Today I was reminded how important it is to be challenged by our teams. And I don’t mean power struggles to determine who is the boss, or politics for the sake of proving oneself in a boardroom room battle, because that’s not real leadership anyways, but I mean in the context of supporting each other to deliver the mission.
I witnessed today the impact of a very simple counting error made initially by one of my managers. This error then proceeded to replicate itself as each team member took for granted the initial count that had been made. The compound result was that by the second day of installing a particular set of equipment, we had run out of connecting cables to finish the remaining venues. Of course the initial reaction was that the missing cables had not been delivered, then they were stolen, then they were sent to the wrong venue, then it was declared that they must not have been sent in the first place! Fortunately someone eventually demanded a recount of all the items and very quickly it was revealed that a bundle of 10 was actually a bundle of 20, so the error by factor of two quickly became apparent! Disaster averted, the games can go on and the APB on the missing cables was recalled.
I know I make mistakes, we all do, however as leaders it is essential to ensure that our fallibility can always be challenged. This is why I always have people double-check my work!
Hppay 17 yads ot go! What’s next!