Thursday, December 2, 2010

Power Post - CHOOSE TO LOSE

How many times have you seen it - a test of wills between employees, managers, even executives?  Someone is going to "win" if it kills them.  God forbid we show any sign of weakness!  We will lose credibility...our people will not believe in us...we have to be right, don't we?  For competitive people like me, this is a challenge every day.


What if there was another option?  What if we could honestly take a more strategic view, and realize that if we Choose To Lose the small battles we may actually end up winning the war?  What if we moved outside our own egos (brutally difficult for me!); and took a moment to realize the other person could really use a "win" much more than we could?  In those heated moments, can we step up and show our leadership and concern for our peers, our employees, our families?  

Can we Choose To Lose?






It's so hard for me to do.  What about you?


I'd love to hear from you.


No Excuses.


pic courtesy of www.hutchclinic.com

2 comments:

  1. Hard to do, yes. But something that looks like "lose" is often "win". Just heard on HR HappyHour that Zappos will give new employees an option to leave with cash if they don't feel like it's the right place for them. After spending so much per hire, it doesn't make much sense to pay a new hire to go - their choice. Sounds like "lose", but in the end this approach probably saves them. They win because the ongoing cost of a poor fit is much higher, and an employee knows if they are a poor fit.
    Before you get too rooted in what's a win and what's a loss, you might ask "What options does this loss give me that a win would not?" Sometime playing in the loser's bracket is an advantage :)

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  2. I agree. You're taking a very strategic approach to this theme which is just what I was hoping to convey. Thanks for making it so clear! Love the concept of the "loser's bracket" being an advantage.

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