss everything out so you can start over.
I sometimes call this the “Yeah, but …” moment. When leaders understand a new concept … BUT they have all these preexisting constraints. Reasons they can’t implement their new-found lessons about holding people accountable or about decision-making or about growing their peer-to-peer relationships.
It feels like, “If I can’t implement this lesson perfectly, I can’t implement it at all.” It’s too hard.
Which is why I love something my color analyst said. “I’m giving you tools, not rules,” she said. And it’s the perfect mindset for becoming a better leader, too!
When you learn a new leadership technique, you have to make it your own. You’ll need to adjust your language so it accomplishes the desired outcome—in YOUR words. You’ll need to adjust your approach to accommodate your organization’s expectations. You’ll need to approach each employee in a way they can hear.
You’ve learned a new TOOL, and it’s up to you to use it in ways that are most effective for your situation. If you think of it as a RULE, you risk missing the outcome because you’re too focused on the process.
Use the tools and make them work for you. That’s what I’ll be doing with my closet … replacing some of the pieces that don’t show me at my best—and making sure that when I have the chance to add something new to my repertoire that I do it using my new-found knowledge.