Getting traction on change

Sometimes it’s better to lower the bar

Parents walk a tightrope between encouraging their children on one hand, and turning them off on the other. Some obsess about getting their kids to “reach their potential”. Others are so protective their children never get to “stretch” a little and discover new ground.

Where to set the bar is problematic. No one knows where it should be. In business, managers and entrepreneurs regularly set it too high. It’s all lofty talk about “raising the bar”, or clichés about getting going when the going gets tough.

I do not mean the actual goals are too ambitious. It’s more to do with the ladder they put in place to reach them. Either they set the rungs too far apart, or they expect the ladder to be ascended at an unrealistic speed.

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So you want to be an excellent manager?

Are the usual things holding you back?

What are the usual things? They relate to these personal questions: do I have what it takes? Can I lead? Is my strongest suit strong enough?

The answer to all three is yes, but we often stumble over these questions. That’s ok. It means you are self-aware. If you don’t stumble over them, you may not have the humility to survive as a manager, let alone take the steps to make you one in the first place. Here’s five simple things you should do if you want to be a great manager.

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Personal organisation #101 - the single best idea

Do you know this internal dialogue?

In the meeting: That’s great info. I must look up that website before the next meeting.

Next week: Where did I put that URL? I know I wrote it down in the meeting. Where was it?

The week after: I’d better log on again and print off that download. What did I do with the password? I scribbled it on a post-it note. Where’s that? 

Just prior to the next meeting: What were the key points I took down from that website? I wrote them on a pad. Where’s that pad?

It might not have been a URL. It might have been someone’s contact number, or their address. Or maybe it was the outline of that absolutely brilliant idea you had for a presentation while you were waiting in the departure lounge. It was so clear in my head after I had drawn all the circles and arrows. How did it work again? 

For me, those dialogues stopped in 1995, when someone made a simple suggestion.

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