Today’s Leadership tip is to focus on “how much is enough?”.
On a personal level, years ago I shifted focus to what I used to call more of a “minimalist” lifestyle, but a lot of those who talk about minimalism are less than minimalistic in the way they pursue this, putting in massive amounts of time and effort to cut out the last 5,10,15% of “stuff” to be, in their minds, truly minimalist. I get it, but the extra effort it takes to get the last few per cent of the way can be so time-consuming that I feel I can get most of the way there then change my focus to other areas. However, a phrase that is now gaining some traction as a conversation piece is “enoughism“. Instinctively I feel that works better for me.
For example, I have a car now. I didn’t when I lived in central London for several years, but I moved a bit further out last year and felt that having a car would be something that would fit into my life as part of my “enough”, though car ownership is certainly not minimalist. With that car, I did look at buying something sporty and fun, but hey, I bought a Skoda. I will likely not drive it more than a few thousand miles per year, so it is enough. I also live in a small house with a small garden. It is enough. It will take some time and resource to maintain, but far less than a larger place. I live for people and ideas, not stuff, so having a basic car, a small house are “enoughism” choices that leave me more time, space and resource to spend time with people and around learning new ideas.
In business and in leadership, too, we can consider what is “enough”. In my 35 years in business, the sweet spot of “enough” is rarely a conscious focus:
- With decision-making, we typically either err on the side of producing far, far too much data and information, or else we provide far too little and just go with our gut instinct. Of course a third one is that we get so much data and information that we feel we can’t process it all, so go with our gut anyway!
- If we now look at leadership, again I rarely see leaders focus on “how much is enough?” in what they are communicating and how they are communicating it. The answer to this will vary based on situation and organisation, although the methods I use to support leaders are consistent (including “Cascading Leadership“) and yes, they are all about having enough. Not too little, not too much, we could call it “enough” or perhaps “Goldilocks Leadership”? Not too much, not too little, just right, just “enough”
So, next time you look at making a decision, next time you look at engaging and aligning people, let part of your process be a focus on “how much is enough?”