The Four Aspects of Good Leadership: Thinking

Today, we’re at the fourth in a series of four posts on the fundamentals of great leadership in your business. Now, this aspect may be the hardest of all. It's called "thinking."

Thinking is Harder Than You Think

Is thinking hard? Daydreaming isn't. But actually, thinking is hard. What are the enemies that prevent us from thinking or taking time to think through where we're going, what we're doing, and how things are working within our business? In order to be able to really work on the business, give clear direction, create opportunities and so forth, we've got to take time to think. And the enemies? They're urgent, firefighting, being reactive, and dealing with all of the issues we need to deal with every day.Thinking is just flat out hard sometimes. If thinking was easy, everyone would be doing it! I love playing chess, but most people don't. It's always kind of funny when I ask people,"Would you like to play a game of chess?""No, I don't really want to," they say."Why not?""Well, because you've got to think."I always crack up when they say that. It's like thinking is a bad thing!

Making Time to Think

But thinking isn't bad in business. We need to be able to think, and in order to break through and take our business to the next level, we need to schedule some time for that. Schedule some time to think. We talked about that in a previous post. You need to set the time aside to think, because if you don't, you'll be fighting fires all the time and you'll never get it done.You need to be purposeful in that time that you set aside. I recommend you keep a list of issues or questions that you want to take some extra time to think about. Don't lose them, write them down. Whether it is once a week or once a month, schedule the time to sit down and look at one of those or two of those items and think them through. It will give you the confidence to accomplish the tasks or resolve the issues that have been weighing on you.

Take a Break

When you take this time think, go off site and get away from work. You need to take a break, get away from it, and invest the time to think through how you're going get to the next place in your business. It will make a huge difference! I've seen it work in so many businesses and in so many individual business owners' lives. Just taking that little bit of time to think things through will give you the confidence you need to know where you're going and how to get there.

Make it Happen

So do it. Write it down. Get it on your schedule now. Make it happen. Start that process of thinking through where you want to be. You can see it, you can understand it, you've written it down and taken the time, so now you can achieve it. It's all within your grasp. You make the decision right now!Thanks so much for visiting. Check out my other videos for more ideas on how to break through and reach the next level in your business. Stayed tuned as we continue our discussion of the four aspects of good leadership. And, if you like this video, please subscribe!