A Fox and a Cat were comparing how many tricks and escapes they had from predators. The fox boasted that it had many, whilst the poor old cat only had just one, that is to climb the nearest tree. Hunters suddenly arrived with their dogs, and the cat immediately climbed a tree, The fox was delayed by thinking of which of its many tricks to use, and was caught by the hounds.
So goes an ancient story with the moral that it’s better to be a master of one skill than a jack of many trades.
The leadership lesson is about the danger of Confusion.
All leaders are taught that they have to set targets. Setting targets is not a power game but a fine art. It’s a Balance. Setting targets which create confusion, and so reduce the likelihood of success, is a common mistake.
Confusion comes in 2 common forms:
1. Too much
Good leaders understand that human brains are smarter than we know. Set an impossible task, that task does one of two things – it either causes stress and overload or gets put in the “too hard” basket where it’s ignored.
Either way the thinking part of our brains doesn’t engage it. Under stress our full facilities are shut down. This maybe a good strategy when sending soldiers into danger, but it hinders complex problem solving.
In the “too hard” part of our brain, our mind sets about working out why a problem can’t be solved rather than how it could be.
A good leader finds the right balance between difficulty and reality.
Setting reasonable targets doesn’t mean the long term objective is compromised, far from it. A good leader keeps the end objective in their pocket and sets higher targets once the lower ones are reached.
“Setting targets which create confusion… is a common mistake…”
2. Too many
Research based on human neurology suggests the highest number we can efficiently “see” at once is 6, and anything with more than 6 variables goes into the “too hard” part of the brain.
There they are automatically scanned and filtered to find the easy parts, which get attention, whilst the others get excuses or just ignored.
This “6” rule is useful to remember when preparing Powerpoint slides. It’s also the reason that “Mystery” stories usually have more than 6 characters. Good authors have discovered that complexity stops the readers from guessing the outcome. Good leaders have discovered the same and don’t set too many objectives.
A critical responsibility of leadership is to set clear objectives and not a confusing paintball array of targets and “strategies”, and to do what they can to ensure ownership of plans by the people who have to execute them.
If a Fox who has worked out its own plan can get confused in a panic, imagine how confused will be people who are just given instructions?
In large organizations this is even more important. Without deliberate intervention, objectives and targets can only get fuzzier the further away from you they go.
Good leaders think carefully about the targets they set their teams. Good leaders know when Less is More
