Know your strengths and weaknesses. You look at your desk
and you realize the things that
you never get to. You look at
the stack that you never get to.
You look at the things that you
procrastinate about. You look
at the things that you kind of
tune out in meetings, the
things that really are not of
interest to you.
Over time, when you are in
an executive position, you
realize that. You sit at your
desk every day, you look at it,
and you kind of see, ‘These are
things that I really enjoy doing,
and I get at it, and I seem to be
good at. Then, I’ve got this section of the desk over there
dealing with a certain type of
issue or problem, or whatever
it may be, that I consistently
am pushing off that I don’t
want to get to — I don’t want
to make decisions about.’
Those are the things that
you’re really not that good at.
Anyone can do that kind of
self-analysis. The list that you
make every day, what are the
things that you eagerly cross
off and do, but then there are
the things that somehow get
transferred to that list over
and over again. Those are the
things you’re not good at.
If you pay attention to that
and then hire accordingly, you
can be very successful.
It’s, one, being honest with
yourself. Make sure you
don’t walk around with such
a large ego that you think
you are good at everything.
Hopefully, you are self-critical.
That’s key to being a good
leader.
Beware of the person that
thinks they are good at everything and doesn’t need assistance and isn’t prone to self-reflection or introspection.
Cut ties if someone doesn’t buy in. Personnel problems do not
get better with time. That is
one thing that I’ve learned
over the years of running
organizations.
You should always work
with a person and be honest
with them and give them
opportunities to improve. But,
if it’s seriously not a good fit
for the company, then you just
have to deal with it directly
and do not let it fester.
Because, when you allow personnel problems to fester and
to linger, it truly does hurt the
entire organization because
people will know you don’t
have confidence in that person, and then it’s downhill
from there.
I always believe in a very
direct approach and try to
address problems as quickly
as you can, even though it’s an
unpleasant part of being a
leader.
In fairness, you really do
have to give people a period of
time to assess their abilities
and their willingness to be
flexible with a new leader.
HOW TO REACH: City of Tampa, Mayor’s Office, (813) 274-8251 or www.tampagov.net/dept_mayor
