ToolWise

I recently helped a son-in-law pull the pipe and sucker rods out of one of his water wells.  The windmill was no longer producing water, so repairs were needed.

He and I tackled the task with zeal, but we were improvising to the extreme with the tools at our disposal.  I even mentioned to him that a real windmill man would have a good laugh at us (we differed from the Three Stooges by only one).

After two days of work, 

a couple of nasty cuts on his head (I swear I didn't drop that metal on him purposely), 

an ugly gouge in my hand, and 

our almost dropping the pipe down the hole (not a good thing), 

we finally completed the task.

I was reminded of how important the proper tools are in order to accomplish any kind of work in an efficient way.  

A primary role of leaders is to procure, steal, borrow, or rent quality tools for use in the tasks being done by the members of the organization.  Money always matters, but having the wrong or insufficient tools has high costs attached:  time, effort, frustration, inefficiency, and sometimes injury (or worse).

Note to self: Find and get quality tools, and put them in the hands of the folks doing the work.