Leadership Wise

CHAPTER 3Generating Options

To get the most out of this book, I'd love for you to take a moment and think of a problem or two you're experiencing at work where you have to make a decision on which way to go.

I've included in this book a worksheet where you can fill that problem in (www.wiley.com/go/leadershipwise).

It's OK if you don't have the most articulate definition of the decision you're trying to make just yet. No one is grading your work in this book, and we'll workshop what you've got as you go.

Now, the purpose of this chapter is to start generating options to solve that problem. Remember, the argument I'm making here is that there's never one right answer to all situations, so looking at options and choosing rightly between them is the primary mark of a good leader. Now it's time to start flexing those options-generating muscles!

In Chapter 2, we took a walk around the business and discussed the often contradicting options for solving some high-level categories of problems at a business. But now let's dive into the specifics of your problem.

To choose a solution to your problem, you must have options. The worst leaders I know are, like I talked about earlier in this book, are those leaders who think there's only one option ever to each decision point they encounter. These are the broken record leaders. They manage by business book, but the books they select are often just amplifiers of their own personality. If they're amped, they'll read Amp It Up. If they're ponderous, ...