For the past 12 years or so, every end of the year / starting new year I asked myself, what more can I do?
I got my early training / mindset first-hand from my father. His mindset has always been – the only way ahead is to push, try new things, fail get up and try again and keep pushing. You stay still and you’re not going anywhere.
Even in my jobs where there was a lot of structure, I always challenged /asked myself every year
- How do I add more value?
- Where are the gaps?
- What more can be done?
- How do I build my teams? How do I give them more exposure?
- Can we try something new?
- Where can we improve? How can I improve?
Structures, cost, stakeholders cannot be a reason to stop yourself from adding value. You can decide to give up and just try to “manage”. Blame it on the system but I can assure you, even with all the limitations, there is still A LOT of value that you can add.
What you need firstly, is to be totally comfortable being uncomfortable.
In my new job, I get to hear almost every day the reasons above why we are not moving ahead. Incremental functional excellence, improvement and efficiency does not always require money and huge time investment. Every small step contributes and ultimate a 1000 small steps can lead to huge gains.
You have to ask yourself, are you ready for this?
- It will disturb the status quo
- piss off a few people
- may require more time and effort from you
- your teams might wonder what’s his/her problem
It bothers me to no need, when I see teams and individuals just coursing through without any real intent to push. Excuses will only last you so much. I have personally seen leaders and teams achieve so much with so little. The real differentiator is the mindset. Leaders leading the way and teams fully onboard to keep pushing.
Complacency is the killer of progress and Nothing is achieved in comfort
I would love to hear stories and examples of disrupting the flow and pushing the agenda.
