I recently read the Steve Jobs biography. He was… quite the character. Relentless, ruthless, eccentric, and strong-willed are just a few words I think would fairly describe his life. But the biggest takeaway for me was how opinionated he was.
In seemingly all aspects of his work and life, he held a very strong opinion/point of view on what he thought was the right way to achieve his goals – sometimes to his detriment but often times to extraordinary results. After reading the biography, I don’t think there was ever a day in his life when he said, “I don’t care what’s for dinner.” This relentless point of view, I believe, is what created a strong culture that permeated his pursuit for perfection.
When you stop having an opinion, that’s when the quality starts to dip. When you don’t consistently set the bar high for your team, it slowly starts to lower as new team members join and they bring all their baggage (good and bad) to the table. As a leader within your team and within your organization, sharing your opinion on how you think a goal should be accomplished is the only way to keep standards high.
As a consultant you are literally paid for your opinion. There’s a literal monetary exchange for your thoughts and expertise. When you start relying on the typical consulting out of “well, it depends”, you need to ask yourself about the value you’re bringing to the table. I push my teams to have an opinion and to share it. The customer can decide what to do with it. I’d rather you have a bad opinion than no opinion at all.
As an experiential learning experience (that’s what the meeting invite said), I randomly placed a bunch of tables inside a conference room and blindfolded two people on the team and tasked them with finding the door. The caveat: no one could give any help. They had to wander around the room, in the dark, trying to figure out where the exit was. This is how customers feel when you don’t have an opinion on what they should be doing. Lost, confused, bumped and bruised. I then rearranged the tables, blindfolded someone else, and tasked one person with giving detailed instructions on how to escape the room. They effortlessly glided through the obstacles via the exchange of ideas and experience being shared. Night and day difference when you have an opinion on how things should be done.
If you go through life without having an opinion then life will happen to you. By having an opinion you have the power to shape the world around you, ultimately allowing you to live a life you want.