{"id":3871,"date":"2014-05-30T11:11:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T16:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=3871"},"modified":"2014-05-30T11:11:25","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T16:11:25","slug":"3-ways-leaders-must-master-the-details-even-if-youre-not-a-detail-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/30\/3-ways-leaders-must-master-the-details-even-if-youre-not-a-detail-person\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways Leaders Must Master the Details (Even if You\u2019re Not a Detail Person)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m not into the details- I\u2019m a big picture thinker.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you’ve ever said that in your leadership, here’s what you need to know; At the end of the day, that \u201cbig picture\u201d you\u2019re looking at is one made up of hundreds or thousands of details. And as a leader you need to know what they are.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ultimately, it\u2019s the details that provide you with the information you need to make big picture decisions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can fake it for a while, but in the end your lack of attention to the details will make it impossible to provide effective leadership.<\/p>\n

So what can you do about it, if you\u2019re not a details person?<\/p>\n

Well, speaking as someone for whom detail work doesn\u2019t come naturally, here are three vital ways I\u2019ve learned to master the details that enable you to provide big picture leadership.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 <\/strong>Develop a disciplined regimen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some people gravitate quite naturally to detailed analysis work.<\/p>\n

For the rest of us it\u2019s necessary to carve out time in our week to focus on the numbers.<\/p>\n

For me, that can mean a daily 30 minute slot on my calendar to do nothing but crunching numbers. Others like to set aside a day a week.<\/p>\n

Whatever system you choose, start by creating immovable time in your week.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 <\/strong>Surround yourself with experts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early on in my leadership I learned to hand-select key advisors whom I could trust to develop my own skills in detail analysis work, and who could also help me burrow deep into the organization\u2019s vital metrics.<\/p>\n

One question I ask each time I meet with these advisors: \u201cWhat do I need to know?\u201d<\/p>\n

That question can open a well-spring of vital leadership data.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 <\/strong>Let your team know you\u2019re paying attention to the details<\/strong><\/p>\n

When your team is aware that you know the details it positions you for big picture leadership.<\/p>\n

I recently saw a senior executive of a large organization notify his staff that certain staff expenditures were being submitted which could not be justified.<\/p>\n

This statement not only corrected a problem, more importantly it let the entire staff know that their president was paying attention to the finest details.<\/p>\n

So by all means, keep the big picture in mind. But pay close attention to the fine details too.<\/p>\n

Because the big picture is made up of thousands of details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m not into the details- I\u2019m a big picture thinker.\u201d\u00a0 If you’ve ever said that in your leadership, here’s what you need to know; At the end of the day, that \u201cbig picture\u201d you\u2019re looking at is one made up of hundreds or thousands of details. And as a leader you need to know what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[769,5,738,478,7,777,580,744],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-2","category-discipline2","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","category-metrics-2","category-results-2","category-team-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3871"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3880,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871\/revisions\/3880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}