The actions of leaders should focus on common-sense decisions. A good “business-sense”, extensive life experience, having a good judge of character, and the ability to see-through-the-fog towards the intended goal will help most people make the “right” call as needed – when needed. Every Great Leader Has an Experience Book.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’d rather act and make decisions based on the facts at hand than sit idle and wait for some arbitrary sign of approval later. Every step we take is a learning process and we adjust as needed. This builds our “experience book” that’s stored in our memory to reference in the future.
In Your Experience Book – You’ve Seen This Before
At some point in your career, you’ll realize that you’ve come across most of the scenarios possible in your industry. You’ve seen this before, you’ve dealt with this before, you’ve made the right decision before – and you and your business are better off because of it. Example:
- You’re going through some HR-related situations with a few employees. You’ve seen this before and you know what to do because your answer is memorized and written on “page 23”.
- The computer system of one of your largest vendors has crashed and they won’t be able to deliver product for a week or more. No problem. You’ve dealt with supply chain problems throughout your career. You’ve come up with unique ways to get the items you need and have kept a record of your solution(s). It’s listed on page 86.
- Employee morale has started wain. You see the early warning signs. So, before it gets out of hand, you quickly identify the underlying cause and take proven steps to get back on track. Is this magic? Of course not. Its just experience gained over years of hard work and effort.
Experience – Effortless Decisions
Your past actions and their positive, or negative results, builds page after page in your experience book. It also builds the confidence needed to show true leadership. There’s no need to “look” confident because you ARE confident. Those around you easily see it. It’s there for the world to see. Decisions now become effortless because you’ve been there. It’s time to lead, not because you want to but because you can. You must!
Those around you, even the jealous coworkers, will gravitate to the one who has the experience. They know you made the right call, even if their self-doubt makes them question why. The jealous have many blank pages in their experience book because they fail to learn and fail to act. They can’t decide. They wait for others to act.
But not you.
Experience – Your People
You think of your people, your team. They rely on answers from the wisest person in the room. You know what’s best for them. You know what’s best for your business and you know what’s best for the community at large. Then you act, and your decisions are made without stress, without worry, and without doubt.
You’ve seen success and it’s because of you. This brings a clear mind and internal peace. The peace we all wish to have.
It’s possible to have peace, confidence, and an optimistic outlook…as long as we’re willing to act and fill the pages of our experience book.
