Hard truth for leaders: Your ideas stress people out
Let’s be clear: your ideas are great. They’re the reason your business exists, the reason people have jobs, the reason you’ve found success. Your team knows that, and they respect it.
But here’s the problem: when you unload every new idea in a staff meeting, you’re unintentionally creating stress and confusion.
For a high-execution employee, hearing five new ideas from their manager doesn’t sound like brainstorming. It sounds like five new tasks—five pieces of homework that now sit on their already full plate. They think they need to accomplish everything you say. Because that’s their job.
And research backs this up: 38% of employees report being too stressed to do their best work. (Insightful.io, 2022)
The fix: Don’t spray ideas—filter them. Spend 15 minutes beforehand writing them out. Beat them up a little. If they pass your test, add them to the team’s sheet with a short executive summary. Then, with your team, decide if it’s a Rock, a to-do, a long-term issue, or something that belongs in the parking lot until next quarter.
Your best ideas deserve the chance to succeed—and your people deserve the clarity to execute.