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From Mastermind to Leader
Mike said something to me a to me a few years ago that I thought was really quite profound, but I forgot it. (Clearly an indication of how profound it was for me at the time!) Then, last month, I was talking to a friend very similar to me and he had gotten the same advice from him and I wanted to make sure to capture it.
This was it:
Your job isn’t to be a mastermind. You’re job is to lead people.
You see, for me, I like the idea of coming up with the perfect system, with the perfect chess game, to lock myself into a dark room and not come out until I have all the answers, with everything in perfect alignment. I don’t want to enter into the fray until everything has been thought of to perfection.
Yet this is a complete joke.
- I will never be able to come up with the perfect system that works in reality.
- Systems that work well tend to spring from thoughtful planning, but more importantly, attentive observation, reflection and discussion with a team after some testing has been done in real time.
There are times when my desire to mastermind something overshadows the real need of my team: For me to lead them into the unknown and to reflect and piece it together…together.
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5 Responses to From Mastermind to Leader
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Good stuff. Resonates with me for some reason
Can’t imagine why!
Amen, I needed those words today!
Have you ever seen the Meier’s Briggs chart with a name for each type? Mastermind is INTJ….so from a borderline INTJ/p….man, do I feel you on this!
I’m an INTJ. So yeah…i get it.