Painting and Leading

The first thing my mom does when she paints a room is puts paint on the wall. She doesn’t tape edges or move furniture or lay down tarp. She just starts painting. It may take two days to get the whole room done but you see progress immediately.

My mother-in-law doesn’t put paint on the wall until the second day. She spends the whole first day moving furniture, taping edges, getting her supplies ready and putting down tarps. It takes her about a day and half to paint the room but you don’t see progress until the second day.

By the third day you wouldn’t be able to tell the rooms apart but the process to get there looked very different.

Sometimes our stakeholders want to see progress. They want to see the paint on the wall. We are busy laying the right foundation for healthy growth in the future, even if there isn’t much to show for it in the present.

Neither way is better than the other. If you build your organization like my mother-in-law paints than you just need to be able to communicate well to your stakeholders what is happening now that will bear fruit in the future.

I paint like my mom.

I see the value in painting like my mother-in-law.