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Loving Monday: Committed to Finding The Very Best Ideas

loving_mondayWhere do you look to find the best ideas?

Not merely good ideas. But the very best ideas.

Ideas for improvement. Ideas for new products. Ideas for organizing differently. Ideas for fixing problems.

Do you gather the senior management? Do you hire expert consultants? Do you read and research extensively?

What if, on your way into the office this morning, you walked past a treasure trove of the best ideas you could ever hope to find?

What if the knowledge, experience, and creativity to generate the very best ideas were already working at your firm?

Some of you already know where I’m heading with this.

How many of us, when searching for the best ideas imaginable, look confidently and expectantly to those below us on the organizational chart?

Some leaders experience any superior expertise on their staff teams negatively. They believe, mistakenly, that in order to justify their leadership position they must know more and better than everyone else.

There are two fatal problems with this mentality.

One problem is that existing talent gets overlooked or needlessly second-guessed. It doesn’t take people long to figure out when a supervisor is ignoring their input, belittling their ideas, or dismissing their front-line experience.

The second problem is that these leaders are not hiring the best and the brightest. They are not looking for people smarter than they are, more experienced than they are, more creative than they are, or more energetic than they are.

The outcome is a self-limiting team capped only by your own notions of competence and job titles.

So this morning, when you walk through the office, consider what wealth of front-line knowledge, experience, relationships, and wisdom are laying untapped within your team.

Have you been looking for the very best ideas to solve your latest problem, identify your next opportunity, or rethink how things get done? Senior management, consultants, and research are fine alternatives.

My money is on looking down the organization chart instead of up if you really want to find the very best ideas.

On your side,

- Karl Edwards

Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.


Here's My Thought...


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