I have too many ideas.
Not necessarily good ideas — let’s not get carried away. But I have a lot of them.
I can walk from one end of the office to the other and, somewhere between the front door and the coffee pot, come up with a new publication, a podcast, a special section, a community event, a new revenue stream, and possibly an acquisition. Or four.
For about 20 minutes, every single one of them seems brilliant.
That’s my problem — ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is not.
Every idea comes with a hidden invoice attached to it. Somebody has to build it. Somebody has to sell it. Somebody has to write it, edit it, print it, post it, invoice it, promote it, answer questions about it, and then, God help us, maintain it.
This is the part people like me tend to skip over. Everything looks good when you’re wearing these rose-colored glasses, and you can see the thing in its finished state.
What I neglect to consider very often is the living from Tuesday to Tuesday, slogging through all the implementations. Tuesdays are where ideas live or die.
It is one thing to say, “We should do a weekly video.”
But I can feel my team rolling their eyes at me — “Oh, great, there she goes again. Great.”
Who is filming it? Who is editing it? Who writes the script? Who posts it? Who watches the numbers? Who sells the sponsorship? Who makes sure we are still doing it six months from now when everybody is tired of it?
Suddenly the cute little idea has employees, and they’re still noodling that LAST great idea I had.
I like to think that I am learning — slowly, painfully, and probably several years later than I should have — that having ideas is not really the valuable part.
The valuable part is deciding which ones deserve to live. Grow legs, so to speak. And that, for me, is a much harder job.
Bad ideas are easy; we can skip over those fairly quickly, but the good ideas are my “El Guapo.” (Movie line if you can name it!)
What I’ve learned is a good idea can still be the wrong idea right now. A good idea can take money away from a better idea, pull a good employee away from something that actually matters, and become one more half-built thing sitting around demanding attention.
And maybe worst of all, a good idea can make you feel productive while distracting you from the boring thing that actually needs to get finished.
Which stings a little.
So I have been trying to get better at asking harder questions before I chase the next shiny object. Does this make what we already do stronger? Does it solve a real problem? Will anybody pay for it? Does it help us serve people better? Does it build trust?
And the big one:
Who, exactly, is going to do it?
And that gets a pause because I am also learning that leadership is not the same thing as personally dragging every interesting idea across the finish line; sometimes it’s just saying no.
To your very own self.
After all, a girl’s gotta know her limitations. (Another movie line if you can name it!)
So, while I practice adulting and learning (admitting) that there are limitations, we’ll always be right here…
…Keeping you Posted.
Rach
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