I look at the dysfunctional things caused by incompetent people, feel compelled to get involved, and offer my observations and assessments. It’s one thing when people are annoying in public or social situations, but I have difficulty not saying something when they are employees serving customers. It’s the same as I would expect a physician to step in if their waitress suddenly fell ill and collapsed. It feels decent and necessary.
Before I insert my opinion, offer advice, or simply decide whether to engage with someone regarding a problem they are struggling with, even if invited, I feel it’s wise to ask myself, “At what cost?” Is this worth engaging in? By estimating worth, I’m not just considering my time, which is every person’s most valuable commodity; I also weigh the intangible consequences. There is the potential of damaging a relationship or my reputation or standing – or the cost of the residual aggravation I might carry around for hours or even days.
My evaluation comes down to two questions in a specific order: Should I? and Can I? “Should I?” speaks to the ultimate benefit and possible outcomes. “Can I?” – well, I suppose I always can, but weighed against how else I might use my time or conflicting commitments, I conclude that I realistically cannot. I always ask those questions in that order because there is no point in figuring out how to do something I shouldn’t.
It is the same advice I offer my clients. A leader always has a fungible and finite store of capital to play with – and must spend it wisely. A leader’s influence comes at a cost. There is always something we are placing at risk. Success in anything that involves risk requires that we manage that risk based on the yield we might expect.
In business, this is a matter of the same basic economic calculus we apply to any financial investment. The financial benefits of any business are a function of leveraging risk against the available capital. There is a bucket of real capital – the cash you have access to, both yours and what you can get from others; human capital – the performance that creates value through thinking and doing; and reputation capital, the reason that anyone transacts with you – which includes customers, suppliers, and employees. The entrepreneur leverages an unreasonable amount of risk to pursue an unrealistic return. We celebrate those who succeed because the expectation is audacious – knowing that most do not.
But in non-business relationships, managing risk gets murky. The balance reverses from real capital being the driver of what you can reasonably do, and reputation becomes tantamount to being a successful human being. Our reputation, good or bad, precedes and follows us. As the saying goes, without our reputation, we have nothing.
Your reputation rests upon your accomplishments and failures. If you do all you can to be useful and valuable, there is no need to worry about what others may think of you.
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