This author and trainer has long contended that there is such a thing as "good worry", and that learning to worry well is a far more productive and useful approach than learning to suppress , deny or ignore matters that we ought to worry about.
Executive business leaders are, in fact, paid good money to worry. We are told that two thirds of our worries are wasted because they are about the past or the future. There is nothing we can do about the past or the future. Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday. So why waste all that effort? Sufficient for the day are the trials thereof.
Executive leaders, to be any good to their companies and organizations, must indeed worry about the past and the future, not just the present. The company track record is vital for good credit. How that past is documented, protected and presented is a vital dimension of good business. The company's safety record, financial history, employment record and compliance record are important. There is also much to be learned from past mistakes if those mistakes are to be avoided in the future.
Future issues to be "worried" about include market trends, product and service enhancement, cost projections and profit projections. Due dates for payrolls, deliveries and financial obligations are all future items that must be addressed right now every day.
"Worry" is another word for analysis and appropriate action. Much of the business plan is based on analysis of the factors that make for success and the factors that make for failure. The company's success depends on how well the executive leader recognizes these factors and develops a proper plan of action based on the analysis. The plan of action, as well as the analysis of the factors, needs to be a constant ongoing process because things change.
The art of executive worry involves learning how to be disciplined, extremely well focused, thorough and persistent in the process. Then the results need to be "translated" into meaningful conclusions and plans that guide everyone else in their tasks. All of this demands a clear mind, energy and enthusiasm. The process can be stressful because so much is at stake. Nobody wants their executive leader to be a run- down nervous wreck! So personal stress management in the form of exercise, rest, sleep and good nutrition are another part of the package that makes for good executive leadership.
Oscar Wilde, when he was a prisoner in England and standing in the rain because the prisoners were being transferred, is said to have complained: "If this is the way the Queen treats her prisoners, she doesn't deserve to have any."
We need to be careful about how we treat our executive leaders!
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