Cheap Shoes. What’s Distracting Your Team?

I used to buy cheap shoes. It’s not that I wasn’t buying super-expensive shoes. I couldn’t even bring myself to buy average-priced shoes. And it’s not just that shoes were cheap, but my buying experience rarely involved assistance from a trained professional who could advise me on proper fit. My cheap shoes usually didn’t fit right, and as a result of all these poor choices, often my feet hurt. One day, cheap shoes taught me a lesson, and it changed my life. Seriously. And this lesson could change your team dynamic. 

Sitting at my desk, trying to think up a hook for a client’s communication campaign, my feet were killing me and so began a running dialogue in my head. Why did I buy these shoes that were too narrow? They look good and I got a deal, but ugh. But crap! I’m gonna have to quit wearing these shoes. WAIT!!! Why am I thinking about these shoes when I need to nail down a  hook for this campaign? Cause my feet hurt. Cause I buy cheap shoes. (Here comes the lesson.) And my mind is only able to hold one thought at a time, and instead of thinking up something brilliant, I’m thinking about my hurting feet. 

How often was this happening? How many times a day was my next brilliant idea never birthed because I was a victim of some distraction, even one I brought on myself?

Some questions for us as leaders and team members are:

• What choices have we made that are distracting us from truly pursuing our vision and fulfilling our mission? 

• What is the thing we took on that seemed like a good choice but is now making our feet hurt that we need to stop doing? 

• What amazing thing could we be dreaming up or working on that we don’t have time for because we’re thinking about the wrong things?

Cheap shoes. Seemed like a good choice but might have prevented me from thinking up something amazing. What change do you need to make to free your team to think on the better things? What’s your team’s cheap shoe?