The Marathon—The High Performance Igniter?

The High Performance Igniter? is a brief perspective on what I’m seeing in the market, topics of interest for leaders and resources and tidbits to help you with your business. Here’s my take for November 1, 2023.

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Things I’ve been thinking about

Years ago, a colleague shared an analogy.

He said leadership is like a marathon.

The starting gun goes off and leaders start running full speed ahead.

Meanwhile, many of the people in the organization are at the back of the pack standing around waiting for their turn to start.

Fifteen minutes later, the people in the back of the pack get to start.?

At which point, the leaders are already miles down the road.

I liked the analogy for several reasons.

First, the marathon analogy frames the situation as long term.

You want to move fast, but not so fast that you deplete your resources before getting to the destination.

And second, it’s a reminder for leaders to make sure that their people are keeping up.

Leaders have thought long and hard about which direction to go and charge ahead.

They’ve talked about the plan amongst themselves until they are blue in the face.

But often times, people in other locations, departments or positions haven’t even heard which direction to go in, let alone the full plan.

And for leaders, they’ve been at it for so long, they don’t realize people haven’t even started yet.

So, as planning for next year and the years ahead starts or continues, think through what you are doing to make sure your people are keeping up.

And include a communications component in the plan to make sure you are regularly talking with your people about the direction and progress of the business.

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To your growth and success,?

Heidi

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