How to be a "hi-performer" in a "low-performance" environment, i.e. while in quarantine...
A) COVID-19 has messed up our lives very badly..., B) Being in quarantine is taking our time & energy but produces nothing of value..., C) I can hardly wait for the Shelter-in-Place to be lifted so I can do what I used to do..., which is WHAT?
Above, I mentioned three observations/objections that I hear in my line of business, from my clients who are trapped, colleagues who are baffled, and students who are tired of being in quarantine and living in uncertainty!
I do agree that those are three ways to think and three ways to live. In fact, they are representatives of people's philosophies about life, value, progress, becoming more or simply being & remaining the same... I would also have to add that I don't discount the role that your environment plays in your performance or lack thereof. That's why we want to belong to hi-performing groups and we send our kids to hi-performance schools. Having said that, let's get to the "meat" of my article.
In the past two "painful" months or so that by & large we have been at home, against our own wills for some, we also had two "opportune" months to ponder, restrategize, reengineer, reformulate, restructure, and reinvent ourselves, our work and our thoughts. We have had two solid months to readjust our lenses, redefine our purpose, and reroute our lives. Never in our entire lives have we had nearly 1,500 hours and no defined plan for those 60-days.
Dailiness kills...
As the legendary Zig Ziglar used to say; "Never be a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific." Sooner or later, when the lockdown is lifted, we will be handed our report cards for this semester & a half. Let your report card to show that you tried at it, learned, added value, etc. but don't let it show that you were totally consumed by "dailiness! Taking a new course that you've always dreamed of having the time to take, maybe the excellent thing to do. Forming/joining groups online could be another educational activity that you can proudly have on your report card. On Saturday we had our weekly Andeesheh Toastmasters meeting but this time we had people from three countries in two continents participating! We had never done this before, simply because we never had time, I guess! (wink)
A friendly nudge...
These days that we are staying at home are the best times to practice and improve our leadership skills. We can lead projects that no one else seems to be particularly interested in and bring them to fruition. In our nonprofit educational place, Lean Leadership Academy (LLA), our President is a 15-year old ambitious and disciplined young lady and we also have a 17-year old intelligent, hardworking young lady leading a team, which has already purchased and sent 800 N95 masks to a hospital in New York, has named itself as "Masks-4-New Yorkers" and is in the process of shipping 4,000 more N95 masks to Cove Island Hospital in Brooklyn! And interestingly enough, if it weren't for her leadership and her friendly nudge every week, chances are good that we wouldn't meet online, we wouldn't discuss things out and we wouldn't achieve the result as they did!
Mediocrity paralyzes but the inability to "start" does the damage first...
The approach and mindset should be that "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing the way I now know, can and have resources for" until I improve my status. As it has been said; "It's the start that stops most people."
Get into a habit of starting things and improving them later! Once you start, however, as the leader, you should put all your focus on regularly improving all aspects of the affair (Kaizen principle). If you don't Kaizen it, it will remain mediocre and deteriorate little by little. Additionally, as you may know, nothing can obliterate your work faster than mediocrity can!
Things to do then...
While in quarantine, our biggest enemy is mediocrity, not low performance.? Here's why I say that! Low performance often gives a jolt to the hi-performers by reminding them that they are not doing what they are capable of, however, mediocrity can give a false sense of accomplishment and that "jolt" may never be materialized.
Therefore, no matter what, never allow, "averageness, mediocrity or dailiness" prevail and if you are the type that you would (that I doubt very seriously), I am sorry that this article wasn't meant for you!
Godspeed, my friends!
Hormoz Mogarei Get Kaizened, Inc.