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“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” - Guy Kawasaki
By coaching workers that range from junior employees through to the most senior executives, I get to see the broad spectrums that vary from those who struggle to perform through to those who are absolute high achievers. What I do know is age and experience have no correlation whatsoever to performance. The biggest difference comes down to how well ideas and plans are implemented.
“If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.” – John C. Maxwell
You have too much work to do. The impact from this has you working long hours, yet you still seem to miss the occasional deadline because the volume of work is so monotonous. You have the option of delegating some of your work, but you don’t because you’re too busy to do so. Why don’t you leverage the power from delegating effectively?
“A lot of times people don't know what they want until you show it to them” – Steve Jobs
Proactive employees are self-starters who are inquisitive problem solvers. While it might be aspirational to behave like this, the stark reality is a large percentage of employees find it difficult to do so in a technology-driven world. Instead, it’s easy to get caught up in a reactive loop responding to demands that impede the ability to be being proactive.
“We have a culture where we are incredibly self critical, we don’t get comfortable with our success.” – Mark Parker, CEO, Nike
82 percent of respondents to a Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey consider culture to be a potential competitive advantage. Is your workplace culture something you rave to your friends about? If it’s not, then before blaming others, understand whether you are part of the problem or the solution.
“Faking it until you make it is also known as lying. Lying is usually an act reserved for CVs, kids and sociopaths.” — Adam Fletcher
Raise your hand if you’ve ever made things up, said you can do something you’ve never done before or had any idea how to do it whatsoever. If we’re honest then I guess we’re all guilty to some degree. There’s nothing all that wrong with of faking it until we make it; that is unless we don’t achieve the results we said we would.
“Get rid of clutter and you may just find that it was blocking the door you’ve been looking for”
– Katrina Mayer
Claustrophobia is described as having an irrational fear of confined spaces. Fortunately, claustrophobia is estimated to only affect 5-7% of the population. While workers might not suffer from claustrophobia, they can cause similar experiences when they have a cluttered mind. Do you feel trapped in a cluttered mind?
“You can't have high standards without good discipline” – William Hague
As kids, we first learn about measurement and benchmarking at school. From a test or a school report, we find out whether we’ve passed or failed and what we either need to continue to do to maintain our marks or do differently to get a better grade. The minimum standard is a pass; however, our own expectations (and that of our parents!!!) could be somewhat higher. What’s your secret to doing better than the minimum standard?
“I hated every minute of training, but I said don't quit, suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion” – Muhammad Ali
Every now and then part of me wishes I was so talented I could just coast while achieving whatever I wanted to. However, I’m not and the perfectionist in me is never really satisfied with the standard I deliver with the things I’m reasonably good at and passionate about. This sees me caught with the challenge of trying to keep up and improve. I don’t consider this as a negative though. In fact, it’s something that’s essential to the makeup of me as a person that I’ve learned to use in a positive way.
“Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.”- Lao Tzu
Leadership and productivity go hand in hand. Leaders who drive results while building cultures people want to be part of are worth their weight in gold. Those who don’t are a drain on businesses. Good leadership starts with good self leadership.
“To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don't isolate.” – Michael Jordan
Selfishness is one of my pet hates, particularly when it’s combined with rudeness. Now that really gets my blood boiling!!! However, being selfish should be balanced with what needs to be done when striving for success as we’re sometimes required to be selfish on the way to being successful.
“There are no failures, just experiences and your reactions to them” – Tom Krause
Two years after announcing Australia’s largest agile project (called New Ways of Working (NWOW)), ANZ Bank CEO Shayne Elliot says the bank has now paused from deploying it further than the 9,000 employees it currently encompasses.
“If you believe you can, or you believe you can’t, either way you are right” – Henry Ford
Confidence has such power. When we’re confident we can feel invincible and be simply awesome at whatever we’re doing. However, it’s quite the opposite when we’re lacking confidence and even worse if we don’t believe we can improve our situation. If we find ourselves in this situation then we need to be mindful how limiting beliefs influence our level of success.
“Track your small wins to motivate big accomplishments” – Teresa Amabile
A hero’s journey would see us achieving major accomplishments at work every day; completing strategic projects, realising key milestones, closing large deals, driving record results etc. Imagine that? Unfortunately, it’s pure fantasy for most of us as our day to day reality is quite different. While large breakthroughs happen, they’re typically not an everyday occurrence. That’s why it’s important to not lose sight of the small wins.
