Productive leaders are skilled "no-men"

"Worse are those who surround themselves with yes-men or sycophants who clean up their messes and create a bubble in which they can't even see how disconnected from reality they are." Ryan Holiday

Join 1,219 leaders getting good busy

Hi there,

How was your last week?

In case you missed it, last Friday on LinkedIn, I shared a?preview and the?launch date of?The Good Busy Course . Have you marked?December 5th?on?your calendar? ????

In 2018, work was challenging. I met performance goals?but felt unsupported, misunderstood, and,?oppressed.?

Though I knew the grass only looked?greener elsewhere, the offers from headhunters were tempting.?

At the exact same time, I read "Ego is the Enemy" by Ryan Holiday. And this book held up?a mirror.?

The key lesson? The worst thing that leaders can do is surround themselves with yes-men.? ?

???the why

In 1975,?John DeLorean , General Motors's youngest and most successful division chief,?introduced a?brand of futuristic cars.

Unfortunately, the cars turned out to be a flop: over budget, non-functional, and lacking?interested dealers. The launch was?a disaster, and the?company never bounced back.

Why? DeLorean struggled to manage himself, leading to challenges in managing others. He failed himself, others, and the dream.?

???the how

What went wrong??

• He couldn't delegate.
• He was late and distracted.
• He initiated projects benefiting him but not the company.

His ideas were brilliant and ahead of time. But his ego motivated him more than efficiency, organization, and manageability.?

And the culture of "yes-men" he created disconnected him from reality.?

?? your results

I didn't want to end up on that path.?

Disagreements are?natural. My responsibility was to share my opinion, not to fight for consensus at all costs.?

Rather than resigning, I stayed. I became selective about my battles, set aside my ego, and learned to disagree.

Collecting "no" helped refine my decisions and led to a manager aligned with my business thinking?95% of the time.?

?? Result: I felt supported, understood, and free.?

???bad busy traps

You’ll escape the draining effect of negative work interactions reducing the quality of your day.

Positive emotions ?(high valence) correlate with productivity and quicker issue resolution.? But the opposite is equally true:?negative emotions prolong time we need to complete a task.

If you found this edition helpful, forward it to a friend or a colleague who could use a break from bad busy work. And grab The Good Busy Playbooks with my 5-minute video guides.

Thank you for reading?????

Enjoy getting good busy!

See you next Monday,

Kate

P.S. Running out of time for what matters to you at & after work?

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