Cutting Corners

Attention to detail is critical in leadership. Yet, most people don’t really want to do the difficult and tedious work that makes a final product the best it can be. They do not value excellence behind the scenes. As a result, important details are skipped over. Instead of a job well done, they just want to get the job done.

In my experience, visionary or big-picture leaders tend to be weak in administration. Details are for the “little people" but not them. They don’t want to get bogged down in the swamp of minutia. Their motto is, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” Actually, the opposite is true. It’s the small stuff that makes a BIG difference.

If you want to be a TOP LEVEL leader you will have to become serious about EVERY LEVEL of detail in your administration. Deficiency in any area of the process will result in an insufficient product. Attention to detail gets the attention of others and brings a greater sense of value to the final result. Isn’t that you want?

As I look back over my life, whenever I cut corners it came back to bite me in some way. When I ignored important details, failed to scrutinize the fine print, document a meeting, organize files, etc. consequently things didn’t turn out so well, resulting in sore disappointment or even a missed opportunity altogether.

Some set-backs I’ve experienced have been small, while others were so great it even caused complicated and lengthy legal matters to be resolved. Oh, the pain I could’ve avoided if I’d only slowed down and given the necessary time and effort to the details and do things the right way from the start. Lessons learned

Nothing of excellent quality happens quickly. Many of the world’s greatest organizations took years, even decades to get where they are. They learned to work through the details, be patient, and take the extra time to do things right. If you look for shortcuts to your destiny you may end up cutting your destiny short.