Sometimes the tasks of management and leadership are like the messiness of trying to wrap an awkward object.

Those are the items that might be the PERFECT gift for the receiver – after he or she enthusiastically rips off the wrapping. Until then, though, these are the unusual, sometimes quirky items that look like they just don’t fit the gifts that surround them – sometimes righteously so.

My dad was visiting a few months ago. He was trying to help in the crucial last minutes before we were scheduled to head to our daughter’s birthday lunch. And for our daughter, like for many people, the way the gift looks IS part of the gift, too…it’s just more fun to open a beautifully presented gift (for my husband and our son? Not so much).

In his work life, Dad was always an administrator, a confident builder and leader of large groups of people. He was an excellent and confident one, no matter the group, no matter the goal.

This type of task? It was an operating detail he would not have been involved in at work or at home, where Mom did all of that.

Despite his lack of experience, comfort, confidence, much less expertise…well, at that moment, for the group that was our family, that WAS what he could do to help, if he really wanted to.

I got him launched, told him how to go about the "engineering" of the paper around this difficult object, then got busy getting other last minute things done.

Dad kept at it, but regularly called from the living room as he worked, a bit frustratedly, seeking a clear and simple answer to this design and engineering problem.

I called back, more than once, "There isn’t one. You have to make it up."

And then, what seemed to work was this advice:

"Let the shape show you what to do. Just step back, and let the shape show – or tell you, if that makes sense – how to mold the paper to it in the best way."

That seemed to do. A bit more "zen" approach to getting this unusual task done.

I didn’t hear another word. It worked out fine. The wrapping of that unusual object was just as good as the gift inside.

What’s a project or problem you have that might work better if you stepped back a bit?

How could you let the shape of the project, task or team tell you what to do to make it work better now, and at the end?