Good morning and welcome to another week.
It is often said that one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day. No better time than a chilly morning like this. Here’s the quote:
“If you want to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader. Go sell ice cream.”
— Steve Jobs
Harsh to be sure. But fair? It sure seems like it. Let’s dig in.
What does a leader really have to do? They have to synthesize all the data being provided to them from several sources, and they have to review and consider the many different (and usually conflicting) opinions they are hearing. In addition, they have to tell people to do work they may not enjoy, may not want to do, or may not get a personal direct benefit from.
Not making everyone happy here.
But consider for a moment some of the great leaders. Napoleon. Jesus. George Washington. Nick Saban. Alexander the Great. Elon Musk. Even the source here, Steve Jobs. (and yes, that’s another great list here at FLS)
Are any of these people remembered for being beloved by everyone? Universally admired? Fun guys to share a sundae with?
NO! (okay maybe Jesus is a yes on the “sundae”)
On that list, you have people who are best described as demanding. Difficult. People who rejected ideas, sent their soldiers or engineers or players back to the drawing board and the practice field and the battlefield time and time again. People who had a long-term vision – a goal they wanted their team to reach – and a plan for getting there. People who would not accept “good enough,” even when sometimes their people really wanted them to.
So what does this do for us on a personal, day-to-day level? Since George Washington is not a regular reader of this blog (to my knowledge), who can take something away from this quote?
Turns out, maybe a lot of us. Confession time:
Early on when I was practicing law, sometimes a client would come to me with a question about their policy, or their process, or something they were already doing. And if I would discover that they needed to change or alter it to comply with the law, it would really bother me to have to tell them that. I didn’t want to give them bad news; I wanted to be the guy who served them ice cream.
But here’s the issue with that – they hired me to do a job. To lead them through the legal pitfalls and processes, even if it meant that I had to uproot their current process or cost them money in the short term. Was it a popular opinion and some welcome advice I gave them? No. There were no sprinkles on top.
The thing was, I was the leader. I had to give them clear and understandable instructions on how to fix that problem so that it did not costs them more money on down the line, or worse. So I told them what had to be done, even though they might not like or appreciate me for it at the moment – at least not as much as if I brought them some mint chocolate chip.
One more thought on this quote, and how people might make use of it: keep it in mind when dealing with your leader. Maybe you came up with a brilliant proposal, or suggested a new strategy that will really help get things done, or even just wanted to make a few helpful comments and got ignored today. Remember that your team leader is being bombarded with this sort of information all the time, and can only choose so many ways to go in a given day or on a given project. Instead of being hurt or offended because you didn’t get your rocky road, keep being a team player and know that your day will come.
Because really, would you rather be on the team where your boss brings you ice cream everyday, but your projects and work and efforts fail? Or do you want to be with the leader who earns the championship, wins the war, creates that new paradigm-shifting product?
Not that those teams still can’t have some ice cream once in a while. Come on Elon.
Have a great week everybody.