I love jigsaw puzzles.  There is usually one in progress on our coffee table.  I’ll work on it with my kids, enjoying the satisfaction of putting the pieces together to get to the final product.  I’ve found that our journeys as leaders are a lot like the process of putting a jigsaw puzzle together.  Have you ever tried to do a puzzle without knowing what the final product was supposed to look like?  It’s a lot more difficult to do when you don’t have the box or a picture to work from. Similarly, leadership is a lot more difficult when you aren’t sure where you are going, or if you don’t have a clear picture of what you are working towards.  Great leaders are clear on what they want to accomplish, and that is a big reason people are compelled to follow them. It also allows you to adapt when you are thrown a curve ball or find something that seems out of place.

When puzzling, you are literally connecting pieces.  It takes patience, perspective and a bit of trial and error to put them all together.  And as the pieces become one, momentum is created, and it gets easier to connect additional pieces to the work that has already been done.  Leadership is all about connection.  Connecting to people, connecting resources to ideas, and connecting past experiences to future opportunities.  The best leaders see how things will (or won’t) fit together.  They evaluate what is in front of them, assess where things go, and they test different possibilities.  They apply this to things like personnel moves, purchasing decisions, where to spend time, and strategy implementation.

There are a number of strategies that people employ when doing a puzzle.  Some flip all the pieces over, others jump right in.  Some start with the edge, other’s start on the part that most appeals to them. Growing up, my sister and I would argue about how a family puzzle should be done, so we ultimately had to implement the policy that whoever opens the puzzle decides the rules of that puzzle.  That policy still exists in our house, as evidenced by my daughter deciding that we needed to do a recent puzzle one row at a time.  There is no one correct way to lead.  Two people going after the same goal might both get there in vastly different ways.  There are basic principles and strategies that are more impactful than others, but each leader employs different techniques and styles to their approach. 

I am amazed at the variety of puzzles on the market.  A quick internet search will turn up puzzles of all shapes, sizes, styles, and materials.  There are small puzzles and big puzzles.  And then there are ridiculous puzzles. Costco started selling this monstrosity around the holidays last year.  There are wooden puzzles, 3D puzzles, puzzles that are one color, puzzles with no traditional edge pieces and puzzles that are two sided.  As leaders we get to decide how big of a challenge we want to take on.  The job we accept, the cause we champion, or the project we spearhead are all up to us.  We may not always be successful, but the experiences we have help build our confidence and we become more comfortable with ascending levels of complexity.  As we get clear on where we want to go, get better at connecting different things and lean into our unique leadership style, it prepares us for greater challenges to come!

Want to put together the pieces of your own Leadership Puzzle?

Join us for our upcoming Heart Leadership Workshop August 5-6th where you’ll learn about the leader you are, and how to become the leader you aspire to be!