Everyday I play 2-3 games of Sudoku. It’s a way to relax while also giving me a mental challenge. The only competition is against myself with a goal to have my best time. Simple. One would think that would be the end of it, right?
Well, there’s a trick in the game: when I’m stuck there’s a button for hints. You can use it to complete one square, or check your work, or just give you a clue on what to look for.
This is what is interesting to me: when I’m stuck it can take a few minutes to figure out what to do, but if I use the hints it only penalizes me ten seconds.
Of course different Sudoku games have different rules, with some having a higher penalty for using hints. But on my game it makes sense to use the hints. It’s actually much faster. If the goal is to be fast — regardless of how relaxed you might become or how clever you might prove to be — then you’d rather take a ten second penalty than spend two minutes working out a problem. It’s not as personally fulfilling, but it sure is fast.
There’s a parallel to leadership. If you lead by taking hints (thoughts, ideas, insights) from the smart people around you, the project (job, goal, whatever) is going to be done a lot faster. You don’t prove yourself to be so smart or diligent, but does anyone care? In some ways you are smarter because you took the hints.
Funny, but now every time I hit the “hints” button it makes me feel both more clever and more humble. That’s an interesting combination, and one more leaders need to feel.