Thought Tweet #823 Self-knowledge is an essential ingredient of success...it's the 1^st ingredient. Spend some time on that. You're worth the effort.

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

People who have a thorough understanding of themselves do better as business leaders. They understand their strengths and weaknesses; they understand their desires and goals, they understand their internal drivers and their behaviour; they understand their attitude toward and their reactions to situations and other people. 

And, according to Wikipedia...

The Ancient Greek aphorism "Know thyself" (Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, transliterated: gnōthi seauton; also ... σαυτόν ... sauton with the ε contracted), is one of the Delphic maxims and was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek periegetic (travelogue) writer Pausanias (10.24.1).^[1]

The maxim, or aphorism, "know thyself" has had a variety of meanings attributed to it in literature. The Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia of Greek knowledge, says: "the proverb is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are,"^[2] and that "know thyself" is a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude.^[3]

In Latin, the aphorism is generally given as nosce te ipsum^[4] or temet nosce.^[5]

Control is the root of most disagreements. Control of people's behaviour is one major area. Control of money is another. Many interpersonal problems have roots in these two control areas.

People want to feel in control. People know they lack self-control and, with choices limited, they learn how to live with that. And, they have their hands full living with their internal battles around self-control.

No wonder they react so poorly to others who try to complicate things by injecting more control.

Struggling with Self-Control + an Injection of 3rd-party Control = An Equation for Trouble!

I mean 'live and let live'...cut me some slack...already.

That's what most people appear to feel and think most of the time. All of us feel and think that way some of the time.

So, when an unsuspecting 3rd party, say our boss, happens to step into our world and tries to foist controls on us...well, that's an Equation for Trouble. 

And, we are more than prepared to deliver that Trouble and deliver it firmly and quickly. Or, perhaps we will deliver it subtly and silently...or maybe we will use the old behind-the-back approach?

We have many more options for delivering the solution [the Trouble solution, that is]. We can do flights and we can do fights. We can be overt and we can be covert. We can be clear and we can be vague. We can be singular and we can be plural...we will not forget 'misery enjoys company' and we can help our Trouble find lots of company if we so choose.

Delivering the Trouble solution - what a wonderful distraction from our internal self-control battles.

Alas...

So many options for delivering Trouble to the people who try to control us...and...so little time.

The 4 Hierarchies of Delegation

When you assign responsibility and expect accountability you can give your subordinate one of the following 4 instructions:

1. Investigate, report facts back to me, and I will make a decision on what you need to do.
2. Investigate, give me alternative actions, with pluses and minuses of each, and give me your recommendation on the best option...then I will decide what you need to do.
3. Think it through then activate your plan and advise me of what you did.
4. Think it through then activate your plan and there is no need to inform me.

***

Subordinates should be accountable for their performance of delegated tasks.  This can be achieved by:

• Evaluating performance based upon subordinates staying within authority boundaries.
• Measuring performance based upon achieved results.
• Scheduling update meetings with the subordinates. 
• Listening to subordinates and coaching about action adjustments.

 ***

To be successful subordinates must be given the following structure:

• A detailed job description
• A written system to be followed
• Training, coaching, & mentoring
• Goals that can be measured
• Goals that are achievable
• Guidelines and standards of performance
• Timeline schedules to be followed
• Authority to act (Levels of authority should be pre-assigned...see above example of 4 Hierarchies)
• Rewards for performance of actions and results