This Magic Monday, we talk about sharing responsibility – something we know is easier said than done. Here are a few tips to help you embrace accepting help from others.
Sharing responsibility can be hard sometimes, especially if you’ve ever had the experience of needing to create something just right.
From how the Christmas tree is supposed to be decorated – to what a presentation message needs to be, the thought of someone else coming along to share that responsibility makes you cringe. You know they just won’t get it like you do.
Molly Graham understands these emotions well. Current COO of productivity tool startup Quip, a huge focus of her career has been helping growth-focused companies to scale. A metaphor she uses to normalize the emotions involved in sharing or even transferring responsibility to others is what she calls the “’Give away your Legos’ talk,” covered here in First Round Review.
She observes it’s not unlike asking a kid to share their Legos. You have a large, complex tower to build – and there are so many Legos! Which is exciting at first but soon can become overwhelming. When you finally realize you need help, coming to terms with someone else taking over parts or all of what you’re doing is difficult. What if they don’t get it right or don’t care about it as much as you do, and then everything is ruined?
Instead of giving in to our instinct to fight for the Legos back, Graham encourages us to remember that often, giving away those Legos is the only way we’re able to grow. It allows us to move on and build bigger and better things, turning our sights towards a new tower.
It may not be something that can happen in a week, but if you started giving away some of your own “Legos,” what other taller towers might you be free to focus on instead?