When I’m doing one of my programs, there is always a fascinating conversation before or after the program. Recently, someone shared how they keep current with leadership tools in their team. Here’s what he told me: They share articles that they find interesting and are related to leadership and innovation. Initially, it was great to see the flurry of interesting information and find out what interests the others had, and it sparked some nice discussions. However, “initially” meant “the first couple of days.”

After this, concern set in as everyone began to wonder when to read the articles, what to do with them, and whether or how to curate them. The discussion in the team evolved into how to store these articles and index them so that they could be retrieved at a later point (and possibly make accessible to others). It was fascinating how everyone was moving forward in discussing and setting up a system for something that wasn’t needed in the first place.

I discovered a little bit about my own file keeping efforts in his story. Can anyone relate to this?

It also reminds me of the process of selecting and packing gear into a backpack for a long-distance hike.

Here’s how it works: There is a list of usual items that are needed for the trip. You read up about the options, do your research, try some items out on shorter hikes, and select which ones you’ll take. If you’re not an ultra-lightweight packer, you add some items that are not on the list of “usual items,” due to personal preference (for me, it’s always some slices of bacon for the first breakfast), and you end up with your packed backpack.

Here’s a really cool thing about backpacks: they limit how much you can take with you.

When it comes to information, we sometimes have the mistaken belief that we can take in and work with infinite amounts. It’s also easy to believe that it makes sense to store information for extended periods for later purposes (I’m guilty of this as well). The reality is, most old information is just that – old. It’s also hard to maintain any curation system – and it’s easy for the effort to outweigh any potential benefit.

As you select your tools for leadership, select wisely. More is not better. Often, a simple and easy method beats the big storage folder of collected, nuanced approaches that you won’t use.

Take the next step

Take a few minutes and think about the key tools that you use as a leader. (How many do you really use?) Select a couple tools, commit to putting them to practice consistently, and consider your backpack to be full and let the others go.