Precision is Important

I know there's jokes out there that show we don't need to worry about precision or accuracy in our language or spelling--notably one in which the top salesperson can't spell 'for beans' and soon the company president starts mimicking the mocked salesperson's writing to prove that results are important, not proper spelling. However, it's really careless not to pay attention to it. And I even complained that a single inaccuracy is not a problem unless it's part of a pattern.

This announcement from the company's leadership wasn't clear at all. Which day in January do I block off for an employee meeting? (Actual announcement at a company for which I was conducting some training.)

A Maine company had to settle millions of dollars to truck drivers because it misinterpreted a state law that didn't have a comma in its exemptions to overtime pay. I can say that it's probably not a typo and the inaccuracy here is the company's interpretation of the law. It's not a single incident though. The company would have discussed the interpretation of the law many times--especially as drivers complained--and continued to fall on the interpretation as if there was a comma in the statute rather than the omission of the comma. The company had a pattern of interpretation. Many staff members, HR specialists and so on could have helped the company with the proper interpretation and avoided the class action suit.

If you're curious about other costly typos, check out Mental Floss's list from five years ago.

Accidental Diminisher: Pacesetter

Leaders are supposed to lead. In many ways, they're supposed to be setting the pace, especially in the areas of improvement one's self, the processes, and changing the results. If you keep charging forward, like the Idea Guy, you can wear out your team as they try to keep up with you. What seems important to you is that action is being taken, that something is happening. Maybe you have Activator in your list from StrengthFinder (tm).

You might be the guy who says, "Do this...alright, that didn't work, let's try that..." This not only leads to a reliance on trial-and-error problem-solving and often leads to convoluted procedures and processes as 'fixes' get added and those additions haven't fixed anything. In the meantime, your team just feels like a pit crew: there only to serve the driver and only reacting when you the Pacesetter take a break. It also demoralizes anyone else who does have drive and passion if you insist that you need to outpace them. They'll quit like the cartoonish Wile E. Coyote chasing Road Runner on foot...until your team figures out a way to sabotage you in order to slow you down or some other, external mechanism to keep pace.

Pacesetters need to make space for mistakes, sufficient problem-solving and effective strategic planning. Let someone else set the pace (e.g. make them the project owner). Let the majority control the rate of action; listen to your staff on how much they can handle and if they're ready for the next thing (or are they trying to finish up the last thing you assigned them).