How Do You Get To 10?

 I had a college professor who explained during a lecture that there wasn't just one way to get somewhere. He said there was "the" way like there were many paths you could take to reach your vision or end goal and there was "thuh" way - meaning that there was only one way that would work and all the others were subpar or would even fail to achieve the desired goal.

And as I reflected on that lecture, I realized that this could apply to many things. For instance, in math there are a few ways to get to 10. Such as 5+5, 2+8, and 1+9.

And in business, there's no right way to achieve a vision or goal.

We would all love the direct route, but what typically happens is the curvy, zig-zag path.

You might have one way that you think it ought to be handled, but if you're working with a team and not fully leveraging what they are individually and collectively bringing to the table, then the vision will not be as full and impactful as it could be. By allowing your team the opportunity to offer different perspectives and contribute to the bigger picture, you'll be able to make better decisions that move everyone closer to that goal while keeping each person engaged and excited to be part of the journey.

When you do share the vision and expectations as well as delegate tasks to your team members, your next job is to get out of their way by allowing them to do what they do best.

You may find that as they get into the details of their project, your team may need to take a slightly different path than what was thought. When that happens, remember that you've trusted them with the task or project at hand, set the expectations of what you need or want (such as periodic check-ins) and empowered them to do what they need to do it.

And when you don't have a team that you're working with, but rather it's just you blazing the path, this same concept still applies.

You see, when you realize one path isn't going the way you envisioned or planned, remember that there's always another way and stay open to finding it. 1+9 may not have worked, but that doesn't mean 3+7 won't. The key with this perspective is to stay open and not allow analysis paralysis to take over and stymie the progress or vision just because one way didn't pan out.

Choose the next best course of action and courageously take that step to move forward.