Leaders play chess while managers play checkers. 

 

The pieces of a chess game all work differently.  You have to play with all of the pieces, using their own individual style of play to win the game.

Checkers on the other hand all move the same.  There is no individuality to a checker piece.  One size fits all.

People are all different.  One size fits one.  Everybody acts and behaves differently.  Our behaviors are based on our past experiences, and each of us is motivated by different things.

We have our strengths, what we do well.  And our weaknesses, what we do not so well.  Use me to my strength and I am likely to succeed.  Use me to my weakness, it is likely I will fail.  It’s just human nature.

When managers play checkers, they unfortunately require each of their employees to do the same thing.  In their game, which is called business, each person is asked to do tasks the same way.  Follow the procedures.  We all have to move diagonally up or down, left or right.

Pretty boring, and if I don’t like to move diagonally up or down, I won’t last very long in this business.  No wonder people leave their jobs due to their managers.

Leaders play chess.  They recognize that everybody reacts differently.  They develop a team with individual strengths and use them to the teams advantage.  Find out who are your rooks, your bishops, your knights, your queens and your kings and mold your team to succeed.

“Don’t use a knight to do a bishop’s job, use the knight to do a knight’s job.”

You see, when you assemble your team you want to find out the strengths and weakness of each member and use the strengths of each to succeed.  The trick is to find the right players so that your strength offsets my weakness.  Then we have a well rounded team.  A successful team.

So ask yourself:

Am I playing chess or am I playing checkers?  Do I allow my team to succeed by letting them do what they do best?  

If the answer is yes, you may be onto something here!

Allyn Vaughn