Archive for Change
What’s Holding You Back, Part II
Posted by: | CommentsIf you didn’t read part one, scroll below (if you’re on the blog right now) or click on the following link>> (if you’re reading this by RSS).
Note: If you didn’t answer the question from the last post, “What are the major constraints that are hindering me (and my business/organization) from achieving my (our) potential?”, then make sure you do so before proceeding any further.
Okay, so you’ve now identified your major constraints (and as I said last time, they could be external or internal, mental or physical, systemic of situational). They could be a person or a process, a self-limiting belief or a financial limitation (for example).
The next thing you want to do is order them. You want to take each constraint and ask the question, “Where does this constraint come in the priority list of which constraint needs to be solved first?” In other words, you want to play each constraint off the others as you seek to find the major constraint that needs to be solved first.
I liken this to a playoff system (brackets) you see in sports. For simplicity’s sake we’ll call constraints “C”. So you play C1 vs. C2. Let’s say C2 needs to be solved before C1. Then you play off C3 vs. C4. Let’s say C3 needs to be solved before C4. Then you playoff C2 vs. C3 and let’s say C3 needs to be solved before C2 (which means it has to come before C1). You now know what has to happen first. In other words, once you work through this process, you’ll quickly know what the major constraint is for you (or you and your business) this year.
Using the four constraints listed above, it would be understandable to think that you need to solve the financial problem first. But that might not be true. It may be because you don’t have a systematic and methodical process in place to acquire new capital. However, it may be that the reason you don’t have a systematic and methodical process in place is because Sally is in charge of that area and she’s not very competent. She’s been at your company for ten years, she’s loved by every one, but she’s incompetent. You know you ought to let her go, but you haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Why?
Ah, it’s that self-limiting thought that keeps you from changing her out. It may be a belief that letting Sally go will demoralize your team. Or the belief that, “If I just give her some more time and training, she’ll succeed” (which could be true, but hasn’t been for the past five years). Or it could be the belief that, “She’s a single mom and she needs our help.” Or it could be the belief that, “Maybe in a year another position in our company will open up and I can move her over there.” Etc. We all have them. And those self-limiting beliefs do get in the way of making good business decisions.
The beauty of working through this process is that once you play this game, you’ll often find out that what you thought was the major constraint (in this case, “We don’t have enough access to capital”) may, in fact, not be the most important constraint to solve first.
So, before I give you the next step, why don’t we stop here for today. Take out your list of constraints and order them. Play them off against one another and see if you can reduce your constraints down to a handful of the most important constraints to solve first. And most importantly, make sure you identify what the first constraint is that you need to solve before any others!
To your accelerated success!
What’s Holding You and Your Company Back?
Posted by: | CommentsAre you familiar with the Theory of Constraints (TOC)? If you’re not, the theory (an overall management philosophy) came into vogue post the publication of a book entitled, “The Goal,” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt.
In its most basic form the theory contends that any manageable system (like your business) is hindered from achieving its potential by a very few number of constraints–of which, one, is the major one. While the book focuses on the throughput of a manufacturing concern, the theory has been expanded into a general management philosophy–which can provide major dividends for you and your business.
Without going through the whole process, you can clearly benefit, at the start of this year, by focusing on its basic idea–which is, instead of looking for 50 or 100 constraints that are holding your business back, you want to look for a handful of major constraints–and then narrow those down to your major one.
The easiest visual picture I can off you is that of a pipe. If you have one section that is clogged so that only a dime’s worth of water can flow through it, it doesn’t matter what you do to improve the other area of the pipe. You can expand the diameter of the pipe in those other sections. You could even upgrade those sections from PVC to aluminum to steel to platinum to gold. And it won’t make a difference—until you fix that one point in the pipe that only let’s a dime’s worth of water through.
Likewise, in your business, you have some built in constraints. And until you fix them, you’ll always be hindered from achieving your goals. All other activities will be less effective, until you solve that major constraint.
Now, while I think it’s true that you win games by playing to your strengths (not your weaknesses), the best teams focus some of their attention on alleviating their weaknesses. For example, a football team that has a great passing game and a terrible running game would be foolish to focus their attention on running the ball. They’ll simply lose–and lose a lot. However, if they don’t pick up their running game, they’ll hinder their passing game’s potential.
In other words, too many people make success an either/or proposition. Either you focus on strengths or you focus on building your weaknesses. When, in fact, it should be a both/and. Run with your strengths and shore up your weaknesses.
However, that said, shoring up and focusing on weaknesses can be both demotivating and difficult for an organization and its people–which is why I like the Theory of Constraints. Because the theory doesn’t say focus on all of them, it says, “Focus on the major one.”
So, how do you do that? Well that’s for our next discussion. But for now, I’d recommend that you take out a piece of paper (or open a new document on your computer) and simply ask the question, “What are the major constraints that are hindering me (and my business/organization) from achieving my (our) potential?”
To your accelerated success!
Note: Your constraints could be external or internal, mental or physical, systemic or situational. For example, your constraint could be an individual. It could be a facility challenge. It could be a mental limitation. It could be a technology issue. It could be a reach issue. It could be a conversion issue. It could be a training issue. It could be a financial issue. Etc. Don’t worry about narrowing down yet. Just start thinking about your constraints.
New Free Report on Fast Growth Released Today!
Posted by: | CommentsWant to Know How You Can Immediately Begin to Grow Your Business Faster Than You Ever Have Before—While Increasing Your Ability to Lead It More Effectively?
If so, you’ll want to immediately get your hands on the new free report I just released today entitled, “The Seven Secrets of Fast Growth Companies.”
Inside it you’ll discover,
• The number one differentiator between slow and fast growth companies
• The two key elements you need to use to create a fast growth culture
• A simple practice that can radically reduce the time it takes to implement anything
• A lesson from a Harvard professor that can change the way you think forever about your products and services
• A top team practice that can change any meeting you run—and make it more effective.
• The one metric you need to use before choosing any growth idea if you want to be an accelerated growth company
• How you can create a business that’ll scale fast
• How to avoid letting your market think you’re just like “everyone else.”
• How you can create a business that works 24/7, especially when you’re not around.
• And the number one mistake that most CEOs of small and medium-sized make
To get your copy immediately, just fill in the form in the right hand column entitled, “Interested in the 7 Secrets of Fast Growth Companies?” and then click the submit button, “Send it to me now!”
Then after you read it, post your comments below!
Want to Get the Truth from Your People?
Posted by: | CommentsAs a leader, you want to believe your people are telling you the truth–but are they? Though some of us as entrepreneurial leaders have always been our own bosses, chances are you were at some point an employee. So, when you were an employee, did you always tell your boss the truth?
I’m not talking about lying (hopefully, you didn’t do that). I’m talking about telling the whole truth. 
For example, did you tell your boss what you thought your boss wanted to hear or what you thought needed to be said? Or when your boss asked, “Are we all on board?” were you willing to risk saying to your boss and the rest of your team, “I’m not really in agreement!” Or when you heard that other people in your organization expressing some frustration with your boss, were you willing to tell your boss, “Hey, I think you’ve got a problem!”
If you’re like the vast majority of people, your answers to the above questions were, “Not really.” If that is true of you–and you have leadership capabilities, why would you ever think that your people are always telling you the truth?
Now, this may seem self-serving (it’s not intended to), but this is one of the main reasons why you should regularly hire outside consultants. I’m always amazed at what employees tell me when I do my initial rounds of interviews with new clients. Some of what they say is predictable–but not always. Frequently, CEOs are surprised to find out what their people really think.
For example, we may think that we’re being a great boss by giving them lots of freedom, but they may be interpreting it as, “He doesn’t really care.” Or we may think that when we took the time to create, as a group, a new mission, vision and values statement that we did a great job. But they may be thinking, “This is just window dressing so she doesn’t have to deal with Joe and Judy and their lack of performance.”
Or we may think we’re doing a great job coaching our team because we give them lots of ideas and feedback, but they may be thinking, “I can never do anything right for him. He never says, ‘Great idea. Run with it!’” Or, we may be completely unaware that our non-verbals are communicating loud and clear, “I’m not listening to you.”
Throughout history, very few people have been willing to speak into power. It always has been and always will be. Though you and I will occasionally find some senior staff who will tell us the truth, most won’t. So don’t be surprised.
As you may know, one of the first steps toward creating change is facing reality. But to get there, you’ll probably need someone from the outside to help you get there. It’s no different than asking your customers to tell you the truth. Some will, but most will simply tell you what you want to hear. To get the real truth–and that is what you want–you’ll probably need someone from the outside to help you get there. So, choose wisely!
To your accelerated growth!
P.S. This should go without saying, but that someone should possess great relational skills, be able to bond quickly, and have impeccable integrity.
Do Your People Know What an “A” Looks Like?
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’re like most of my clients, chances are you regularly get frustrated by the performance of your people. Sometimes it’s because they’re not executing fast enough. Sometimes it’s because they’re not thinking clearly and anticipating issues and problems. Etc. But one of the more common frustrations is “They just don’t execute at a high enough standard,” (which, of course, is a nice translation of, “They dropped the ball”).
So, what can you do to quickly improve their performance while decreasing their mistakes?
One answer is to raise their standards by clearly defining what an “A” performance looks like. My guess is that if you were to do that right now with your team, you’d probably end up with a fairly divergent set of answers to the question, “What do you think an ”A“ (or ”A+“ or ”10“) looks like?”
If you think “everyone” on your team already knows the “right” answer, I challenge you to have them write their answers out WITHOUT any discussion. Then have them share and compare their written answers and, unless you’re an unusually gifted leader, you’ll probably find that everyone isn’t on the same page. Don’t be surprised by this. It’s normal. Everyone has expectations all the time about everything–and rarely are they ever the same–unless someone has repeatedly defined what those expectations should be (which, by the way, is your job :-).
It’s not a bad idea to have a team discussion about what an “A” should look like–but never ever surrender your responsibility as the leader to set the standards. Hopefully, as the primary leader, you can persuade your people to concur with what you think an “A” should look like. But if you get to an impasse, feel free to use your “leader card.”
Now, when you’re developing your standards, make sure you’re thinking about both negative and positive standards. For example, in a previous career, I used to pastor a large church. Now, if you’ve ever attended a religious service of any persuasion, you’ve undoubtedly encountered a few mistakes during their service (a Power Point slide has a typo or the person on the Power Point isn’t in the same place as the speaker or worship leader. The lighting person has lights off when they should be on. A microphone crackles or dies during the message, etc.).
Obviously most religious leaders don’t want that to happen during their services–but they do–and almost every week, at least in any religious service I’ve ever attended. So, to combat that, one of my standards for our services was, “No Dropped Balls!” Now, I could have chosen a positive standard, “Every cue right!” but the power of the phrase, “No Dropped Balls!” was so much better and clearer that I chose that one.
On the other hand, here’s a positive one. Have you ever been in a religious service and the music just didn’t “move” you? Why isn’t that? Forget the words and the quality of the musicians, there are songs (secular and religious), that either cause you to want to tap your foot or not. The ones that cause you to want to tap your foot (they can be slow or fast, the tempo is irrelevant) are songs that have an intrinsic beat. The words are a distant second to the rhythm when it comes to people feeling moved. Therefore, one of my standards was, “Every song chosen needs to cause someone to want to move physiologically.” So some of your standards might be worded positively, while others might be more powerful if worded negatively.
Now, I know most of you aren’t leading a religious organization, you’re leading a business. But the principle I’m sharing with you is just as valid. Unless your people have a clear vision of what you want them to produce, chances are they won’t hit it. You’ll be frustrated with them continually and they’ll feel they can’t make you happy. So, eliminate that.
Clearly define what an “A” looks like in terms that everyone can understand. Hopefully, you noticed as you read this post that I came up with simple phrases like, “No Dropped Balls!” to describe what the standard was. Then, once you set the standards, you’ve got to cast vision for them every week (not once in awhile–every week). Then ensure that the systems, accountabilities, and resources are in place to ensure that week in and week out, your team is performing at an “A” level.
If you make this simple change, I’m confident you’ll see a massive difference in your people!
To your accelerated success!
P.S. Just as an aside. I left my church four and a half years ago and one of the common refrains I hear from people is, “It’s just not the same. Every week something happens where I think, ‘If Bruce was here, he wouldn’t have let that happen.’“ In other words, unless a leader casts vision for excellence (an ”A“) and holds people accountable to those standards, every organization and group of people will slowly move toward accepting something less. It is your job to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Want to Increase Your Organization’s Speed?
Posted by: | CommentsIf you could speed up the pace at which your people implement and execute your ideas and plans, what would that be worth to you?
For years, I’ve looked for catalytic mechanisms to do just that and have found few. One of the few ideas I had heard about was the idea of holding a daily meeting or daily huddle–which I simply resisted as impractical and unsustainable. 
Now, if you’re my age range or older (I’m 48), you might remember watching LA Law or Murder One and seeing the actors conduct their daily meeting. Or maybe you read Patrick Lencioni’s 2004 book, Death By Meeting (you’ve got to love the title :-) and thought about the idea (I know I did).
However, for me, the person whom I’ve heard harp the most about it is Verne Harnish of Gazelles (the author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits). When I attended Verne’s two day conference on Mastering the Rockefeller Habits this past June, I anticipated that he’d talk about it–and I anticipated that I’d pass on the idea once again. However, while I was right about the former, I was wrong about the later. Let me explain how he won me over.
Verne began by discussing John D. Rockefeller’s daily habit that he and the other leaders of Standard Oil had. They would walk together to work, go their separate ways, and then at noon they’d reconvene and have lunch together. And they did this EVERY DAY. Remembering that John D. was/is, using current dollar amounts, the richest man to have lived, I thought, “That’s a pretty powerful argument for a daily meeting.”
Then Verne asked, “How many of you have the discipline of this man?” (which led to a slide of T. Boone Pickens). He said, “Here’s the daily routine of T. Boone. He has two analysts meet at 5:45 a.m. every day. They review the data from yesterday and overnight and then meet with T. Boone at 6:15 a.m. to present him with their findings. At 6:30 a.m. T. Boone works out and mulls over what they’ve told him. At 7:30 a.m., T. Boone meets with his top executives for breakfast (again every day) to talk strategy. Then at 4:30 p.m. they reconvene and he asks, ”What did we learn today?“
He then went on to talk about other companies like Goldman Sachs, where they convene for meetings twice a day, this time at 6:00 a.m. and again at 6:00 p.m. What was interesting about the Goldman Sachs reference was that, not only do they meet twice a day, their profit per employee is about two and a half times that of their competitors like Merril Lynch ($251K vs. $95K).
Sold! However, Verne had one more nail to nail in my coffin. He then asked, ”If you only meet once a month with your executives to discuss your business and review your metrics, how long is your decision cycle? If you meet once a week, how long is your decision cycle? If you meet daily, how long?“ Then, came the killer close, ”So, in a volatile market, who do you think wins–the team that meets monthly, weekly or daily?“ Doubly Sold!
Now, if you’re like me, you have all kinds of questions like,
- ”How long should we meet?“ (no more than 15 minutes)
- ”When should we meet?“ (whenever you want–just make sure it’s daily)
- ”What should we discuss?“ (Verne suggests, What’s up? What are the metrics? Where are you stuck? But you can use any questions you want–fixed or not)
- ”What if we’re not all available?“ (Everyone who can, should. If you can’t, bring a doctor’s permission slip :-)
- ”What if we’re not all in the same physical location?“ (phones and conference calls work)
However, rather than get bogged down in details, I’d simply encourage you to give it a try for the next sixty days. You’ll figure out the best formula in your organization. But this much I’m convinced of, if you and your team would touch base daily, focus on moving your key initiatives forward (that would be the metrics part), and help each other get unstuck–there’s no question in my mind that you’ll speed up the process of executing your plan and generating more business.
No one likes showing up at a meeting and having to say, ”I’m sorry, I didn’t get that done.“ But when you’re only meeting once a month or once a week, it’s a whole lot easier to swallow than when you’re meeting every day. The accountability of meeting every day is a very powerful tool.
So, when can you start? Today or tomorrow sounds about right!
To your accelerated success!
Don’t Think About It, Do It!
Posted by: | CommentsHow many times have you thought about doing something that you know would be helpful or good or beneficial–and then not done it? I know, probably somewhere north of ten thousand times (at least that’s my running total).
Well, this week, I’m on vacation at one of my favorite places on planet earth, Sea Pines Plantation in Hilton Head, NC. 
And as is my custom, I get up each morning, get on a rental bike, and go for about an hour long bike ride along the bike paths inside this beautiful resort–filled with wildlife (including gators), gorgeous golf courses, and multi-million dollar homes.
Yesterday morning (Sunday), as I was on my ride, I noticed a number of other people who were running (which is clearly more exercise than I was getting on my pleasure bike ride). And as I saw them, many who were in great shape, I silently thought to myself, “Boy, I wish I were in that great a shape.” Or, “I used to be one of them (like 30 years ago when I was a multi-sport athlete).”
But as I thought those thoughts, my negative thought patterns sprung into action.
- “But I’m not one of them any more.”
- “My knees are in such bad shape from soccer, I can’t run anymore.”
- “It’s been so long since I’ve run, it’ll be an embarrassment if I even start.”
- “I’m too out of shape to run right now, I’ll need to work up to it.” Etc.
You know those kinds of thoughts don’t you?
But something magical happened when I arrived back at our vacation home. I got off my bike and said to myself, “Forget about all the reasons why this won’t work. Just try it. Just run to the fire hydrant. You always talk about speed of implementation. Back it up Jack.”
So I did. Now, it wasn’t pretty. I’d pick a spot. Run to it. Walk the same distance. Run to another spot. Walk the same distance. Run to another spot. Etc. I felt like I sucked all the oxygen out of Hilton Head Island. Hyperventilation would be a polite way of saying what I was experiencing. But I did it!
And this morning, after another hour long bike ride, I ran again. This time, I went about four times farther and sucked a little less oxygen. And so I find myself, on this second day of vacation thinking about how often you and I allow our excuses to get in the way of making progress (not just in our personal lives, but also in our businesses and organizations).
So, how about you? What have you been thinking about doing, but haven’t done, because you’ve allowed your head to get in the way of doing it?
- Calling a prospect (it’s not the right time)
- Hiring a new sales person (I don’t have all the details worked out)
- Creating a new strategic plan (We’re too busy to take the time to work on that)
- Providing critical feedback to an employee (I don’t think they’ll respond well)
- Delegating several tasks (I can get them done faster if I just do them)
- Calling on a prospective joint venture partner (I don’t know if they’ll say, “Yes!” so I better wait)
We all do this. It’s nothing new. But it is reality. What holds you and me back has far more to do with what we tell ourselves than it does with finding some new idea or technique.
So rather than thinking about it today, why don’t you just do it. As long as it’s legal, beneficial, profitable, good, etc. go for it. You’ll be glad you did.
To your accelerated success!
How Do You Respond to Critique and Feedback?
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s more important than you think! When I work with senior executives, and we’re one-on-one, they tend to be defensive around critique and accountability in general. But when I’m with them, and they need to be critiqued in front of their executive teams (Note: in a session designed for critique and evaluation. I normally provide feedback one-on-one after a meeting, not in public), their response is almost always defensive–and that’s not good news.
Why? Because what signal does that send to employees?
Senior executives like to critique and evaluate employee performance. And when I’m with them, they’re almost always critical of the performance of any number of their people (which is fine). But then they wonder why their people don’t listen or make changes in response to the feedback that they (the senior exec) have given them (the employee). Hello!
It’s always been true. People do what people see.
If you want your people to be open to critique, then you need to be the most open to critique of anyone in your organization. If you want your people to make changes in response to critique, then you need to be the fastest change agent in your organization. And if you don’t want your people to be excuse makers, then you need to avoid excuse making like the plague.
One of my favorite professors used to say, “If you want your people to bleed, then you need to hemorrhage.”
In other words, one of the costs of leadership is that we not only have to go first, we have to go farther. Why? Because people do what people see.
Forget what you say. Your people are watching you every day and they’re watching your non-verbals first.
- Do you get defensive with your physical posture?
- Do you look disengaged or angry?
- Do you lean in like you’re going to attack them?
- Do you have that, “Don’t mess with me!” vibe?
- Or do you have an open, pleasant and receptive look?
Then they look at your verbals.
- Do you respond harshly?
- Do you go on the attack?
- Do you make excuses?
- Or, do you ask questions, “Can you help me understand that?” and then say, “Thank you!”
Bottom line, if you want your people to be more open to critique and make changes, then you’ll want to make sure you’re the most open to critique person on your team. It really does matter more than you think!
To your accelerated success!
What’s the Best Advice You’ve Ever Received?
Posted by: | CommentsNow, I don’t know if you saw the Fortune magazine edition entitled, “The Best Advice I Ever Got” (7.6.09) but it’s an interesting read. For example, in very shortened form,
- Eric Schmidt (CEO, Google). John Doerr told me to, “Get a coach,” even though I didn’t think I could learn anything from a coach.
- Tiger Woods. Rather than focusing on technique and swing, my father told me to, “Pick a spot and then figure out how to hit it there.”
- Mohammed El-Erian (CEO, Pimco). My father told me to, “Read four newspapers because if you don’t read different points of view your mind will eventually close and you’ll become a prisoner of a certain point of view that you’ll never question.”
- Jim Sinegal (CEO, Costco) Sol Price said to me one day, “If you’re going to go to the trouble of hiring someone, it’s because you can’t do the job yourself–so you’d better show them how you’d do it.” In other words, he was letting me know that a good manager is a good teacher.
So, what about you? What’s the best advice anyone has given to you?
Now, you may be tempted to just write this off as a futile exercise but it’s not. Why? Because the essence of great leadership is teaching. Great leaders don’t just take a group of people someplace, they seek to influence and change the lives of those they’re leading. And the main tool that leaders use to change behavior is story.
For example, when I’m working with leaders, one of the stories I usually tell is about a time when I was in seminary, back in 1987. The seminary where I was attending was in the midst of a faculty split and I had professorial friends on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, professors on both sides shared information with me about the people on the other side that they shouldn’t have shared with me, a student.
Basically, I knew information (junk) on people that I shouldn’t have known and yet I still needed to interact with those people. So one day, in the midst of this internal turmoil, I was walking across the center of campus (I can still see it vividly in my mind’s eye) with one of those professors, a guy named Paul, when I shared with him my frustration of knowing information (junk) about both sides that I could never share or use. To which Paul said,
“Congratulations. You’ve just learned one of the most important lessons of leadership. Leadership is lonely. You will always know more information than you can share or use. Welcome to the club.“
That advice has served me incredibly well for the past twenty-two years. Leadership is lonely. It’s tough not being able to share information that could help you and your cause. And it’s tough having to carry a burden that no one else in your business or organization even understands. But nonetheless, when you know leadership is lonely (and that this is what all leaders experience), it helps.
Now, of course, I could have simply told you, ”Leadership is lonely.“ But the story helps you remember the principle, doesn’t it?
Realizing that, don’t you think you would be a more effective leader/teacher if you took some time to think about the best advice you ever received? And then started sharing it? And then once you started making your list, you regularly added to it, as you either remembered stories or learned valuable lessons? Absolutely!
So, if you want to be a more effective leader, what is the best advice you’ve ever received? Make a list. Then look for opportunities to start sharing those stories. Why? Because that’s what great leaders do!
To your accelerated success!
Is Perfection Getting in Your Way?
Posted by: | CommentsI was at a conference this past week when one of the speakers, a copywriter by the name of Ray Edwards, nailed me–in a positive way.
The way he got to me was by asking two simple questions. Showing a picture of a MacDonald’s hamburger, he asked,
1. How would you describe the quality of a MacDonald’s hamburger?
2. Who sells the most hamburgers in the world?
Point made. Point received.
I don’t know about you, but I often get stuck by trying to make something “perfect.” I have three books, several new talks, and a couple of projects all stuck in varying states of completion–not because I can’t get them done–but because I want to make them PERFECT!
In the literary world, it’s the equivalent of wanting to write, “The Next Great American Novel.” It’s the desire to want to write something that “no one else has written.” Or to say something so compelling that newswires will want to pick it up, blogs will want to make it viral, TV reporters will want to call for interviews, and schools of business will want to make it required reading (of course, by this point, you’ve already figured out–this guy lacks reality–exactly!).
It’s this longing to do something perfect, to do something that causes people to take notice, that tends to hinder so many of us. When, in reality, we ought to set our sights a little lower. While I may want to write the “ultimate” guide to growing a business, there is no such ultimate book to be written.
In the mean time, while I’m waiting to create the perfect/ultimate book, others are publishing their books and making money–and the people I could be helping out are missing out.
Likewise, in your world, chances are (if you’ve been infected with the disease of perfectionism), you’re doing something similar. You have projects on hold, products that haven’t been launched, services that haven’t gone public, talks and letters that haven’t been written, and presentations that haven’t seen the light of day, etc. Not because you can’t get them done, but because you’re waiting until the thing you’re working on is … well, perfect.
But in a business environment, perfection is not the goal–it’s an impediment. In fact, when Ray was speaking I wrote in my notes, “Perfection > leads to procrastination > which leads to poverty.”
While you or I may want to create the perfect burger (metaphorically), the reality is that someone else (MacDonalds, in this case), is making a ton of money while we’re still in the design phase.
So, if your goal is making money, or influencing others, or meeting a critical need or want for your target market, then you’ll want to revisit this MacDonald’s hamburger metaphor again and again. Make sure you beat down the perfection monster. And whatever you do, make sure you get what you’re working on out in the world. As I’ve said for years,
“Excellence is not perfection. Excellence is doing the best you can with what you’ve got in the amount of time you’ve got to get it done.”
So what projects have you been holding off on or delaying because of perfectionism? And how much more money (or whatever metric your project works with) could you be making if you stopped waiting for perfection and just got that thing out in the marketplace?
To your accelerated success!