“Do you see the positive or concentrate on the negative” – “Do you give yourself the credit you deserve for the think you got done?” – “Do you see and recognize your progress?”

I have found the longer that I or someone else needs to talk the less that has been actually and truly accomplished – and we know it. We need to be able to speak in clear and defined terms when we establish commitments and when we discuss plans and results. Telling a story in words and using text is much easier than show hard core facts and being ready to commit to being held accountable to these facts.

Too often we fall into “feeling really good about …” or “feeling confident about …” or “feeling like things are getting … “ with little to no factual information to back up our story of the past, the present or the future. And many times we are allowed to get away with this. Few people in our lives are going to call us on being nebulous, few are going to “call it tight” on us. We are at the top of the pyramid, we are the drivers, the owners, the CEOs, the Presidents. There are very few people, and probably none, who are going to call us out for a weak story and face the risk of being chastised, fired or assigned the task of making it better.

Important and strategic are not the same thing. A person can be extremely important to your business and at the same time not be a strategic asset to you or your company. Sometimes I offer important people in my company to share in the success of the company, but that does not mean I ask them, or allow them, to participate in the planning, analysis or decisions that set the strategy for my company in the medium or long term. People can play key roles and be critical the perception of your company in your client’s eyes and not sit at the table that determines growth targets, profitability targets, health care options, new product offerings or expanded service offerings.

In fact, important people can get a seat at the strategic table and then get distracted by the demands of this seat. The stress of spending clock time on both strategic items and on their day-to-day tasks can cause them to perform poorly at both of these levels – even though these people got what they wanted – or thought they wanted – or even what they specifically asked for.