The New Crop: Issue #65
the courage to dismount a "dead horse" + "how self-reflection can help leaders stay motivated"
What’s in this issue:
💭 Thought: The courage to dismount a “dead horse”
😆 Today’s Laugh
If you’re having a bad day, be grateful that you’re not this guy:
Photo: Tom Stables - Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
💭 Today’s Thought
Walking away from something that isn’t working despite your best efforts isn’t failure; it’s an act of leadership.
In the book Systems Thinking for Curious Managers, Russell Ackoff quotes Dr. Sheldon Rovin:
The often-quoted tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, ‘When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.’ However, in government more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:
Buying a stronger whip.
Changing riders.
Appointing a committee to study the horse.
Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride horses.
Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
Reclassifying the dead horse as living impaired.
Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
Providing extra funding/training to increase the dead horse’s performance.
Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance.
Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than live horses.
Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And, of course…
Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
What horse(s) might you need to dismount in your life? What about your team, or your organization?
📚 Today’s Read
How Self-Reflection Can Help Leaders Stay Motivated
Holding a leadership position is hard — often exhausting — work. In this article, Klodiana Lanaj, Trevor A. Foulk, and Amir Erez reveal the findings of their study that tested a short, daily intervention to help leaders remain energized throughout the workday. Click here to read more.
See you next week!
xo,
Anne