Don't forget the other 45

Disappointment comes from a failed expectation. Most of the time disappointment occurs when a task or set of tasks are not carried out the way they're supposed to.

Leaders are those people who see through. There's always more than meets the eye. But for many, they are blinded by things that feed their disappointment.

I normally delegate around 50 tasks a month to my Area Managers. As we move on with our day-to-day work loads, my Area Managers will sometimes fail to execute a task according to plan, normally, I get disappointed at these situations leading me to call the attention of my Area Managers.

One day I realized that I have been punching a hole to the tank of motivation of my Area Managers, meaning, as I go on and get mad because of disappointments, I was looking at the mistakes rather than those good things and accomplished tasks. This is heart-breaking for a subordinate.

To understand this concept, a Leader needs to have an open mind. We are all human and the word "perfect" or "perfectionism" will drive us nuts if we stick to it. Out of the 50 tasks that I normally delegate, let's say 5 of those were not carried out properly or were not even accomplished. Normally, I would get mad, but another way to look at the situation is to take a look at the other 45 tasks. If these tasks were diligently executed and results were amazing, then you have a good subordinate worthy of commendation. In the same angle, if you will see things this way, you will be a great boss.

Remember that organizations function in the way you design them, and so by looking at the other 45 items rather than the 5, you will realize that soon enough, you will be having a well-motivated team, unafraid to take risks, and willing to accept challenges.

On the other hand, if you focus on the 5 rather than the 45, your key heads will lose their grip, you will have a bunch of rookies because of mass resignations (high turn-over rate), and eventually as great castles lose its pillars, your organization will collapse. So long for great CEO's and COO's who often times focuses on the 5. They will never win against us who think and appreciate the other 45.