Leadership Lesson: The Right Tools Make All The Difference

For those who have more than one pet in their home, you may know the struggle of the “feeding process.”  You know, the struggle where one pet eats everything in sight and the other pet is underweight, finicky, and needs special food and attention.  Yes, that struggle.

Getting our skinny finicky one, Paulo, to eat and ensure that “fat boy”, Meilo, only eats his own food was a daily challenge for our household.  The running conversation in our home was “How much food has Paulo eaten today?” Not only was it a challenge to keep Meilo out of Paulo’s food, but it was also a challenge to keep track of how much food Paulo had really eaten. You think you have done a good job only to find out at the next vet visit that Paulo has lost a half a pound.  UGH!

Now, I would like to say this was a challenge for a only a few weeks before I solved it…but the truth is, this went on for several years. Finally, one day, I thought “there must be a better way” and I did a “root cause” search of the problem. After a few minutes of analysis, I realized that a simple solution would be to have 2 separate scoops for the cat food.  A ¼ cup for Meilo – and a ½ cup for Paulo. Suddenly we had a way to truly measure Paulo’s food intake each day. Paulo would get a few morsels every time he went to the food bowl and over the course of a day we could easily see how much of the ½ cup of food had been eaten.

After daily measurement and tracking, the proof that I had a viable solution came a few months later at the next vet visit…Paulo gained that half a pound back!  SUCCESS!

Leadership Lesson: Clearly, having the right tools made all the difference.  But, even more important, I realized that I had been accepting poor results and the stress that came with it for several years.  It wasn’t until I became dissatisfied with the lack of results and the stress that I finally took action to understand the problem and to find a solution. The leadership lesson I learned was not to “put up with” poor results and stress, but rather to name it, uncover the root cause, and solve it. Leaders don’t allow poor results to become an acceptable standard…they get dissatisfied and take action. Today, ask yourself, “what is something that you are ‘putting up with’ that needs to be addressed?”  Name it, uncover the root cause, and find the right tool for success!