Know what’s controllable
With everything going on in today’s economic environment, it would be easy to get distracted and freak out a bit. But Aronson says that one of the keys to leadership is knowing what’s out of your hands.
“That’s what part of being a leader is, to make sure you know what those things are that just are out of your control,” he says.
For instance, he says the economy is out of his control as well as the price of oil and, more often than not, government regulations, as well.
“We try to think about what those things are that are out of our control, and then we try to really think about what are the things that can move the needle that are in our control and get focused on the things that can have the biggest impact and really try hard to do something about those things that can have the biggest impact,” Aronson says.
Along with that challenge, though, comes the people factor within your business.
“The biggest challenge is keeping people focused on what is in our control and focusing our time and energy and attention on what we can do about those things,” he says.
He says you have to quantify things when you’re looking at opportunities and risks in your business for the upcoming year. Doing so helps you prioritize. Once you’re able to identify those risks and opportunities, then you can take it a step further.
“Then we try to measure those opportunities and risks throughout the year,” Aronson says.
He says it’s important to talk about those opportunities and risks with your team.
“Discuss them to really understand everybody’s perspective on how likely it is to happen,” he says.
As you and your team work through things, be mindful of what really matters and affects your organization.
“Try to think about what will have the biggest impact and what will have the best chance of success,” he says.
Focusing on those two things helps you recognize what areas you can move the needle in.
“Some of it is proactive, and some of it is avoiding the converse — avoiding things that are too much of a long shot, and we try to avoid swinging for the fences,” Aronson says.
In order to recognize if something is a long shot, you really have to talk to your team.
“That’s the discussion among the team about trying to understand what it would take to achieve that objective or goal,” he says. “Instead of just making it an objective or goal, we break it down and say, ‘What are the things that would have to happen — what would have to go right for us to achieve that goal?’ Talk about what has to go right and what could go wrong to get in the way of that.”
It’s important to have that dialogue about the process and not just about conclusions and end results.
“Hopefully, those inputs make it less daunting to make the decision because maybe the inputs are more logical or more easy to get your head around,” he says.
Going through this process then allows you to see what’s worth your time and energy and, more importantly, what’s not.
“We talk about an issue that’s on somebody’s mind, and if we find that it has very small dollar impact or a very low probability, we don’t spend a lot of time on it,” Aronson says. “So the two things we try to think about are the dollar impact and the probability of that happening.”
