The 80% PLAN
As leaders we naturally believe that everyone is capable of giving 100% all the time. This may be true, but, is everyone capable of the same level of performance at 100% output? Definitely not. But is everyone capable of giving more? Most likely, yes.
But are they willing to?
Here’s where we have to check our egos and let someone else take the lead for a bit. As leaders we should try to see the potential when someone else offers up an idea, a solution, or a plan. Great leaders create more great leaders. This is where it starts.
An employee carrying out their own plan with the full support of their leader will likely have higher energy, greater momentum and feel as though they are accomplishing something from start to finish. This plan has the highest chance of success.
When you give employees opportunities to take on some of your responsibilities or better yet, empower them to take action on the idea’s they have to solve problems you have, you open the door to your own freedom. Someone else is now helping you to drive your business forward. Just be sure these ideas are mostly in line with your goals but embrace creative freedom.
If your employee commits 100% to implementing one of their own ideas rather than committing 50-60% effort to carrying out one of your ideas, the end result could be significantly better. This is the 80% plan. It’s exists somewhere between you doing 100% of the planning and doing all the work yourself, and someone else coming up with the plan, and them doing all the work with your goals and objectives as the basis.
Free Tip: Allowing for input, having an open dialogue and using varying degrees of mirroring and labeling techniques, you can help someone to develop your plan as if it was their plan. But that’s for a different post.
Embrace creative thinking and problem solving in your organization, this is how you give away your responsibilities to others so you can do what it is that you need to do. You can work on buying your freedom.
After all if we’re hiring the right people, their vision should be the same as ours anyway.
