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Sachin Jain: One of the most important things we do as leaders is pull the plug

Photo from Sachin Jain/LinkedIn

Jun 28, 2024, 11:58

Sachin Jain: One of the most important things we do as leaders is pull the plug

Sachin Jain shared on LinkedIn: .

“One of the most important things we do as leaders is pull the plug.

We pull the plug on projects that aren’t meeting expectations.

We pull the plug on policies that don’t make sense anymore.

We pull the plug on people who aren’t rising to challenge.

Many of us work with a continuation bias—it’s easier for something to go forward then to call it quits and restart.

Or with recall bias—we want to remember the highs of a project or working with someone and not the lows.

Or avoidant tendencies—we ignore that something isn’t going as planned.

But the fine art of saying ‘no mas” isn’t valued enough and we sometimes even shame others for calling it quits.

There are better and worse ways to call it quits.

Some thoughts on the better ways:

clear evidence of having considered all the possibilities and possible hypotheses for why something isn’t working
grace—allowing for the possibility that the failure being experienced is a moment in time phenomena and not a generalizable pattern
a clearly identified mismatch between the results and the ingoing goals and objectives
a rigorous process around learning from failure

What are some examples you’ve observed of leaders and situations in which they’ve effectively ‘pulled the plug”—even when it’s painful or hard?

What advice would you give to someone who struggles to give up—even when they should?”

Source: Sachin Jain/LinkedIn

Sachin Jain is the President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He also serves as a Board Member at The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, an Academic Hospitalist (WOC) at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and a Board Member at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).