Don't Fear the Hammer

Don't Fear the Hammer

At the NeuGroup offsite last week, I again challenged my team to think anew about why we do what we do. To get them thinking, I shared my description of our why based on a critical element of what drives me: 

 I am driven to see clarity in a sea of ideas and to find truth by hammering at the rock (the truth is what’s left).

This applies to NeuGroup directly in the sense that, as its founder, my vision is to bring together peers who will give to get and create value through knowledge exchange. The purpose of this knowledge exchange is to create clarity for action and continual improvement by hammering away at the current approach. Ultimately, this empowers people and the organizations they work with to realize their potential. 

My team asked me to put away the hammer. It may be fine to hammer at ideas, they said, but people will get hurt if we hammer on them—or what they do. 

Challenge instead?

They make a good point. Challenging people to think about what they are doing and improve is a safer form of facilitation for knowledge exchange. Safer still is to shy from the challenge. Most people are looking for validation, not true potential. Plus, we usually don't have time to find the truth and we can't always handle it when we do.

Challenging people, or ideas, is not what creates the most value, however; it is the hammer that brings out true potential. My challenge, then, to my team, our customers, indeed everyone and their organizations is don't fear the hammer. If you don't want others to hammer you, let them instead help you learn to wield the hammer yourself. Then, make time to hammer at your why and hammer at why you do what you do until you find your true potential. 

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Joseph Neu的更多文章

  • Top Five NeuGroup Insights from 2021

    Top Five NeuGroup Insights from 2021

    Reassessing the treasury finance org under new leadership tops the list of my 2021 insights. To close the year, I…

    4 条评论
  • Reimagining the Finance Future in 2020

    Reimagining the Finance Future in 2020

    Five items for finance leaders to focus on in 2020 and beyond. 2020 is upon us and the year itself has vision and…

    1 条评论
  • Financial Support for a Larger Corporate Purpose

    Financial Support for a Larger Corporate Purpose

    With the FT going all-in on this new agenda, I thought I would share this from my Founder's post in our NeuGroup…

  • Five Insights on Life Sciences M&A

    Five Insights on Life Sciences M&A

    The recent pick-up in M&A activity in the life sciences sector, plus articles noting the premiums being paid (like this…

  • Connecting Treasury to More and Better Data - The Death of the TMS?

    Connecting Treasury to More and Better Data - The Death of the TMS?

    The real fail point for treasury management systems is access to underlying data. One of the clear messages from the…

    6 条评论
  • What Is the No. 1 Question You Want Answered?

    What Is the No. 1 Question You Want Answered?

    Instead of our most popular session, something perhaps more valuable. At our H1 FX Summit this year, NeuGroup’s Anne…

    1 条评论
  • Does Your FX Dashboard Spark Envy?

    Does Your FX Dashboard Spark Envy?

    A NeuGroup FX Managers' Peer Group member sparked peer envy while going under the hood of the company’s FX dashboard…

  • Danger in Turning External Supervisory Compliance into Internal Audit

    Danger in Turning External Supervisory Compliance into Internal Audit

    Internal audit should not become a primary supervisory agent of external regulatory compliance. In gearing up for our…

  • Treasury as Gatekeeper to Market Entry

    Treasury as Gatekeeper to Market Entry

    In these volatile times, the gatekeeper role of treasury challenging corporate market entry plans, especially for…

    3 条评论
  • A Great Time for Options in Planning

    A Great Time for Options in Planning

    Lattice-based option pricing frameworks may be needed for corporate financial planning during the roller coaster ride…

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了