Leading... patiently

Slinky Dog

Did you ever watch those Toy Story movies?  Remember the slinky dog?  When you put his front, his back end comes... eventually.  The challenge is that by the time you begin moving the front end in a different direction, the back end is still moving in the direction of the last change.

No big deal if you are a little kid, playing with one of your toys on the floor at home.

But instead think of that slink dog as an organization.  You are the leader of the organization, so you have the string in your hand.

With this string you can lead the head of the dog anywhere you want it to go.  It is bound to follow you.

When I started out as a leader, I was so excited with change!  I would read this new book and take some of those ideas and put them to work.  The next week, I would go to a seminar and learn something else that I thought was great for our company.

After doing this for my first year, I noticed that we really never got anywhere.  While I was learning all these new ideas, my organization was on the other end of the spring.  They were still moving in yesterday's direction... yesterday's great idea.  Besides the fact that we weren't making any progress, I was frustrating everyone.

As I said, the ideas were pretty good that I was trying to implement.  The challenge in any organization you have people on the other side of that spring.  It could be clients that you are trying to convince of your newest product or message.  You cannot move on to the next new product until everyone is using and understanding this one.

John Paul and Paul Mitchell

It reminds me of John Paul DeJoria, Paul Mitchell's founder.  When he and his partner Paul Mitchell started Paul Mitchell, they said the same thing at every educational event, every ad, every sales meeting.  They did this for YEARS.  As we were sitting in a sales meeting, we could mouth the words that John Paul would say.  He would  say "hold The Conditioner in your hand, put a dab on the clients hand.  Smell it, then have them smell it...."  He would say the same pitch every single meeting.

It is no surprise to me that Paul Mitchell is the amazing brand that it is today.  They pulled that string in the same direction for years.

I need to keep saying this to myself.  I love change.  I love moving in new directions.  But I have to stay patient and stay on the same path long enough for everyone to get on my path!