Career Advice for My Sons, Part 4: Urgency

Career Advice for My Sons, Part 4:? Urgency

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Welcome back to part four of a four-part series on the characteristics of excellent team members--advice for my sons drawn from years of interviewing, managing, and joining teams. Thanks for joining this journey, and if we have worked together at one time, thanks for enriching my experience.? I’m hoping our experiences can help the next generation achieve greater joy and meaning in their work, lead impactful teams, and influence a culture of contribution in the workplace.?

• Part 1:? Purpose
• Part 2:? Ownership
• Part 3:? Accountability

This last installment is about urgency.? Like it or not, we all have a shelf life.? The window for us to offer what we can create and contribute as a blessing to the world is limited and closing fast.? I’ve had the privilege of knowing some great leaders who are extending their careers mentoring, teaching, volunteering, serving on boards, and effecting change. They seem to have an insatiable drive to contribute that keeps them energized. Part of that drive is associated with an innate sense of urgency. “Time is short, I’m not here forever, I must share what I have learned!” ?In many ways, this series comes from that same sense of urgency.

In college and early in my career, I resisted urgency.? It generated anxiety and felt like a loss of control over my time and focus. I hated the feeling of being rushed. Now I can see I was choosing perfectionism over productivity. ?Perfectionism felt safer. ??Unfortunately life doesn’t move so slowly that we can analyze or edit the mistakes out of every action. I’ve had to learn (am still learning) that the drive for perfection has diminishing returns if it leads to inaction. I've learned that FOBI* leads to missed opportunities, for ourselves and our businesses. (*Fear of Being Incorrect).

Urgency is a healthy counterbalance to inaction by perfectionism.

We can all name businesses who failed to adapt to changing technology and market demands. Blockbuster Video is a famous example for my generation.? What was lacking?? Foresight into shifting technology and market demands?? Often, the changing landscape is obvious. I would argue lack of urgency stifles focus and innovation.? For instance, I’ve been hearing predictions of the dominant role of AI in customer engagement since Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa first emerged. ?Leading companies began to float AI concepts to augment enterprise customer experience, but AI wasn’t introduced in a disruptive manner until years later.? Suddenly in 2022 ChatGPT enters the scene and it’s no longer acceptable to have a roadmap without a prominent focus on Generative AI.? Everyone from teachers and students to doctors and patients need to solve for a relationship changed by LLM.? Our enterprise applications and contact centers will never be the same again. Businesses can only remain relevant with a healthy sense of urgency in their DNA.

I agree with Frank Slootman’s comments from his book, Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity

Urgency is a mindset that can be learned if it doesn’t come to you naturally. You can embrace the discomfort that comes with moving faster, instead of avoiding it. More pep in our step energizes the workplace culture, making everything seem lighter, quicker, and easier. When everyone on the team embraces urgency, we all move at a similar pace, without being slowed down by distractions. (Slootman, 41)

And so, advice for my sons (and anyone else reading): ?if you find yourself in an industry or a culture that rewards stasis, keeping things the same instead of an urgent drive toward better service, more competitive offerings, leading edge customer engagement:? get out.? You’re in the wrong place.

These lessons have elevated the value of urgency for me:

1. Urgent deadlines prompt action. As I mentioned in Part 3:? Accountability , I’ve enjoyed working on teams that set and share targets on a recurring basis. Deadlines address the question of “what do we need to do and when do we need to do it by?” always keeping the objective at the forefront. The tendency towards procrastination loses power in the face of urgent deadlines. I’m going to call out my son Ethan for a moment, (and myself, because we're very similar). ?Throughout his school years he would put off assignments until the last possible moment. It wasn’t laziness, he was avoiding painful discomfort associated with not having all the answers. Then, one evening he’d generate a lot of anxiety in the home because his assignment was due the next day! While this annoyed me, I began to suspect he would avoid the anxiety of the looming deadline until it grew so big it actually fueled his focus and snapped his brain to attention. Once he had no choice but to confront the pain, he would lock in, the answers would come and he began to execute. I recalled my own college years of all-night papers, where a C grade at 11 PM could become a B grade by 3 AM and would turn into an A grade by 7 AM. ?I did this far too often.? But I have since learned to walk back the deadline to a timeline with incremental urgencies spread over months and weeks instead of all in one night (Ethan is learning this too). An early career stop in project management helped solidify this for me. Now I manage everything with a real or imaginary gantt chart.
2. Urgency is motivating. A team leader who conveys a healthy urgency for achieving a tangible goal gets others swept up in the cause. The emotional energy generated by a sense of urgency lights a fire of productivity and increases focus, often even enhancing the quality of the output.? Sports teams employ this to great effect.? This is the team! This is our year! Let’s GO! ?This sort of urgency hacks the individualistic mindset of teammates and unlocks an ability to join together, push through exhaustion and pain, and chase a shared vision of success. If you're a Shakespeare nerd like me, you'll recall The St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V , or for something more accessible, William Wallace's rousing speech from Mel Gibson's Braveheart .
3. Urgency must be moderated. I qualify this as “appropriate urgency.” A sense of urgency requires balance and priority.? Everything might be important, but not everything can be urgent. If everything is urgent, then nothing is. The best companies I’ve worked for start out each period with a public determination of what to focus on, and what not to focus on. Those nots must be deprioritized, and must never suddenly become urgent without something else being taken off the top of the list. The worst organizations I’ve worked for changed the urgent focus every month, sometimes every week, with no regard for the trade-offs required by changes to resource focus and priority.

Up until now in this series, I've worked without the help of AI. But seeing as how I’ve mentioned the urgency of innovating, I decided to invite ChatGPT to help close out this discussion on urgency. Here are its suggestions. Thanks again for joining me on this series, and I look forward to making work more pleasant with you, for ourselves and for my sons' generation.

ChatGPT says about urgency (edited for brevity):

1. Seizing Opportunities - Urgency compels us to seize opportunities when they arise. In the business world, being able to identify and act swiftly on opportunities can be a game-changer.
2. Enhancing Productivity - Urgency is a catalyst for productivity. When we perceive a task as urgent, we are more likely to prioritize it and work efficiently to accomplish it.
3. Achieving Goals - Urgency plays a crucial role in goal setting and achievement. Without a sense of urgency, goals may remain unfulfilled and progress stagnates.
4. Adapting to Change - Urgency equips individuals and businesses with the resilience to adapt to change. In today's rapidly evolving world, those who can pivot and innovate quickly often thrive.
5. Enhancing Well-being - A sense of urgency can motivate us to prioritize self-care, make healthier choices, and pursue activities that bring us joy. It reminds us that time is a finite resource, encouraging us to live more intentionally.