Ideas are like rabbits. Multiplication leads to disease.
The only thing worse than a leader with no ideas is one with too many.
Doers have fewer ideas than dreamers. Doers think about execution. (Read: How Dreamers Drive Doers Crazy) “What abouts” are distractions when you’re thinking about getting things done. Suggestions are irritating unless they speed execution. A bright-eyed leader is annoying.
If you love ideas:
The thing that separates vision from dreams is sweat. Everyone wishes you would finish something before you explore three more brilliant suggestions.
Get real about innovation. Mark Twain said, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations.” In 2015 I wrote The Journey is the Answer. I thought it was brilliant. But it’s such a cliché that I saw it yesterday on the back of a Jeep.
Disciplined leaders focus on energizing people to get things done, not burdening them with frivolous suggestions. “Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.” Paul Valéry – 1942, “Bad Thoughts and Others.” (QI)
“Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless.” Mary Kay Ash
Timing:
Innovation is most valuable in the development stage. During execution, your wonderful insights are burdens, unless they make things easier.
Seek improvements in efficiency from people with their hands in the pot.
Leaders ask questions. How could this be better? Simpler? Smoother? You could ask, where do you feel like you’re wasting energy? Time? If you aren’t directly involved in execution, keep your ideas to yourself.
Over-helpful leaders frustrate people who are getting stuff done.
When is excitement with the innovation of the day a heavy weight to people getting stuff done?
When is new and exciting useful?
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Previously Published on leadershipfreak with Creative Commons License
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