Good leadership is seeing the big picture
Eyes On The Big Picture. Not The Weeds.
Leadership requires us to have one eye peeled on the big picture and the other on our team.
Yet there are times when we do end up getting caught in the weeds.
Given the hustle of life, it’s often hard to be able to pull back a bit and run a quick check on what we are doing. We often magnify the experience of the present moment much more in terms of importance than is necessary.
It’s always wise to step back a bit and check how relevant is our experience, of the moment, in the grander scheme of things.
We can all relate to this.
We often get caught up in the weeds thinking what we are experiencing is really important for the long-term.
When you pause and question yourself you realize that the momentary experience doesn’t really matter for the long-term. You’ve got to ask yourself is it part of the overall strategy and then look at the tactics or the experience of the moment and see if its related to the strategy. Most often we get lost and caught in the weeds due to the day to day tactics and operations.
The weeds of political games, work culture games, and emotionally fed behaviours rather than focussing on the big picture and working to achieve that.
By stepping back, we can regroup, get grounded and see what’s really important.
When you get caught up in the little hassles or the weeds so to speak, you tend to lose the strategic or helicopter view and its perspective. Resulting in your energy getting drained much faster on things that are actually not important.
Getting caught up in the games and doing things that you don’t want to be doing or that are not aiding you towards achieving the bigger picture becomes an energy drain. In some instances, they become a negative energy!
The way to recognise that you are getting caught up in the weeds is to take note of your body. It gives you little pointers or signs, through the aches and pains, telling us about what is going on in our environment that we are not dealing with properly.
The body informs about the manifestation of physical ailments which occurs through an emotional and mental imbalance.
Recognising this and going back to the big picture, which is a more positive thing, of what you are trying to achieve in the long run helps in identifying which tactics are causing negative energy and affecting health.
To stay out or avoid getting caught in the weeds, and the negative energy associated with it, look at the behaviours that need to be used to achieve the strategy. Identify those behaviours and the positive ways of doing it.
Find your pause, in the middle of all the hustle, and check in with yourself to find out if the experience you are feeling is important or not in relation to the big picture or strategy you have in your mind.
About the author, Ross
Behavioural leadership coach committed to bringing more soul into business and reducing a leader's stress in managing their people
Stepping back — detaching as a “regular practice” is so important -to maintaining clarity and appropriate, strategic focus! Good points! So many things that can lasso our attention and we caught up in unproductive thinking & activities. Good stuff on #podcast
Thanks, JoAnne, its so simple, buts its quite often the simple things that we forget to do