Staying the Course – Does it really matter?
A few years ago, I worked with a team who was implementing a new strategy for their global customer base. Everyone on the multiple sub-teams was excited to be involved, and was committed to the success of the strategy. But, one team leader kept working around the system and ignoring processes that had been set up. Did his lack of discipline in his work impact the overall results? Definitely, but unfortunately we couldn’t see the evidence with each individual action, only later when it was too late.
Avoid Shifting Too Soon
For your team to achieve the results you expect, encourage and enable them to maintain their focus over time. That means you have to fight the urge to shift to your next new idea (Oh shiny!). In his book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, John C. Maxwell discusses a principle called the Compound Effect, first introduced by author Darren Harding in his book of the same name. As part of Maxwell’s “Law of Consistency,” he discusses the importance of discipline over time to achieve results.
“Even though the results are massive, the steps in the moment don’t feel significant. The changes are so subtle, they are almost imperceptible…these small changes offer little or no immediate results, no big win…so why bother? Most people get tripped up by the simplicity of the compound effect…For instance, they quit after the eighth day of running because they are still overweight…what they don’t realize is that these small seemingly insignificant steps, completed consistently, over time, will create a radical difference.”
Buy Maxwell’s Book Here to Read More
Five Ways You Can Help
Sometimes it is hard to be excited about staying focused on the small steps. What are some things you can do to help your team? Maybe these ideas will help:
- Advocate among the leadership team for the sustaining focus on strategies until the intended value is realized. If you don’t, you might as well not have a strategy.
- Sustain stakeholder engagement throughout the life of the project ensuring they don’t shift away from execution because they “forgot” about the current work in execution or got excited about something new
- Be a model for your team by being disciplined yourself as you work towards your goals on a daily basis
- Hold yourself accountable and openly discuss your own challenges in maintaining focus
- Remind your team that when taken together, the small steps (the grains of sand) are important so you can realize incredible results (a beautiful beach)
- Celebrate small wins along the way as your team works to achieve their goals
- Make progress public to all stakeholders. Give the team public recognition for hard work, resolving obstacles and risks, staying on time and on budget and moving to value realization
- Observe and coach your team members who appear frustrated as they work to deliver results over the course of a projects timeline