By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy
Here’s an idea to help you let go to get a stronger grip. Reading time: 2:03

The leader’s dilemma. Take a look at this sailboat and think of your own leadership challenges. Like this sail, your problems comes in different shapes-be they circle, square or triangle.

The dilemma of course is your resources come only in one size or shape -be they circle, square or triangle. Sure you can patch a circle hole in your sail with your circle resources.

But what do you do when you have a triangle hole to patch and the only resource you have is a circle patch?

You improvise. You use what you have just to solve the issue at hand. But of course that means you will be wasting circle resources on the triangle. Your fix will be costly.

What do you do when your problems come in shapes different from the shapes of your resources? Get creative. Look at that circle resource carefully. Is there a way you can creatively use that circle to patch a triangle or square problem efficiently. No waste.

Yes there is if you let go of your preconceived notions. Stay with me here.

An engineer friend of mine designed a one piece solution for this sailboat that I used in my leadership development workshops to illustrate flexibility in problem solving.

It was a palm-sized piece of metal used to “patch” the metal sail in the model sailboat. I would demonstrate that if you held the solution piece from one angle, it appeared to fill the triangle hole.

If you held the same solution piece from another angle it would fill the square hole.

And if you held the solution piece from still another angle, it would fill the square hole. One resource used creatively to solve three different problems efficiently.

But in order to develop that kind of flexibility in problem solving, you have to be willing to let go of what you already knew to find something new.

Here’s a poem I wrote to remind myself and others that you have to be willing to let go of the grip you have on analyzing a problem.Then the solution may be more viable from a different perspective.

I like to think of this poem as a catalyst in unleashing your creativity to really Be Free. And of course the poem is titled: Be Free.

Be free. Be free. Be free.
Let go of your G-R-I-P

To get a stronger GRIP, don’t squeeze:
Just unleash your inner strength
from its inhibiting freeze.

Take your GRIP.
Make a creative flip.

Open it and open yourself to a broader fit.

With your more open Funnel Vision you will
more creatively untangle problems
of every condition:

Circle. Square. Or Triangle.

With your more open Funnel Vision
you will be in more of a position
to set sail beyond your
comfort range and grip
the bouncing ball of change.

You won’t slip if you take this tip:
release your GRIP and
unleash your Personal LeaderShip.

Today’s ImproveMINT

Release your grip to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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