Chiefs and Indians!
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression too many chiefs and not enough Indians?
Usually this saying is in relation to having too many bosses and not enough workers, and all the bosses telling the workers something different!
Let’s look at another scenario using the same saying but in a business sense.
I often hear from friends, colleagues and clients, that when they ask others for advice or tell others of a situation or difficulty they are in or struggling with, they are always offer their advice.
There are a few problems with this scenario:
- How do you know the friend or colleague is an expert on that problem, or is an authority in that situation?
- Very often these friends or colleagues’ advice nearly always conflicts with what others say, so you end up totally confused and overwhelmed, wishing you’d never asked in the first place!
The other problem, other than the above, is that we’ve probably lacked self-belief and had self-doubt; we did NOT believe in ourselves and our ability or capability to make our own decision and find a solution to our own problem.
To keep ourselves focused we can listen to our own advice, our own instincts, our own gut feelings. Checking things out with others afterwards may just seal the deal for us, but starting with our own intuition is something most of us don’t do, because we automatically feel and assume others know better than us, or more than us.
Rather than involving others in the first instance and getting into the ‘too many chiefs and not enough Indians’ scenario, listen to yourself first, think about where your focus is and make your decision. Then check this out with others to verify your decision. This way we grow and learn and start to believe in ourselves and grow in confidence.
Learning from our experiences and mistakes makes us wise and strong and helps us in our personal and professional development.
Go find that mirror and hold it up and offer yourself that advise and listen to it, and see how much you can learn and focus on for your way forward.
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