The Leader’s Impatient Race to Success
Have you ever wanted to get to where you were aiming for in life but didn’t want to wait?
You wanted to be there now.
Immediately.
“My dad said to me – Work hard and be patient. It was the best advice he ever gave me. You have to put the hours in.” Simon Cowell
That is certainly the truth as I have experienced it, although it is not what I wanted to hear earlier in my career. I wanted to go racing off and get to my destination straight away.
But with such haste comes risk not only to yourself but to those that count on you.
You risk becoming so focused on getting to where you want to be that you miss important information along the way. Often, this knowledge comes in the form of lessons-learned and so-called best-practices. To even finish the race to success, you have to notice and learn.
The Inquiry of Grenfell Tower
I recently read the final page ( again ) of the initial report from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
Grenfell Tower is a 24-story block of flats in North Kensington, West London, that went up in flames. It was a tragedy in which 72 people lost their lives. It was the deadliest residential fire in the United Kingdom since the Second World War.
Phase 2 of the Inquiry is underway right now, and for you keeners like me, you can listen in via virtual hearing room.
I feel a personal connection to this story. As a young and naïve police officer, I made my very first arrest in the lobby of that block of flats. North Kensington was my six-year training ground for the next 30 years of my policing career.
As I read the report, several elements hit me.
Lessons Learned
Firstly, humans often do not learn lessons.
When that happens, history has a habit of repeating itself.
On 3 July 2009, a fire broke out on floor 9 of Lakanal House in Southwark, London. The fire quickly spread to other floors, and six people lost their lives. The coroner’s inquest investigation made several recommendations for key responding agencies, none of which had been implemented.
Poor communication,
false assumptions,
inadequate decision-making,
non-existent sharing of information,
buck-passing,
finger-pointing,
a lack of planning and organization,
outdated practices,
an old-school mentality,
and zero-transparency are all just part of what has been determined (so far). The Inquiry’s stated goal “To examine the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire at Grenfell Tower on the night of 14 June 2017.”
They don’t want a repeat.
Same Problem Right Here at Home
I share this with you because wherever home is, I have observed people have similar behaviors. I have been engaged in conversations lately with coaching clients in which history lessons are not being learned and sometimes not even shared in the first place.
How are we expected to learn and grow if we don’t learn from the past?
I agree that it is important to pay attention to where we are going, but the path behind us is also important. After all, that is the reason we have side and rear-view mirrors on our cars.
It drives me bananas that so many errors are made by people (sometimes in senior leadership positions), which often highlights that we do not equip ourselves or our teams to be successful.
We know (don’t we?) that one way to develop trust between people is to spend time with them, getting to know them, listening to their concerns and ideas. We can go right back to Dale Carnegie for that gem in his book, How To Win Friends And Influence People.
However, I often hear that people feel handcuffed by email management with their hand apparently super-glued to the telephone, fielding important calls.
If You Are Too Busy, You Are Busy Doing the Wrong Thing
In the race to success, we are all too busy. I hear this a lot. But I need to be straight with you. The amount of time that you carve out to spend intentionally with each of your team members, without a visible or hidden agenda item on the table between the two of you, will be the most valuable use of your time. Ever.
And when you are there with them, truly be present with them.
Set yourself the target of being the most interested person, not the most interesting person, and you will succeed every time.
Tips For Investing in Your Success
Try these suggestions to achieve that:
- Drop your agenda and your expectations, and listen with an open mind
- Make eye contact when talking to the other person
- Just BE with the person without having to necessarily DO or SAY anything
I know that you already acknowledge this basic concept in fundamental relations. But this simple connection strategy in the workplace seems to be an almost foreign concept.
The best boss whom you ever worked for did this for you.
Why is it that when we land in a position of influence and impact, we fail to hit this target?
It is because we are failing to learn.
We cannot simply race towards our intended career destination if we are not willing, prepared, or able to learn along the way.
We owe it to those for whom we have a Duty of Care not to repeat history.
Two Key Strategies for the Race to Success
If you read for 10 minutes a day, every day, you would read between 16 and 20 leadership or personal development books a year.
Or if you spend 10 minutes sitting being fully present with a different team member each day at work, every day at work, in a year you would be the best boss that they had ever worked for.
Do both, and you definitely won’t repeat history.
What choice will you make today with this information?
