Mastery of Detail Grows in Trenches of Scarcity

When the ripple effects of scarcity spill into every waking moment, there’s little choice but to begin sifting through every possible detail in identifying each contributing factor and the primary root cause behind it. Today, Cindy and I include components of the DISC Model of Human Behavior in nearly every lesson we write; not because we’re hyped up on selling assessments but because understanding our complete behavioral style - on cruise control and under pressure - has been crucial in helping us improve everything else we do. Oh to have understood that twenty years earlier… At this point, seeing how my CAUTION drops when I’m stressed, I realize how much more energy I need to put into anything resembling the “mastery of detail” Hill described as his ninth leadership attribute. And as difficult as that can be, mastery of detail grows in the trenches of scarcity.

Whether it was through 5S, Kaizen, or an ergonomics initiative, I was always tasked professionally with analyzing cycle times and overall productivity so I could make a strong case for how a suggested change would provide a measurable payback - and to detail how long that payback would take. Mapping out how ideal changes would take shape was one thing, but I also had to factor in delays that inevitably happened when the team members involved pushed back passively or flat-out refused to adopt the proposed changes.

In far too many cases, I’ve missed how the skills I developed in my job could apply in my personal life - often directly and immediately. This was definitely one of those cases. Had I applied the same thought process to uncover what was driving our scarcity, we likely wouldn’t have struggled through it for so long. And had I developed mastery of detail in our personal finances sooner, developing what Hill listed as his fifth leadership attribute would have been significantly easier. He described “Definiteness of Plans” by stating that “the successful leader must plan their work and work the plan. A leader who moves by guesswork, without practical, definite plans is comparable to a ship without a rudder. Sooner or later they will land on the rocks.”

Creating a definite plan was mandatory to have any hope of achieving the desired goal in a 5S, Kaizen, or ergonomics project. And even with an initial definite plan, you’d better have at least one alternative to fall back on. Unfortunately, I wasn’t following that same approach personally. Quite honestly, I can’t list many people I’ve ever known to apply the same methodology in their personal lives that they do routinely in their work. When we take the time to step back and truly reflect, it becomes clear that there’s no good reason for treating our personal and professional lives differently - at least when it comes from the lessons we can learn through adversity.

In so much of Think and Grow Rich, Hill provided examples of how successful leadership master details. Scarcity forces that mastery faster than any promotion ever could - turning survival math into purposeful leadership. Before I share how those lessons became thoroughly embedded over a period of years, I’ll challenge you to identify on small tracking habit that could reveal a hidden seed of purpose. Our seeds of equal or greater benefit hide in the details we’d often prefer to ignore; scarcity is the soil that forces us to look even harder for them.