I wanted to follow up on last week’s post.

One thing I love about music is, you can explore it forever and continue to discover more and more. What I mean is, you might have your very favorite albums and performers and songs and genres, but if you really dig around you will very likely randomly discover some not-as-successful performer or group that you truly love their work. As I said last week, I am convinced there is just as much talent hidden away that just never got the exposure, as there is mainstream or commercially/critically successful talen.

Note that this is true for more than just music. This is also true for books, movies, meal recipes, places to visit, people to meet.

And just as importantly, ideas for your organization and the talent to implement those ideas.

If you are in a leadership role, it behooves you to find ways to cultivate that talent and those ideas. Create ways for anyone in the organization to submit ideas and be able to contribute, even if the projects or areas are outside of their swim lane. Find effective and safe ways for people to contribute, and ensure that the proper credit and rewards are given to those that are able to help your business or organization be successful and grow.

Now, as an executive, it can be really hard to figure out how to balance this against your core business. For example, if your organization’s mission is to mow people’s yards, at the end of the day you are getting paid to mow yards and you have to spend the majority of your time mowing yards and not just tinkering in a shed trying to improve the efficiency of your lawnmowers. That being said, if one of your workers has an idea that could legitimately vastly increase the number of yards you could mow in a day then don’t overlook the opportunity. Because if you don’t then maybe someone else will, and your business will be left behind.