This week’s Quick List* is a companion piece to our Quote of the Week: Elephant in the Room?

Are there any elephants in your office?

Even a baby elephant takes up lots of room and resources.  And has a way of weighing down, if not crushing morale, productivity and overall performance.

Here are 10 common elephants that can easily do that.

Are you going to let him (or her) crowd you and your team out of success?

1.  Stacks of undone work.

2.  A system that isn’t working.

3.  Low revenues.

4.  A colleague who has just been fired or let go.

5.  A request that will break the budget.

6.  A big mistake.

7.  A disagreement between staff members.

8.  A request that conflicts with company values.

9.  A lost customer.

10.  Something you, the leader, don’t know about.

How does this work?

Let’s say you are meeting with your team to discuss a new project or product.

If there are stacks of undone work, that “elephant” needs to introduced and included in the conversation.

If a system that’s important to the success of this new project is broken, that “elephant” needs to be introduced and included into the conversation.

Same with elephants listed in #4 – 9.

What about #10?  How do you introduce an elephant if you don’t even know it’s there?  That’s why it’s a good idea to invite and make it safe for staff members to tell you about any elephants you don’t know about.  For ideas, see September Celebrations and scroll down to September 22 – Elephant Appreciation Day.

As a reminder, feel free to post this Quote of the Week on your computer screen or bulletin board.

* This weekly feature is for managers who don’t have time or don’t want to make time to read lengthy articles or even short paragraphs. We call it a Quick List. AKA – 10 by 10 on Tuesday. 10 ( ideas or tips or questions or steps or ways to Get 2 Goal or Be a Better Manager, etc) by 10 (AM – EST) on Tuesdays. Click here if you’d like to see all Quick Lists created to date.

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