Yours "Predictably"
Sunitha Ray
Digital | Technology | Supply Chain | Sustainability | Transformation | Innovation | Advisory | Speaker | #BT150 Honoree - Constellation Research 2025
I recently met with a friend who had rapidly progressed to the C-suite of a global conglomerate. As I braced myself with a coffee in hand for a House-of-Cards-esque anecdote, he surprisingly told me what he attributed his trajectory to: Predictability.
As I dwelved on this simple answer, it all made sense. We are creatures of habit, and of patterns. In a rapidly changing paradigm, there are few things which follow a pattern, and those which do, form part of our comfort zones. All shareholders of corporations want consistent growth, which translates into predictability. Predictability mean different things to different stakeholders but in the end, it's the most valuable attribute which commands a certain premium.
For a delivery leader, predictability manifests itself in consistent achievement of time, quality, risk, scope metrics. For a sales leader, predictability in numbers achieved, quotas met, forecasting annual or quarterly revenues accurately, and consistency in deals closure rate. And you get the idea...However in this context, predictability also means consistently making the best business decisions, careful preparation, execution and business acumen, reliability in solving customers' problems, track record in hiring and nurturing the right talent and growing the business, predictably balanced, even, fair, and clear judgment and higher level thinking and consistently adding credibility to the organization. After all, excellence is no coincidence.
I think you meant BRACED. The word you used is for cooking. Had be going for a while!!!!
Director at NJM Blends Pvt. Ltd.
10 年Good point Sunitha. "In a rapidly changing paradigm, there are few things which follow a pattern..." I suppose the challenge is to maintain predictability (in results) in this context and therein lies the success measure.
Digital | Technology | Supply Chain | Sustainability | Transformation | Innovation | Advisory | Speaker | #BT150 Honoree - Constellation Research 2025
10 年Great comments. Yes, there are two sides to the coin, you are predictable / loyal / reliable to your superiors to produce the most RoI; you are innovative / motivating / results focused with your team members to get them to perform their best. Life is binary alright (very true, there's only black or white in sales); but life is simply not so monochromatic. There is a need to wear different hats and juggle multiple objectives since each role has a different desired outcome. Blake, by differentiating 'predictability in outcome' to 'predictability in strategy', we arrive at your same theory. There's a constant need to innovate (that by itself is predictable, don't you think so?). For instance, in poker, to be a consistent WSOP final table/winners circle every year, you have to be really unpredictable/changing strategy continuously during the game; but then that's innovation / strategy needed to win the game. If you do that predictably well and winning most of the time, you are ranked/seeded and command a certain premium like Negreanu or Phil Ivey. Please note I'm staying away from futbol analogies at this time :)
Helping our clients prepare for and benefit from new FSMA regulation. Leveraging greater efficiency while creating more sales opportunity.
10 年He forgot context. From the perspective of his superiors, he's predictable.They need predictable. What would his direct reports say? He may be the most innovative leader they've ever had, right? If he's innovative in the way he sets expectation and in the ways he delivers motivation and insight and that helps him deliver predictable results, is he innovative or is he predictable? Then again, when your deliverables are measurable results, how innovative can you be. In sales, ironically, life can be binary; you deliver results or you don't.