— To follow is a bullet of wisdom on leadership. It comes from Tom’s rifle, named Shot, who has seen it all. You’ll get the drift by clicking Blog in the menu at www.tomnewhouse.com. —
DOWN ONE HOLE and up another. That’s gophers for you. They dig holes and interconnect them. Now gophers dig holes which are bad for pastures and cattle, and they eat a farmer’s grain; so, I often was called upon to hunt gophers. Ten cents a tail was the bounty at the local hardware store.
Some days for leaders are like gopher hunting. (A more current analogy is the arcade game of “Whack-a-Mole.”) About the time you “shoot” one problem, another surfaces—or maybe two. One never knows where a problem will pop. Hang in there. Try with your team to kill root causes. In time, your problems will be minor; you’ll experience success—no casualties and more grain at harvest time.