By: Wilma Slenders
When you take on something, do you make it hard or easy to complete?
There’s nothing that I love more than hiking in the mountains. Since I have tendencies to push myself, sometimes I overdo it. I take on trails that are more challenging than I should, because I think I “should”, even if I am not in premium shape. My mind has my body making promises that it can barely keep. Overexertion leads to muscle strains and pains for days afterwards.
Sometimes, we also do this as leaders. We know that there are easy choices and paths, but we choose a harder one because…..
- We think we should.
- We think others think we should.
- The easy path is not immediately evident, or it looks too
- We think things should be ‘hard’ so want to make them so. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Our ego won’t let us be anything less than challenged.
- We have something to prove to someone (may-be even ourselves).
- All of the above.
Conversely, we sometimes avoid the hard choices or paths. Why do we do that?
- We know we’re not ready to take the hard path. We haven’t trained, aren’t practiced, and aren’t ready to do what it takes.
- There are too many complexities and nuances associated with the hard path.
- We don’t feel the need to make a simple task hard.
- No one will travel with us on the hard path.
- Fear of failure.
It can be difficult to determine when we should take the easy road, rather than the hard road. Sometimes we start on what appears to be the easy path and it becomes more challenging; others times it is the opposite.
How do you determine to take an easy or hard path? How does that translate into your leadership style and what impact does it have on others?
