Track 5: Five Hours

Here we are, adding another track to the Leadership Playlist! Each week I take a song and use it as inspiration to discuss a topic of leadership and development. Sometimes there's a message in the lyrics of the song, and sometimes, like this week, the song is more of a guide for a way of thinking as a leader.

Much like a song, this newsletter is set up into sections. The verse comes first, where I'll introduce the topic of the week. This week, we're talking about slowing down to speed up. When we get to the chorus, you'll discover what song is inspiring us this week, as well as learn a little about the artist behind it. Once we hit the bridge, the topic and the song come together, and hopefully some new ideas will inspire you.

Strap yourself in. Here's track # 5.

The Verse:

How fast can we complete that project for the client?

You know the order is a rush.

If we overnight this package can we guarantee a morning delivery?

I need the sales numbers from last month on my desk ASAP!

For most leaders, phrases like those above sound commonplace in our daily lives. We wake up starting the day going over what we've got on the agenda and how quickly we can get through the tasks at hand. If we have a team reporting to us, we are often thinking of ways to optimize the time we have with them to make sure they are their most productive. Deadlines keep us focused on the end result, and missing one can be the collapse of the whole plan, depending on what's missed.

Even beyond the work day, quick and hurried is the name of the game. We hear daily that this internet service is the fastest, that ordering this product will arrive to you same day, or that you can reach your destination five minutes faster if you take a left at the next light. Go faster. Do more. Are you tired yet?

The Chorus:

Erick Orrosquieta, the Mexican-American DJ better known as Deoreo, began his DJ career by playing at local gigs when he was 14. By the time he was 17, he was already producing his own tracks, He has remixed tracks for multiple international famed DJ's as well as created songs of his own.

In 2014, he released the single Five Hours. The song found chart success in several countries, including Austria, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. He even released a follow up version of the song, titled Five More Hours, with Chris Brown providing lyrics in 2015. Deoreo told Billboard magazine "The inspiration came from a man who would always travel five hours to see his loved one, and five hours just to return home every day."

A standout element of the song is it's varied tempo. The song starts out slow and increases in pace until it's at a steady, driving rate. As the song progresses, the beat steadies and then decreases, before picking back up and continuing at a propulsive rhythm throughout the song.

The Bridge:

When I was beginning my research on creating this newsletter, I contacted several trusted leaders and asked them "What is something you wish you had known more about regarding leadership and personal development?" One of my trusted friends, who leads a team of employees, said she wished she'd known more about the concept of slowing down to speed up. When I asked her to elaborate, she mentioned with her team, they want to scale up the business and accomplish goals in a timely manner. However, there can be pitfalls to taking the approach of rapidly progressing and crushing those deadlines.

The idea of slowing down to speed up seems counterintuitive to most situations. If I slow down, won't it take longer to accomplish the project I'm working on? If a team takes their time to finish the project assigned to them, won't that delay other projects the business has committed to?

"Slow and steady wins the race."

Most everyone is familiar with the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. The Hare, known for it's speed, boasts and brags about how he will win the race against the tortoise, only to find himself at the finish line watching the tortoise already celebrating his victory. The tortoise, taking the slow and steady approach, consistently put one foot in front of the other, stayed on the path, and made it from the start to the finish. The hare took off like a jet, found distractions along the way, but knowing he's fast, didn't bother to stay on target. And in the end, his quick approach didn't win him the glory of crossing the finish line first.

This is a great lesson to remember, but we all know sometimes in business and in life we may not be able to take things slow and steady. Even the best planners and time managers may occasionally have an interruption or a rush request that throws them off the steady course. Knowing that this can happen and even planning for these distractions can keep us on the steady path. It might mean we begin a project a day early to allow for interruption time. It might mean prioritizing the top three projects for the quarter and keeping a running list of other projects that will take priority in the next. Keeping the tortoise and the hare in mind can allow us to build in time to slow down so when we're called to speed up we don't overwhelm the system.

"Warp Speed Ahead"

As a leader you want to see your team succeed, and you want to make sure the goals you've set for yourself are being met. If you're in sales, you want to see an increase in clients and profits. If you're in manufacturing, you want to make enough product to meet demands and make it more efficiently than your competitors. It's easy to fall into the cycle of accomplishing and adding more to keep scaling up the business, doing this as quickly as possible. There's a rush when you see those numbers rise and your product reach more people. If you are in the business of helping people, the more people you help, the better, right?

The danger in taking this approach can be losing the quality and consistency. Maybe you're launching a new product, but you were so quick to get the product to the sales floor that you didn't take the time to train your staff on the product features. Now they're not as equipped to answer questions when someone is ready to buy. There's a new insurance policy designed for first-time home buyers, but it's only available if the buyer's income doesn't exceed a certain amount. If you didn't take the time to train your agents on this qualifier, applications may be denied and you're left with unhappy customers. Taking the warp speed ahead approach can cause harm when all of the details aren't also reviewed.

"Burnout happens when you avoid being human for too long"

Another concern of operating at full speed at all times is burnout. We hear a lot about burnout and the dangers it can create for individuals. High stress teams and projects are often prone to burnout when demands are placed that require long hours and fast results. If a business is trying to grow but hasn't put into plans hiring and training additional staff, that growth may be stunted when demands on the current employees exceed their capacity.

Leaders and teams that don't take the time to prioritize their own health and well-being may likely find themselves not able to complete their deadlines, or resentful of each other when they do because their individual needs were neglected for too long. Finding the balance of getting work done and taking care of yourself puts the concept of slowing down to speed up into action.

Press Play:

If you've listened to Five Hours, I hope the varying tempo of the song started to match the concept of slowing down to speed up in your head. When I hear it, I imagine myself working on a project and remembering that sometimes I need to slow down if I want to speed up. Before I hit submit on that document, did I slow down to proofread and make sure everything is spelled correctly and all boxes have been filled in? Taking that extra minute to submit the document correctly the first time might just save me five minutes later if I had to re-submit the form because the original submission was full of errors. I can now speed up on something else on my agenda for the day.

In sales, if I take an extra minute to slow down and ask questions of the customer, I have a greater chance of getting them the product they truly want. This increase in customer satisfaction allows myself and the team to speed up on other sales because we're not processing returns from sales made that the customer didn't really want.

If I need to balance the monthly budget, and I've been staring at the numbers on my Excel spreadsheet for the past hour, maybe I need to slow down and take a break so I can approach the data with fresh eyes. That small amount of time to slow down can bring me back into focus where the budget numbers all balance. I may find the solution in five minutes, instead of taking five hours.

Slow down to speed up. Before you know it you will be celebrating at the finish line.