/greatness es la lucha_

To take your ideas to the next level they have to go through a gauntlet. You have to wrestle with them. You have to put them to the test against other people. But never back down from something you believe in because someone else doesn’t see it the same way. You can change it, you can adapt it, you can eventually let it go but don’t let it go without a fight.

Why do ideas need to be tried by fire? Well, what will happen if they aren’t.

Having no resistance to your idea is a bad thing. It means one of a handful of things. Either you have the most power in the room and everyone is too afraid to challenge you. This is common when you’re the CEO or president of your company. Or, you just have people who don’t really care and they just want you to tell them what to do so they can do it and go home. Or, everyone in the room is just like you and everyone is too similar to see things from an alternate perspective which is leaving you blind to the gaps in coverage.

A lot can go wrong when you don’t have the breadth of experience in the room to be able to poke the necessary holes in your thesis to make sure the idea can even float. Once that idea gets out there and without an appropriate stress test you’re idea may not float.

But just because you get push back, doesn’t mean that the idea is bad. It just needs to be built up and fortified by the wisdom and experience of the people around you. I can tell you that I never really understood the power I had as a CEO until I decided to change industries and take position as a director.

As CEO, you don’t always see that your team might be working really hard to present a plan and they’ve thought through a million things and when they present it to you and you throw a wrench in it 90% of the team is ready to fold their hand because you said you don’t like it.

I’m very fortunate that at Periodic we do have a culture where on a daily basis we are willing to have those critical conversations and we do have a CEO who throws wrenches but never without being willing to wrestle with the idea and to collaborate on ways to really fortify that idea, but you have to be on Team Bring It. You have to be willing to give and take.

Great teams and great team cultures have the inner strength to have tough debates. I think they do that through regularly taking care of each other. Usually through food. But often just noticing how rad they are on a regular basis is how you take care of each other. Building unity by giving enough breathing room for people to know each other. Having a sense of humor with a little bit of inappropriateness. Vulnerability so that people won’t feel judged for their lives.

You just have to have that openness and that comes from building closeness. It’s ok if it’s a struggle to get your idea across. It’s ok to fight for it. You just have to back that fight up with letting your darlings die often. Affirming your appreciation. And being giving.

I would love to have a conversation with a CEO or executive this week about your team collaboration. And what it looks like in the ring with you. Let’s have a 20 minute whiteboard session about what you’re struggling with and what’s working. Hit me up, my booking link is in my about paragraph.

Leaders can really have a great meeting that isn’t filled with a bunch of yes men, when you establish a culture of la lucha (the wrestle). Imagine the great polish that will come when your ideas go through the refiners fire. Imagine iterations that actually works. But everybody has to feel like a first class citizen in the ring.

If you don’t know much about me yet on the professional side. I work with companies who are trying to automate their marketing funnels and drive more business. My design and tech team and I do this through helping companies design and build a booking site that puts appointments right on their calendar using WP and the Periodic platform. I’m very happy to make new business friends and have whiteboard sessions. Let’s collaborate! Hop on my calendar anytime.

Torlando Hakes | Author | Speaker | Podcaster

Director of Business Development at Periodic