Friday, January 19th, 2007...11:14 pm
Let the Best Idea Win
It is very difficult, when you are a leader who is honestly trying to advance, to see yourself in a meeting that you had thoroughly prepared for, only find your idea gets trumped by the idea of another. The discussion goes in a completely different direction than you anticipated. Your idea gets discarded, and with it, your hopes of some great exposure.
According to John C. Maxwell in his book The 360° Leader, it is better to let that idea win, than to fight for your idea when it is not the best one. Good ideas are the lifeblood of an organization. Without them, an organization cannot survive.
The key to impacting an organization as a leader in the middle, is to help the organization find the best ideas, and help the organization create synergy around those ideas. How do we do that?
- Leaders listen to all ideas
- Leaders never settle for one idea
- Leaders look in unusual places for ideas
- Leaders do not let personality overshadow purpose
- Leaders protect creative people and their ideas
- Leaders do not take rejection personally
The test of a leader is trust. You can do more damage to your credibility as a leader by fighting for an inferior idea, than you ever can by not having the superior idea, and helping to create the synergy that the best idea needs to succeed.
- Jason
1 Comment
February 16th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
[...] Jason Echols over at Black Belt Productivity believes that the most effective leaders let the best ideas win. It can be tough to let go of one’s own idea. But it takes a great amount of courage and trust to swallow one’s pride and create synergy to help accomplish another’s superior idea. If the other idea benefits the organization what would be remembered is the success. On the other hand, sticking stubbornly to that inferior idea could quickly create a reputation of being closed-minded. Interestingly, the first item on Echols’ list of creating this synergy is: Leaders listen to all ideas. [...]
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