Management Blog

Leadership trade-offs

Leadership trade-offs

Few people agree on one definition of leadership. But after decades in this field, there is one thing that we’ve learned about great leaders, and it’s not what you think.

The best leaders are those that successfully navigate trade-offs.

As the economist Thomas Sowell said, “There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs.”

Every business in every stage of maturation has to make trade-offs because all resources are finite. Sometimes, trade-offs are between short-term and long-term gains, othertimes it’s between efficiency or innovation. Even how the leader spends their time is a regular exercise in trade-offs.

Time and again, we see that those who are intentional and deliberate about these trade-offs prove to be the strongest leaders.

What can you do?

  • Identify the trade-offs that you are making. Note: you may need to recruit others to help you see some of them.
  • Interrogate your trade-offs against your business strategy and your organization’s strengths to ensure alignment.
  • Communicate your trade-offs so all understand decisions made and row in the same direction.
  • Tinker around the edges of your trade-offs to minimize losses and increase gains.
  • Revisit and re-evaluate trade-offs on a regular basis.

The effort isn’t easy, but it is worth it.

At HAVEN, we dedicate an entire leadership development module to focus and prioritization.If you want to learn more, reach out.

We hope this helps!

As always, reach out if we can be helpful to you as you continue on the path of igniting exceptional performance at your company.

The HAVEN Team

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