Thursday, December 5, 2013

DO THE RIGHT THINGS VS. THE NICE THINGS

I read this today and thought it was a fantastic way to look at things, as I often  find myself trading the right thing for the nice thing...check out these example questions from Mark Miller at his blog entitled "Great Leaders Serve":

Nice Thing or Right Thing?
Set a new strategic direction or stay the course to avoid challenging anyone?
Attend a portion of an all-day meeting or stay all day so as not to offend the host of the meeting?
Challenge a team member who fails to prepare for a meeting or avoid the issue?
Decline a speaking engagement or accept every request regardless of the audience?
Dismiss an employee who can’t grow with the business or keep the person on the payroll indefinitely?
Eliminate a program to reallocate needed resources or sacrifice new ideas so outdated ones can be funded?
Have a difficult performance conversation or continue to give inflated performance ratings?
Say “no” to non-strategic work or say “yes” to non-strategic work?
Confront problems and issues or avoid discussing problems at all costs?
Give stretch assignments to people and expect them to struggle or avoid giving stretch assignments because they may create some discomfort?
Cut your losses when a product or program has failed or continue to let a project flounder to avoid confronting the project leader?
Pursue truth through conflict or avoid conflict because it makes some people uncomfortable?

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