What are your leadership trigger points? What stimulates your thinking, suggests new approaches, and encourages you to reflect on and reconsider your leadership?

Why do I ask? It's been fascinating for me to watch leaders, young and old, or men and women, get stuck. Not that they wanted to or really thought they were stuck, but that they tended to rely on tactics and strategies they've used for years without serious consideration of alternatives.

Now, I realize, and, in fact, have written about the importance of knowing your strengths and sticking to them. And yet, there's a risk to sticking to something you know and do well. The risk is obvious - you'll continue doing things that no longer work or that would work better were you to modify or change them.

It's easy to fall into the trap of sticking only to what you know despite the facts on the ground that suggest making a change.

First, success. If what you've done before worked, why change? I've fallen into this trap myself more times than I care to count, primarily because my initial conclusion is that the facts on the ground are similar to what I've seen before.

Second, time. If you don't have a lot of time, it's normal to look for the quickest way out of the problem. And that, unfortunately, means that we latch onto ready-made solutions we've used before.

Third, uncertainty. At times, when the path ahead is unclear, it's easier and simpler to rely on traditional approaches, ones that have worked in the past, than it is to add yet another level of uncertainty by sorting through the conflicting and ambiguous data and taking a new approach.

Fourth, change. Change, as we all know, is constant. And, at the same time, we all have different levels of comfort with or willingness to accept and deal with it. When our individual capacity for change has reached its limit, we all stick to what we know.

Given these tendencies, what can leaders do to overcome them?

I've seen leaders use a variety of triggers, including:

One approach is to use a more thorough and detailed problem analysis methodology to ensure that no stone is unturned as the problem is analyzed. In this way, the methodology serves as the device to overcome the tendency to quickly and inappropriately leap to conclusions and rely on tried-and-true solutions.

Another approach is to sleep on it - that is, to avoid making a decision as to what approaches to use until after having had a chance to reflect on them for at least a day.

Some leaders trust their instincts. One leader, in particular, has said that she let her gut decide by asking herself if she feels, in her tummy, whether this is the right thing to do or not. Her tummy (gut instinct) has rarely failed her.

And, another leader goes to another extreme - she almost always throws out what worked before in order to try something new. So, she has to hold back from always seeking the untried solution by telling herself that there are times when continually reinventing the wheel isn't appropriate.

What all of these approaches have in common, in addition to dealing with the tendency to rely on past approaches, is that they all were developed by individual leaders. They were personalized responses to helping them overcome tendencies that didn't serve them well.

They developed their own leadership trigger points. What are yours?

As a grandson of immigrants, I was struck by James Carroll's comment about his parents, "My parents were typical products of immigrant culture, people who so loved America for its welcome that the highest privilege they could imagine was to spend their lives in its service."

We are blessed, in the United States, to have so many people like Carroll's parents who return the blessing by serving in the military, becoming teachers, or entering public service as police officers and fire fighters, and many other professions that benefit us as a society.

We all have legacies from our parents, whether immigrants or not, that have influenced us and shaped the way we lead. What is your parental legacy?

All of us, as leaders, have a reputation, founded on the results we've produced for the business and the impact we've had on our subordinates.

I'm surprised, as I work with leaders, to find that many of them haven't crystallized and communicated what they stand for, what their contribution is, and what they know to be the basis of their success as a leader - all of which contributes to the reputation they've established.

What about you? What's your reputation as a leader? And, more importantly, what have you done to ensure that others are aware of your contribution, impact, and value - the key factors that combine to establish your reputation?

email: archie@archietinelli.com archie@archietinelli.com