Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to those that celebrate!
I thought I would not just send a Happy Holidays email and instead mix in a Taylor Swift nugget to it and add some value. Those general Happy Holiday emails are nice, but not a lot of value.
While listening to Evermore and the song Marjorie I heard some lyrics that really stuck in my head.
The first set of lyrics drives home an excellent point about decision making:
“Never be so kind, you forget to be clever
Never be so clever, you forget to be kind”
Think about this in terms of when you are too nice that you fail to make the right decision but then when you are too smart you hurt someone.Â
An excellent example would be not firing someone because you feel bad for them, you are being kind but not clever. I wrote a previous blog about firing fast, it’s best for everyone. Conversely, firing someone this week is not being kind. There is a fine line to when to be kind and smart, don’t outthink yourself. The second set of lyrics is all about the balance in management:
“Never be so polite, you forget your power
Never wield such power, you forget to be polite”
When you are a leader there is a balance between being a friend of an employee and being their boss. You can never be too friendly and nice with your employees that your leadership is lost. You cannot be a jerk leader and not polite and expect people to follow you. They won’t.
If Taylor’s singing career doesn’t work out, I think she has a shot at teaming up with me and starting an executive coaching company.
I hope you have a Happy Holiday time, or already did if you celebrated Hanukkah!   Â
