By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to repurpose your resources for greater productivity. Reading time: 1:41.

I tripped while out for my daily run on a country road a few years ago and found myself with a rare view of leadership in action- a view that gave me a better understanding of how leaders turn burdens into bridges.

Come and take a peek with me.

Ants are strong. This cheerio is at least five times the size of the ant.

I’m face down on the pavement, virtually eye to eye with an ant- a strong and determined ant — hauling a load four times longer than itself. Then the burden became insurmountable.

The ant stood staring at a huge crack in the road, a chasm too wide and too deep to walk across -a chasm that seemed to doom this expedition of carrying the equivalent of a 24-foot long telephone pole to you and me.

But the ant solved the problem, creatively, productively, counter-intuitively. The ant, struggling to get a grip, let go.

Then the ant placed the 4-inch long piece of straw across the crack and confidently walked across. That ant exhibited a critical leadership skill: Letting go when all your instincts tell you to hang on tighter, to tough it out.

Like the ant, the most effective leaders I know let go of what is to create what could be.

They give up what they already knew to learn something new. They turn their liabilities into assets. They turn their burdens into bridges.

The leadership lesson is clear: ante up! And let go to grow.

Today’s ImproveMINT

Let go and turn your burdens into bridges to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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