Investment
You are at a party and a friend mentions they might be leaving soon.
Immediately you ignore them and carry on as if they have already departed.
When they leave, you validate your actions, telling yourself you knew they were going to leave and are satisfied you did not waste more energy on them.
You would not treat a friend this way.
Ignoring them would increase the probability of their leaving from "maybe" to "definitely."
Regardless of their departure timeframe, you continue to invest your attention with them.
Paradoxically, leaders often fall into the first scenario.
Rather than maximizing time when present, leaders approach investing in their team by triage.
They tell the story that they correctly invested in long-term talent potential.
The opposite may be true.
The investment created long-term potential which did not previously exist.
Treating investment as overly finite is like ignoring a friend who might leave a party.
Rockin' around the coffee tree,
-Morning Cup