Stupid Mistakes

I get this email once in a while called Catalyst Filter - I signed up when I went to the Catalyst Conference last year (I get other goodies in the mail, too). Anyway, one of the articles in the filter the other day was by a guy named Tony Morgan called "10 Stupid Leadership Mistakes I've Made." It's a good (brief) article - get the filter if you want all the details. Here are the bullet points of the ten mistakes:

10 STUPID LEADERSHIP MISTAKES I'VE MADE

1. Hiring too fast and firing too slow.
2. Trying to fix the problem rather than the process.
3. Putting the projects before the people.
4. Delegating tasks instead of responsibility.
5. Assuming it's always black and white.
6. Not following my gut (... or is that the Holy Spirit?).
7. Dwelling on the worst case scenario.
8. Waiting until there's a problem to provide feedback.
9. Staying busy.
10. Spending too much time on the details rather than the dreams.

So, I read this and I realize that I'm probably most guilty of #2 and #4.

Trying to fix the problem instead of the process. I should be better at this - since I'm the kind of person who likes to mull things over - but I still will sometimes only see the solution to the problem instead of the underlying issues (his example is that it's harder, but in the long run BETTER, to potty train a child than to constantly change dirty diapers - the problem is dirty diaper - I can change it, and that addresses the problem - but the process is changing the...um...waste management issues of the child - I can SO relate - we're housebreaking a puppy right now...).

I guess one of my underlying issues is that I enjoy problem solving. A LOOOOONG time ago my mom and I decided that it was time to build the deck on the back of the house that she and dad had always wanted (even installed a sliding glass door in the back of the house that led to the rickety old back porch - and then, when we pulled that off, to, well, nothing...). Anyway, we started laying out the plans. Note that we didn't start with any true deck plans (I mean, it's a rectangle - it's not really that complicated - she didn't want anything esoteric like a kidney-bean shaped deck or a twelve-level deck or whatever) - it's a 28x12 foot rectangle. The fun in it for me was figuring out how to lay it all out - the posts, the joists, the railings. I enjoy problem solving.

But I might not enjoy PROCESS solving. I have to...uh...mull that one over some more.

Delegating. I'm TERRIBLE at "sharing the load." I don't know what my problem is - but I find it's just easier if I "do it myself." Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm a control freak. One issue I know I have is that I'm not good at explaining what I want - or, maybe, that I have too concrete a vision of what I want that it's something only I can do. Hmmm, but that's still just tasks, too. As I'm writing this I'm thinking that maybe my issue is that I don't really know what delegating responsibility is really all about - maybe I just don't do it because I don't know HOW to do it...