Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea
Tip Sheet #41
“It is the first day of the week. You can’t junk it.”
We continue our Moneyball summer by taking a look at the aforementioned quote. I only wish that I could have lived by these words. I was a quick fix type of guy and upon long hours of reflection have come to realize that for the most part that just doesn’t work.
When embarking on a project you need to have the patience to see it through. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” These words are easy to say but what happens when you need to see some quick results? You need to see some progress in something, perhaps just anything? I was driven by that notion. Results now! I should have realized that lasting change takes a while to cultivate and institutionalize.
I think in order to show the patience needed in your project, you must have an undeterred belief in what you are doing. And this belief might fly in the face of all conventional wisdom. You have to be 100% committed. There can be no vacillation in what you believe and you better have the road map well plotted because I guarantee that you will be hit with roadblocks and unpredictable detours. It is in these times of crisis and perhaps confusion that you must stay the course. You believe in what you are doing. You have a plan to get the team there. There is a promised land.
It is additionally critical that you are the calming influence to your team in the face of these storms. Others may not know or may not even care as to where you are taking them and they may be on board just for the ride. Others will not have your strong commitment to your mission. They have to know a destination. You can’t keep everyone in the dark. But, do you know where you are headed?
Therefore, it is critical that you become the consummate communicator. It will be easier for people to follow you if you spent the time explaining and describing your journey. People need to know where you are headed and how they are to get there. When they do, it will be a better trip and it will be more likely that you get the results that you hoped for. Perhaps they will come to believe in the mission as strongly as you.
I can recall in the early 1960’s my father would load the family in the car to go for a Sunday drive. He had no destination. We were just out for a ride. Perhaps it was his infatuation with his car and the new roadways. However, in the course of this ride we would somehow end up in a factory’s parking lot, lost, with my mother and father screaming at one another. When you are young you readily accept this nonsense and do what you are told. But as you mature and when you have seen this act before, you come to dread that Sunday drive. There comes a point in time when you just refuse to go. Your parents decide, that the trip is just not worth the aggravation. The same can be said for the Sunday drives that you may take your staff on. Do these trips lead to nowhere? If they do, your staff will stop joining you, if not physically, mentally.
I think this is a fair comparison to a leader that does not have a long-range plan and does not have a pre-plotted course. Many leaders and principals take their organizations on this drive to nowhere and also end up figuratively in that factory parking lot screaming at everyone. That is no way to do business. That is no way to ever hope for success.
Commit to a plan. Believe in it. Know the course that you will be taking. Communicate this to your staff. And when you hit a detour, don’t junk the trip(plan). Fight through it. Don’t fight each other. Be patient. It may take you a bit longer to arrive, but when you get there you will see the long-lasting benefits of your journey. Your trip would have been worth it.
