Paying for the costs of your Decisions

James Brown said I’ve paid the cost to be the boss. Have you?

Taxes

Taxes get a bad wrap. The conversation is way more nuanced than they are good or bad, but sometimes you have to pay your taxes, and I am not talking to the government.

Remember when you were in your physical prime (maybe you still are, lucky you) and you could eat anything, do no exercise and still stay in great shape. Then over time, you started to put on a little bit of weight and lose a little bit of muscle.

Then one day you woke up and you were in the body of a different person.

Now the journey back to a healthy body and lifestyle is going to cost you. You have to pay the healthy tax. You have to eat a little less and move a little more. It doesn’t sound like much but it sucks.

Instead of doing what you want, you need to take ownership of your choices and do things that take some resolve.

So how does paying your taxes make you a better leader and help you build a better team?

Those Damn Taxes

When you start a project with some assumptions that turn out to be wrong you can double down and not admit your mistakes or you can suck it up and own the mistake.

Owning the mistake hurts, it might hurt your ego and your pride. You gotta pay that tax.

What will hurt more is completely ruining a project you know you can salvage because you were too scared to admit your mistake and make a change.

Pay Them All

You are doing your best and trying to set a positive example for your team but one day you end up being human and you act in a way that you are not proud of. Again, you can ignore what you did and have your team not trust that you are a person of their word or you can own the mistake.

This doesn’t feel great either, but building a team means showing imperfection because if you can’t then they won’t. Now you own your mistake and show the team that mistakes aren’t fatal but part of the process of improvement.

Then you can walk out singing

Paid the cost to be the boss
Paid the cost to be the boss
Look at me
Know what you see
See a bad mother