Yabut

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Scott's mother and stepfather this past weekend and his mother, Deb, was telling me all about her marketing and fund raising position at the LakeView RecPlex in Kenosha, WI. Now, Miss Deb comes from a corporate career and most of the rest of the staff is career civil servant. This makes for very interesting environments when she creates new strategies to market the facilities and garner more underwriting from both corporate sponsors and individual donors. Hence, the title of today's entry...

Yabut= "yeah, but..." It's so much easier to criticize someone else's work than to create something from scratch. Stop finding (or allowing others to find) all the reason an idea won't work and get busy making it happen. This is far more complex than just being positive vs. being negative. Yabut people always see why something cannot be done. Successful CEOs see the obstacles (YABUTs), and see the options to make an idea work, but they also see the options that will make it work in spite of these people.

In addition, it is extremely important not to allow your people to YABUT. If you allow your people to start this habit, you are allowing a culture of non-performance. Successful organizations perform... they perform well.

First, recognize that you, the CEO, are YABUTing. Once you see that you and your people are doing it, you have half the problem solved. Then, don't be afraid to take projects or items off your list. It is okay to say "no." Saying that your are not going to tackle a project or strategy at this time is much better than allowing it to fail because of YABUTs.