Three Minute Leadership – Jumping the Line vs. Opening the Door
To: The Great Leaders Who Have a Passion for Continuous Learning
In a recent blog, Jumping the Line vs. Opening the Door, Seth Godin provides an interesting insight into the actions great leaders take in problem-solving.
“Every morning, the line of cars waiting to get onto the Hutchinson River Parkway exceeds 40. Of course, you don’t have to patiently wait, you can drive down the center lane, passing all the civilized suckers and then, at the last moment, cut over. Drivers hate this, and for good reason. The road is narrow, and your aggressive act didn’t help anyone but you. You slowed down the cars in the lane behind you, and your selfish behavior merely made 40 other people wait.
“This is a different act than the contribution someone makes when she sees that everyone is patiently waiting to enter a building through a single door. She walks past everyone and opens a second door. Now, with two doors open, things start moving again and she’s certainly earned her place at the front of that second entrance.”
We applaud and love this different type of line-jumper, someone who sees an opportunity, makes a positive difference and adds value. These are the great leaders who encounter a reality, see a better solution and act on it. “Too often,” Godin writes, “we’re persuaded that initiative and innovation and bypassing the status quo is some sort of line jumping, a selfish gaming of the zero sum game.” But it is not. It is about seeing alternatives to problems, seeing different realities. That’s the excitement that great leaders bring to their business and the people they touch in life: they open new doors, seize new opportunities, see new possibilities. Be a line-jumper (in the correct sense) and go to the head of the line, and change the world. Embrace Godin’s words: “Don’t wait your turn if waiting your turn is leaving doors unopened.”
Have a beautiful day and a magnificent week!!!
Mike