“The world contains far more information than any single person can learn in their lifetime.
The question is not whether you are ignorant, but what you choose to be ignorant about.
Few topics are worth your precious time. Choose what you pay attention to with great care.”
James Clear
As a leader you need to develop a Growth Mindset and believe that you can learn and grow if you are willing to put in the time and effort. Having said, that you also need to acknowledge two realities:
- Attention is a limited commodity.
- Time is a limited commodity.
You must decide what you will pay attention to, where you will put your time and efforts and what you will choose to be ignorant about. It is ok to be ignorant about certain topics. That is why you build a team of people who all have different strengths and talents. Each team member’s strengths and talents fill in blind spots and areas of ignorance for other members of the team.
That is also why you train your people, develop your people, invest in your people, make sure your people understand where the team is headed and what the guardrails are for their journey and then you trust your people to do their jobs and accomplish the mission or task. You understand that your job is not to tell people what to do, rather to let them know what needs to be done and then let them figure out how to do it.
As a leader it is ok to say, “I don’t know.” It is ok to say, “I don’t know enough about that to comment but one of my team members does.”
Embrace intellectual diversity and diversity of thought. Surround yourself with good people. That will allow you to be selective about where you put your attention and effort. And it will allow your team to grow and thrive.
Take care.
Brian Willis
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