Seeing things through to the end...
As we approach November 11th, I always like to remind myself about the life choices I made that have brought me to the place I am now. Every decision has consequences and I made a number of conscious decisions earlier in my life that have impacted every aspect of my career.?
My first real career role found me hitting a glass ceiling after proving myself through diligent execution for 5 straight years. I looked for further advancement in my role and was told that without a university degree I would remain at my current career level. I asked my leader candidly about why my performance was less important than a post-secondary education. His answer was simple:?
“A university degree demonstrates your ability to see something through until the end”
The company graciously offered to pay for me to get my degree but I declined and not soon after chose to leave and take a role at another organization that put less weight on a post-secondary education and instead had a culture of pure meritocracy, which I thrived in.
The conscious choice I have made to NOT pursue post secondary education has consistently surfaced throughout my career, usually as an impediment - and all I can hear in my head when this happens is the narrative from my previous leader about seeing something through until the end.
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The photo on this post is of me, at 17 years old. I had just been presented with the award for being recognized as the top athlete in the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School (CFLRS). What many don’t know is that I had spent the previous 17 years of my life battling life threatening asthma which had seen me nearly die once and be hospitalized and living in an oxygen tent numerous times. For all intents and purposes, winning this award should have been seen as an impossibility given my medical condition.
The CFLRS is designed to push people to their breaking point. It is the type of place that has been created to identify and highlight weaknesses in you as an individual contributor, team member, and leader. Once those weaknesses are identified, the instructors at the school have been trained to apply pressure to these areas of weakness to force you to improve or to make life so unbearably hard during your stay that you collapse under the pressure and quit.
During my time, I consistently ran faster and further than any other recruit (while on little to no sleep), something I should have been physically incapable of doing given my condition. I did so many chinups during my evaluation that I broke all the blood vessels in my elbows, leaving the insides of my arms purple and bruised - a gentle reminder of how much stronger my mind was compared to my body. When my instructors saw my performance and my suffering, they pushed me harder and instead of conceding I continued to up the bar of my performance. Being a high performer wasn’t enough, they wanted to see my limit and wanted to see if I was willing to find it. My willingness to push my perceived limits was more important to them than meeting a minimum standard.
I left that school a different human than when I entered, and with a better understanding that for many people, their mind was the biggest limiting factor in reaching their peak performance. Being able to “See something through to the end” is a very important personality trait but it doesn’t necessarily come from a university degree and we are starting to see this gap in the cultures being cultivated within organizations.?
@SimonSinek (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/simonsinek/) recently shared a short video on Tiktok that I believe to be required viewing for the younger generation entering the workforce and beginning their careers as well as the most tenured and senior leadership responsible for building teams and executing successfully in today's world. It captures the essence of personal ownership, without ever specifically mentioning it. Give it a watch and let me know your thoughts.?