If you think this is an article about finding meaning in your life, you would be wrong. This article is about the companies and organizations where you devote your precious time and energy, and maybe your money as well.
When a client finally accepted that the root cause of their many struggles was that they keep hiring the wrong people, it was a major breakthrough. What will likely take even longer is for them to realize that they aren’t even qualified to hire the kind of people they really need! “How can we be hiring the wrong people when we hire such great people?” they demanded to know. Every one a top notch subject matter expert just like themselves. People with great experience and knowledge in the field. People who care as much as they do. And people who fit in really well. How could this be a problem? The problem they finally recognized is that by hiring people like themselves, they don’t really have people managers or project managers or product managers or branding experts or…
While speaking at the Elevate Leadership Summit in Idaho, I wanted to illustrate how differently we all see things so I relayed a story about the day I brought my future husband home for the very first time. Within about two minutes of walking in the door, he asked for a hammer. He wanted to pound in a protruding nail on our stairway before something or someone got caught on it. He could not not see that nail. Nor could he leave it sticking out. I, on the other hand, along with my two parents and four siblings, had lived with that nail for a cumulative count of over 200 years without it ever occurring to any of us to do something about it. I certainly knew it was there; I used to wrap the phone cord around it while sitting on those steps and chatting with friends. (Yes, that dates me!) If a protruding nail can be a preoccupation for some and effectively invisible to others, you can never assume your co-workers are noticing or thinking the same things you are. Nor can you fault them for not seeing what you see. This fact is at the heart of my Disconnect Principle.
Even my best clients have been known to forget some of the most critical distinctions, so I thought some reminders were in order.
It’s all the rage to measure results and progress. Which is good! But, if you don’t know what to measure, it can be a disaster. I work with a lot of nonprofits that are really struggling to figure this out. Time for a dose of clarity! There are three basic types of metrics.
You don’t get to the top by being lazy. It takes a lot of hard, careful work. You need to be thorough and avoid mistakes. At the same time, you need to keep your eye on the big picture so you know when to push back and change course. You also have to be alert to your environment and know who can be relied upon and who needs help or watching. By the time you’ve earned a long series of promotions, you’ve made ultra competence your habit. That’s great! Congratulations! Now it’s time to stop that. It’s time to be lazier!
During the opening rounds of a pickleball tournament, I played with seven different partners. I’d played with some of them before. Others I’d never even met. In order to get a lot of games in without delays, the organizers set time limits on the games. I don’t think any of us had a clue as to how long our games usually took, but we did know that the points we scored in each game would accrue to our individual tournament scores. Thus, not finishing exacted a big penalty. No one wanted to be caught down 2-8 when the bell sounded while someone on the next court walked away with 11 points for finishing the game. This combination of competition and time pressure was pretty nerve-racking. It also provided the opportunity for me to compare the way my different partners reacted to the pressure. The best partners not only helped us win by hitting great shots and chasing down lops, they also helped me play my best by:
A headline caught my eye the other day. I don’t remember where or what it said. All I remember is that it contained the phrase “actionable strategy.” And it has bothered me ever since. So what could “actionable strategy” possibly mean? Perhaps more importantly, what does it mean to have a strategy that is not actionable?
Of all the corporate certificates I’ve ever received, the one I’ve valued above all others is the one that reads “The Person Most Likely To Dispute Recognized Authorities.” I received this honor for my relentless questions about the evidence and conclusions presented from studies by PhDs representing venerable institutions such as Harvard and Stanford. Looking back, I suppose I was completely exasperating.