LOOKING BACK WILL HOLD YOU BACK

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion……”

Music lovers of old will recognize this as a line from the song popularized by the famous pop group, Bonney M, in the late seventies. What many who know the song may not know though is that it is based on the Biblical Psalm 137:1-4, written in lamentation by the Jewish people after the early Babylonians captured Jerusalem and took them into exile in Babylon. Ordinarily, the Jews, being God’s chosen people and enjoying His direct protection, should have easily defeated the Babylonian attackers in war. But they had disobeyed Him by practicing idolatry, so in punishment, He allowed them to be conquered and taken into exile. Now they sat in this ‘strange land’ reminiscing the good old days when they were back home and in God’s favor.

Like the exiles of Babylon, many times we will find ourselves in undesirable situations forced upon us by circumstances which may or may not have been of our making. A business strategy gone wrong, an unexpected headwind to the business or even poor execution of an otherwise good strategy are all circumstances that could throw us off balance. Sometimes it happens suddenly but many times we slide gradually into it. When this happens though, I’m not sure that the strategy of sitting back and reminiscing what ‘could have been’ is the right one to take. Self-pity probably works as a strategy in many other circumstances but certainly not in the business leadership world. In this world there are several alternative interventions leaders must pursue in such situations.

Rather than sit back and mourn, the first thing a leader finding himself ‘washed out onto a desert island’ needs to do is urgently get into reflection and inflection mode. It is critical that one deeply understand the cause of their dilemma. Headwinds and missteps will occur, but to avoid similar future occurrences one needs to quickly appreciate the root cause, fix it, learn from it and move on. Without the ability to do this consistently growth is impeded. This said though, it is easier said than done. Self-blame and luck of motivation will naturally stand in the way. So how does one practically navigate this challenge?

Firstly, one must constantly keep focused on their ‘North star’. Why were they doing this in the first place? What is their purpose? Clearly understanding this serves as a motivation to keep getting up after each fall. Failure can be painful, and only where purpose is clear is one able to take the fall again and again, as long as the lessons from each fall are used for real learning and patiently rebuilding. Purpose also keeps one striving to achieve that which he set out to achieve despite the odds.

Along with being clear on the ‘why’, and learning from failure, comes ‘ownership’ of the problem. It seldom helps anyone’s case when they keep looking for someone else to blame for their situation. Rarely will anyone from the outside come in to take control of your problem, especially if you keep calling them out as the reason you are in it in the first place. Everyone is dealing with their own ‘demons’ and will scarcely find the time to help you deal with yours. That said though, they might be more apt to supporting you with one solution or the other out of those you have identified yourself. So, taking responsibility for your own mishap and working on getting off the island yourself is sure to be a safe bet.

Many times, once off the ‘island’ and safely back on shore, there is a temptation to keep looking back and mourn the loss that we incurred by getting onto it in the first place. This is a very risky habit to adopt because all it helps one achieve is the assurance that they will never move forward, or if they do, they will do so very slowly. It is important that once out of the hole, unless for purposes of learning, one should let go of the past. What is lost is lost, and now the focus and commitment should be aimed at looking ahead. In the case of the exiled ancient Jews, 70 years after being taken into exile they redeemed the favor of God, and he enabled the return to their motherland. History tells us that they had indeed learnt their lesson and having done so it was to be a long time before they transgressed again from the ‘good’ ways.