I Feel The Need; The Need For Speed

I remember many years back, as a kid, I used to run everywhere. Somehow, there was always so much to do each day and I was in a rush, even when I was on school holidays.

I'd rush things, make mistakes, receive the reprimand and learn how to improve. They told me to slow down and I tried but it was my MO. I'd realized there were so many things to learn, so much to experience that I felt it better to be imperfect and get through a lot than not!

Today's world is driven mostly by technological evolution and globalization, and everything is changing faster. So much more is out there today that has to be handled faster or you lose.

It's getting tougher out there; you try to pay attention to the strategic stuff, but then you can miss your short-term #s and directors or shareholders or share prices hit you! If you focus on the short-term, a competitor comes out of nowhere and charges by you. It's a challenge.

There is a better way

We all know that entrepreneurs and business owners have to think fast to survive. It's in their blood; moving quickly is a natural instinct to them. Still, it's difficult to overstate the importance of speed in business. With the pace at which society progresses, companies have to do whatever it takes to stay relevant.

The obvious benefit to working quickly is that you’ll finish more stuff per unit of time. But there’s more to it than that. If you work quickly, the cost of doing something new will feel lower and you'll be inclined to do more.

Speed-up:

Because The Consumer Demands It

We are in an age of immediacy. People simply aren't satisfied with the status quo; they want something more and they want it now. We must work quickly to satisfy these appetites because the consumer will frequently have no qualms about moving to another product or service. As companies continue to meet these expectations, too, overall standards rise, making speed all the more necessary.

A Sense Of Urgency

I think it was Anthony Robbins, the world-renowned life coach that said once, one of the greatest differences between great and average was sense of urgency.

Don't get me wrong, to achieve your personal success takes tremendous patience; in fact years of patience, but in staying the course and working fast, the size of that success is proportionate.

A Culture Of Speed

Once you've learnt speed as a way of living/operating you've built a habit; a habit that you can spread across your business/team. A team of people where standards for speed are part of your business MO. The benefits are obvious, but they can't be overstated. With everyone and everything moving faster, innovation and efficiency go through the roof, blowing back your competition and blowing away your customers. No company in any industry can expect to get ahead with a slow culture; by design, entrepreneurship is all about moving forward and pushing innovation forward.

Learn Faster

As you learn to move quickly, you naturally evolve faster than ever, experiencing compounding and rapid growth. Just like any other business trait, the more it's practiced, the easier it becomes to maintain it, allowing companies to eventually move at a rapid pace with ease.

You learn to run the marathon through a series of sprints!

Your Competition Can Be Unscrupulous

There's a part of my recruitment business that places us as part of a "Preferred Supplier List" for contractor recruiters. When a requirements comes out from a client the job is to reach out to all the potential candidates, finding the most motivated and skilled for the role. The right way is to talk to relevant people, gain their permission to be put forward, re-package their CV for the client's ease of read and submit. It takes time, but it's the right way to do it. Unfortunately, not all recruiters do that and can short-cut the process, sometimes going as far as to not speak to candidates and instead "sling them" over.

As much as you can be tempted to short-cut the process, you need to "hold the line", do the right thing, but do it faster than anyone else!

Not So Long Ago

It wasn't too long ago that I was working in various emerging economies and things moved much slower than I was used to. I recall as I walked around the streets of the capital cities that people walked much slower.

Over time, I realised it was because there was little need to go fast and with the hot weather of the tropics, it often made you sweaty!

But then I realised that mentality infiltrated the workplace. As I observed my team, I noticed most walked, meandered and strolled around the office and then there were one or two who almost ran between offices, meetings and grabbing a coffee. The latter were my leaders, the people who were always looking forward, always focused on the solution, always wanted to get things done. From that day on, part of my interview process involved seeing how fast they moved and observing a sense of urgency!

Always love to hear your thoughts

Andrew

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