One of the most exciting moments in my work with executive leaders and teams is when the epiphany strikes:
Substantial progress can be achieved with modest but meaningful changes.
The fact is, dramatic improvements can be effected with subtle adaptations to mindset and behavior. The key is to rigorously focus on the following:
- What needs to change most quickly?
- Why is it important?
- How will we make it happen?
When was the last time you and your team took a strategic pause in the busyness of leading the business to look past the fires and reflect on the accelerants and impediments to success?
Is your team stuck in a “can’t slow down” mindset?
- We are too bogged down to pause and think, let’s just get the work done!
- Let’s get through the next week/month/quarter, and then we will focus on the future.
- Why not do things the way we have always done them? It’s worked well in the past, why change now?
Breaking the team out of this mindset isn’t as difficult as it may seem but it does require slowing down to approach things differently. I encourage you to protect time to discuss as a team:
Where do we need to slow down? And where must we speed up?
How will we lead the organization to drive sustainable sales, create radical improvements in the customer experience,
draw amazing talent to the organization, and develop outrageously innovative products and services?
You can’t always control when the “Aha moments” will emerge, but you can influence the probability of their occurrence. Which small changes in thinking and execution can you make right away?
To your continued success!
Each of us takes an average of 3,500 decisions per day and to get as much as possible of them right we have to ease off the gas pedal and “slow down” (before speeding up again…). We talked a lot about the different things we are faced with on a daily basis. Some of them are non-negotiable and they need to get done right away. I found the “Priority assessment tool” of specific value to be more thoughtful and strategic in the way we handle our workload.
– Tobias Roser Director, International Human Resources, KLX Aerospace, a Boeing Company
To learn more read my new book. Slow Down to Speed Up®: Lead, Succeed, and Thrive in a 24/7 World is a powerful resource for leaders from the C-Suite to the front line. Filled with innovative new approaches, pragmatic tools, and real-life success stories, SDTSU tackles the universal challenge of achieving better, faster, more sustainable results in a world of non-stop demands and constant connectivity. Get your copy today!
