Jim Matthews, Principal, Nearterm Corporation

I don’t know about you but I am growing immune to the voluminous “LISTS” I see in social media about leadership and success. LinkedIn, social media forums such as Facebook, and blogs are recently inundated with posts about leaders, leadership and successful people. For example, just this year alone 167 Habits, 340 Behaviors, 62 Graphic Musings, 35 Qualities, 53 Differences and 111 Characteristics have shown up on my monitor.

The above estimate is based on sampling of posts since January 1, 2017 and suggests that 768 pieces of sage advice have been shared so far this year. Much of this content is repetitive or duplicative but the actual posts are not. Each one is unique.

Here is the point: have you ever tried to function based on 768 pieces of advice? It would be overwhelming. The best personal example I can offer comes from a golf pro giving me a much-needed lesson one afternoon.  He watched me swing the club a few times and I then asked him to tell me everything I needed to do differently. Instead of giving me 768 pieces of advice (my swing was so bad, I could have used more), he said this;

“All I want to do is tell you one habit you should lose each time we get together. It’s the Pareto Principal. That is, 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. If I can help you lose only a few bad habits, your game will improve dramatically. Besides, if I told you everything I see that might improve your swing, it would take up our entire hour and you would get worse trying to remember it all. Practice losing the bad habit I point out today and when you have buried that one, call me for another lesson.”

I advocate one piece of advice or wisdom. Be honest with yourself as you identify your worst habit or behavior and bury it forever. This might require a combination of introspection and perhaps feedback from colleagues, family, and others that you trust to be honest with you. Then repeat this exercise for the rest of your life.

This may not make you a leader because at the end of the day, leadership is more of a talent than a skill, but it might make you more successful at what you do.

Jim Matthews
Principal, Nearterm Corporation

Follow Jim on LinkedIn