Leadership Caffeine-Success One Step at a Time
One of my favorite quotes from the late Peter Drucker reads, “Actions in the present are the one and only way to create the future.”
I talk with a lot of people who have big plans. They want to change or improve or strengthen something about themselves or their organizations. A good number of these people are experts at talking about it, but sadly, very few actually follow through on their own personal change, improvement or growth initiatives.
Too many people fail to overcome resistance and start moving forward. Instead of heeding Drucker’s advice, fear rents space in their minds, creating a never-ending litany of excuses that help ensure that their feet remain firmly planted in place.
Those who do break away from the malaise that mires so many in the muck of their own fears, start small and keep moving, one painful step after another.
I was thrilled to receive a note from an Executive Director at a Not-For-Profit who just experienced an organizational milestone. While the specifics of our conversation had slipped my mind, apparently I offered some of Drucker’s fuel for action, and it made a difference. Instead of thinking about all of the obstacles in her way, she focused on the one step in front of her that would lead to the next set of opportunities to inch closer to her goal. She took that step and it worked. Her fear and frustration have disappeared, replaced by a new-found sense of hope backed by energy and a desire to keep moving.
Actions beget learning and progress. Progress turns hope into determination and fuel for even more forward movement.
If your goal is to write that book you’ve been thinking about for two decades, it’s time to put the first words down and keep moving.
If you’ve resolved this year to become a better leader, what one step can you take today that will help you start moving forward?
If you like so many others in our economy find yourself on the outside looking in, and recognize that there’s no going back…only forward to reinvention and something new, what first step can you take to turn fear and anxiety into motive power for forward progress?
Thinking about change without doing anything about it is toxic.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
Most of our inaction when it comes to change can be attributed to fear. Fear of failure. Fear of discovering our limitations. Fear of being rejected. And while all of these fears seem real, they are false demons who taunt us, hoping we’ll forget that the faster we might fail, the closer we are to success.
Another favorite thinker of mine, Frank Herbert, offered in his science-fiction classic, Dune, “fear is the mind killer.”
Both Drucker and Herbert were right. Just for today, push the fear out and do something to move forward, no matter how small. And then just keep moving.
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Art Petty is a developer of leaders and a strategy consultant. Art frequently speaks on leadership and management, and his work is reflected in two books (Practical Lessons in Leadership and Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development) and over 1-million words published at The Management Excellence blog. You can reach Art via e-mail to learn more about his leadership development, speaking and management consulting services.
The Wonderful and Vexing Quality of Sticktoitiveness
Woody Allen famously offered that, “80% of success is showing up.” In my opinion, about 99% of success is Sticktoitiveness, which is much about being doggedly persistent in the face of overwhelming obstacles.
That awkward non-word is one of the attributes that I look for in hiring talent and one that I’ve observed over and over again in the most successful professionals that I’ve encountered.
People with Sticktoitiveness are the ones that are unflappable in the face of short-term missteps and supremely confident that regardless of the obstacles, they will find a way forward. They are running a marathon, fully expecting to face wind and rain and uphill stretches that would force most people to give up. They gain strength from adversity and while at times it may look like they are moving backwards, internally, they are learning, adapting and processing on new ways forward.
We owe our country and freedom and almost all of the great achievements of society to people that had serious cases of Sticktoitiveness. Washington and Franklin had it. So did Lincoln and Churchill and Edison and Dickens and Michelangelo and countless other great achievers throughout history.
Businesses owe much of their success to people with Sticktoitiveness. Great salespeople have it, great engineers have it and the best product and project managers definitely have it!
Beware the Hidden Costs:
This wonderful attribute that results ultimately in so many hard-won battles also occasionally carries a hefty price tag. Nothing in life is truly free.
While I doubt that the word ever comes up, I know many parents that worry about whether their kids have it. Some do, and you can see it work at an early age. Others don’t, and the first sign of adversity is an opportunity to go do something else. For a parent with a strong case of Sticktoitiveness, discovering that one of your children does not have it can be disturbing.
I’ve observed people with a bad case of Sticktoitiveness forego almost everything else in their personal and professional lives at great emotional cost. In marriages where one has it and the other doesn’t, resentment can fester and eventually boil over into divorce. In business, severe cases of unshackled Sticktoitiveness can result in escalation of commitment problems where organizations throw good money after bad rather than giving up and regrouping.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
In spite of the potential costs, I value my own innate sense of Sticktoitiveness, and so should you. While it may occasionally come across as stubbornness, I take pride in the sense of “anything is possible if I work at it,” attitude instilled in me by my parents.
Those of us that carry this gene are destined to an on-going struggle in life to do something. And while it is occasionally nice to daydream about what it would be like to not be focused on achieving/completing/solving/creating something, if you wait a moment, that irrational fantasy will pass. Now quit reading and start achieving!
Personal Responsibility and Success: Quit Shooting Yourself in the Foot!
Filed under: "To Do" List, Career, Decision-Making, Performance, Professional Growth
I’ve been harping on personal responsibility at least once per week recently, and can’t quite get it out of my system. I’m bombarded daily with too many examples of people that fail to take responsibility for their actions and in the process, often stop one step short of success.
One of my as yet unresolved points of personal inquiry (and wonder), involves those individuals in businesses and in graduate and undergraduate classes that are seemingly armed with their fair share of intellectual gifts and raw capabilities, but that still manage to metaphorically shoot themselves in one or both feet with alarming regularity. Or, if you prefer this visual, they regularly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!
My question: “What’s up with you people?”
My advice: “Cut it out!”
Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great and most recently, How the Mighty Fall, suggests that greatness is not a function of circumstances, but rather the result of a series of conscious choices. While Collins is referencing organizations in his point, the same shoe fits for individuals. Or at least the shoe would fit, if people didn’t have their feet wrapped in bandages from all of the foot-shooting going on in the workplace and in classrooms.
All Too-Common Examples:
- Adult students everywhere that don’t show up on time, don’t complete work and don’t participate. What are you paying for? What do you hope to get out of the experience? Jump in, do the work, participate and you’ll learn a lot more and you actually might find the experience enjoyable.
- Individuals that believe that bigger forces are working against them. I hear some remarkable excuses from otherwise smart people. The excuses generally have nothing to do with their own personal failings, and everything to do with a series of events that conspired to defeat them for the task in question. You sound like an idiot making these excuses. Give it up.
- Everyone in the business environment that has 20:20 vision that allows them to see with remarkable clarity the faults of their team members and colleagues. It seems like a big mirror is in order here. If these people don’t start looking in it first before looking around for those to blame, perhaps someone should “metaphorically” hit them over the head with it.
- The Apologists that actually seem to accept personal responsibility and apologize profusely for their transgressions. Every week. Over and over again. And again. Hey, guess what. After the first apology, we all know that we’re dealing with a serial apologizer who uses this tool as part of their survival strategy. Given a little time, you become transparent to all of us.
The Bottom-Line:
You are in control of your own actions. You decide every day and with every activity to be successful or to fail. I respect your right to decide to fail, but don’t blame fate, the forces, everyone else and for crying out loud, quit apologizing every time you decide to fail. And if the failure track is getting old, why don’t you decide to succeed next time…and then do what it takes to make it happen. It actually takes less energy and feels a lot better than all of the other failure-coping approaches that you apply.
Want Different Results? Change Your Definition of Success and Don’t Forget to Align the Measurements
Filed under: Crisis Leadership, Decision-Making, Leadership, Leading Change, Performance, Strategy
The old adage of “you get what you measure” is an old adage for a reason. It’s generally true.
There was the sales manager who implored his team members to focus on finding new customers. The compensation plans were based on a single revenue number, and naturally the sales reps focused on the path of least resistance by selling mostly to pre-existing customers.
Another sales manager measured activity to the smallest level of detail and paid her sales reps in part according to activities, not results. The theory was that if people are working hard day in and day out on the “right” activities, the sales will follow. This one actually worked OK until the market shifted and the rigid activity and compensation structure failed to change with the new dynamics in the market. The definition of “right” had changed.
And then there’s the CEO who wonders why his sales and marketing executives don’t seem to work with each other. Of course, they have no shared measures or accountabilities, in spite of the true need for collaboration in certain areas.
LIfe and Death Definitions and Measurements:
In a much more serious perspective and true life and death view on success and measurement, the new U.S. leader in the Afghan conflict, General Stanley McChrystal recently redefined the goals for security and success for the increasing number of troops in the region: “The point of security,” he says, “is to enable governance … My metric is not the enemy killed, not ground taken: it’s how much governance we’ve got.”
Without context and without understanding the actions being taken to support the new measurement, McChrystal’s words might ring hollow. However, the change in emphasis from defeating the enemy the old-fashioned way takes into account the reality that the people we’ve been trying to help have flocked to the other side as our traditional tactics have killed both enemy combatants and innocent civilians. The cultural reality is that regardless of prior political leanings, the son of a peaceful civilian killed by a U.S. airstrike quickly becomes the enemy combatant out to avenge his father’s death. And so on.
In support of the new definition of success, operations are being executed to avoid civilian casualties, with emphasis on providing the security needed for governance to take root and spread. Whether the strategy will work or not remains to be seen, but the shift in the measure of success is driving a profound shift in activities and approaches.
The Bottom Line for Now:
Measurement is a powerful leadership tool for driving behavior and change. Success should be clearly defined and the measures employed must reinforce the behaviors needed to drive success.
In the sales example above where the manager was concerned about achieving a healthier proportion of new sales from new customers, his definition of success was right, but his measurement system told the reps that it didn’t really matter where the sales numbers came from as long as they showed up. The simple addition of a “new sales from new customers” target in the total quota formula helped the team orient to new customer capture—a strategy that ultimately strengthened the firm’s market position versus competitors and enlarged the pool of total customers to cultivate over time.
If your results aren’t matching up to your definition of success, take a look at both your definition and your measurements. It may be time for one or both to change.
Quick Reads and Sound Bites on Success, Career Growth and Leading
Filed under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership, Product Management, Professional Growth
Three suggested links for busy professionals:
Book Review: Outliers:
For a thoughtful review of Malcolm Gladwell’s, Outliers, check out Wally Bock’s recent post at Three Star Leadership. This latest effort from Gladwell, the author of Blink and The Tipping Point challenges our thinking about success and how it comes about. Until this review, I was on the fence about investing in this one and once again, Wally has influenced how I spend my book allowance.
While cautioning that Outliers is not one of those “step by step” success books, he hooked me with the following: “If you’re looking for a book that will challenge some of your thinking about what goes into success, this is a worthwhile read. If you’re seeking fresh ways to think about how success happens in your life, the lives of your loved ones and friends, and the lives of people you work with, this will be a book that you’ll like.”
Magazine Article: Career Growth and the Product Manager
OK, full disclosure: I’m plugging my own article here. Regular readers of my blog are familiar with my perspective on the value of product managers in organizations. They have a tough, sometimes thankless job, with responsibility for a lot and authority for little.
The great professionals at Pragmatic Marketing encouraged me to expand several of my earlier posts on the career challenges and opportunities for the product manager. I offer my perspectives on why the best product managers are well suited for senior leadership (and how to get there) in the latest issue of The Pragmatic Marketer.
I’m honored to be included in their publication and encourage you to take a look at this issue. In addition to a number of additional (great) articles on product management, the Winning in a Down Economy piece by Phil Myers, co-author of Tuned In is a must-read for every professional.
Podcast Summary: Leading at the Edge: Leadership Lessons of Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition
For those looking to absorb the essence of books in small sound bites, podcasts are a great tool. Matthew Scott, a successful coach, trainer, speaker and entrepreneur offers up the top 10 leadership lessons from Shackleton’s famous expedition, in a quick and engaging audio summary of this book by Dennis Perkins. The format is great for listening in the car, on the treadmill or on the airplane. Matthew’s summary is time well spent.
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