Fishy smell

“A fish stinks from the head.”

Rumi, a Turkish poet who lived towards the end of the 13th century, wrote “The Third Book of Masnavi,” where the phrase appears as follows: “Fish begins to stink at the head, not the tail.”

We often hear this quote in a business environment.

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, and it basically means that when problems arise in a business, it makes sense to look at the top of the company first.

In other words, it’s leaders.

So if you happen to read this and you’re in charge of a struggling business, it makes sense to start looking in the mirror first.

A little self-reflection on how you may have caused or contributed to the problem(s) needs to come first.

And that’s where the problem often begins or never stops.

Once we’re at the top, it’s hard to maintain the discipline of self-reflection.

First, we work hard day in and day out.

Leading a business is not a nine-to-five job with ample time for (self) reflection.

We need to develop the discipline to reflect and reflect on what went well and what went wrong.