Advertising executive, Fred R. Barnard is attributed with first speaking the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” If that’s true, and I think it is, this drawing taken from Greg McKeown’s book, Essentialism should be “Exhibit A.”
This is not the natural state of things for a leader. It must be chosen. It is not a perfect paradigm. There will be exceptions, but the fewer the exceptions the farther leaders can go in the direction of most importance. Help will be needed. It can’t be done alone. The leader will need to surround themselves with people who can pass energy toward directions parallel to the essential which are essential to the …essential.
A couple of quotes from the book regarding the image for your consideration:
“The difference between the way of the Essentialist and the way of the Non-essentialist can be seen in the figure opposite. In both images the same amount of effort is exerted. In the image on the left, the energy is divided into many different activities. The result is that we have the unfulfilling experience of making a millimeter of progress in a million directions.”
And…
“The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default. Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the nonessentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage. In other words, Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.” (McKeown, Greg . Essentialism, p. 7. Crown.)
I would love to hear what you think about it.
Peace.
