Leadership reminders inspired by one of my favorite quotes

“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail” – Abraham Maslow This is one of my favorite quotes. It is simple, yet powerful and its underlying meaning is multi faceted. I read it from time to time and it serves as a great reminder of some key business and leadership concepts that we can all benefit from. The more tools you have, the more you’ll be able to build You can’t stop being a student once you graduate. To reach maximum potential as a leader you must embrace life long learning. Being a constant student allows you to stay current and obtain more and more tools that you can use to build your future. These tools take many forms such as expanding competencies, building connections and absorbing new ideas. With each new learning, you will open up your world further to new opportunities. Be curious and embrace the idea that you have to continuously expand your toolkit or you’ll be trying to chop down a tree with a hammer. Take what you know and think about how you apply it History is full of successes through repurposing. The sticky material on the post it note was a shelved innovation at 3M until an employee thought about how to apply the technology to what is now known as the “Post-it note”. Bill Gates was a computer nerd and ended up being one of the most successful business CEO’s in history at Microsoft. He then applied his skills to a completely different endeavor and now runs one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world. The world is full of opportunities that aren’t realized because we often think in terms of distinct cause and effect relationships. A jacket is used to keep you warm. But it can also be used as a storage device or a fashion accessory. What if Steve jobs thought of the phone as solely a device to call someone? It is important for us to always think about the tools you do have and how you can repurpose or reapply them in different ways. This can be a very effective way to approach problems and think of new ideas and solutions. Who knows, maybe that hammer can be a really cool paper weight. You must always expand your perspective Humans have 2 natural tendencies that make changing perspective often difficult for many. The first is that most of us, whether we admit it or not, seek a comfort zone. Why? Because being out of the comfort zone is uncomfortable! In today’s Facebook liking and #tweeting world it is easy to run into sensory overload. While this offers a lot of opportunity to seek new ideas and see new perspectives, it often pushes us to revert to a comfort zone and to anchor onto what we already know. Secondly, humans are social creatures. Thus our natural tendencies are often to seek harmony and agreement. This is why in meetings there is so much “group think”. We often gravitate toward the path of least social resistance, which often leads to more of the same. It is important to be aware of these forces and work to overcome them or you will see everything as a nail and accidentally smash an opportunity.