I’m reading a new book right now from the authors of another great book, Crucial Conversations, which I read a few years ago. This new one from Grenny, Patterson, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler just came out this year and is titled Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change. They define leadership as “the capacity to influence others to change their behavior in order to achieve important results.” And the premise of the book is that influence can be achieved if the leader focuses on finding and changing vital behaviors within their organization, team, or personal work habits. When I first read this, I thought, “Well, sure, everyone knows that.” But as I read further, I discovered that although any of us who lead can identify perhaps dozens of behaviors to alter in order to bring about true change, the authors of the book press the issue that rapid, profound, and sustainable change can happen by merely focusing on a few. They state, “Even for the most complicated problems, ones that are influenced by, say, 10 different behaviors, influencers should focus their efforts on the top 2 – and only the top 2. If they spend time on the top 4 or 5 behaviors, or worse still, on all 10 behaviors, they’ll spread themselves too thin.”
This really resonated with me as I thought about the various arenas in which I am involved in leading people and organizations. I’m a fixer. I love to bring order from chaos. However, once order has been restored, it’s easy for an organization or team to slip into a contented malaise because the chaos has been quelled. When this happens, organizations and teams stall in the fulfillment of their mission, and because most are content, it’s much harder to motivate people to keep striving to make things even better. As a fixer, I see the many factors that need to change and it can be overwhelming because I want to fix everything, all at once! Through reading Influencer, I learned that I will be much more effective if I don’t try to fix everything, but focus on the few behaviors at the top of the list.
Maybe you are in the same situation as me: you just have a good work in progress and everyone is mostly happy, but you can see the list of a dozen things that could really make a difference and bring about change. I feel your pain, but I encourage you to take the advice of these authors and identify the top two behaviors that need to change. I’m trying to do this right now, and I must admit it’s tough to allow myself to put what I feel are pressing issues on the back burner, but by doing so, I can fully focus on the most pressing. I encourage you to do the same. Make your list of 10-20 things that should be fixed, prioritize them, then focus on fixing the top two. After you see the results from your top two, reevaluate and tackle the next top two. That’s what I’m going to do.
Lead well.