45. “Keep your Friends close, and your Enemies even closer…”

Staying close to your enemies is not an easy or natural thing to do.

Enemies are dangerous.

Our subconscious wants to avoid them, so we feel better when we can’t see them. Leaders need to understand that urge and actively resist it.

When we understand that our objectives have enemies – external & internal forces and people that will fight against us achieving our goals – we look differently at what we measure.

A simple measure of progress on a journey would be distance traveled. If nothing ever went wrong on that journey it’s probably enough.

Where there are obstacles and setbacks, or enemies lurking, measuring progress is not enough.

A leader has to do more than just setting objectives.

A leader’s role is to identify enemies and also to make sure the team doesn’t ignore them.

When enemies interfere or even beat you, it’s a leader’s job to make sure the team learn from that defeat, not cover it up.

“a Leader.. identifies enemies and makes sure the team doesn’t ignore them…”

If every move of your many enemies comes as a surprise to your team, the leader hasn’t done their job.

Whether an actual competitor or an internal barrier, no strategy is complete without a plan to identify, track, and deal with your biggest obstacles, and a willingness to admit when they beat you.

Any strategy has to acknowledge the enemies it may encounter, and include plans to deal with them.

Think about your most important objective.

Have you listed the things that could be obstacles to achieving it?

Do you track any of them?

If your competitors are an enemy that can harm your plans, how closely do you track them? How much do you know about them?

If their leaders are doing their job, they are certainly watching you.

How do you treat internal resistance?

Do you get close to it or push it away? Thinking that resistance is “their” problem is pushing it away.

Do you have a plan to overcome resistance, even if it can’t be easily measured?

Or do you expect that nothing will go wrong?

Those invisible forces that work against you internally are almost certainly “watching” you, and always exist for a reason.

How closely do you measure and report your failures? Do you only report and celebrate successes?

Do you track closely your weaknesses, or downplay them?

Deciding what your enemies are is an important leadership responsibility.

Watching and tracking them is too.

They’re watching you.