Travel Lightly

Get rid of stuff you don’t need, so that when opportunities present themselves, you’ll be ready to move quickly.

This is a philosophy that speaks to me, even on the occasions when I neglect to follow it (for example, I still have my most of my college textbooks). Both at work and in my personal life, I aspire to clear clutter and get rid of things that no longer serve a meaningful purpose.

Back when I was finishing up at Harvard Business School, one of my professors said, “Keep your fixed costs low because that will always give you flexibility (for example, to take a different job or take a break from work).” His comment really stuck with me.

In my book, Fearless Growth, I observed that to be agile, you need to continually pare the parts of your business that no longer serve you. Yet companies often fail to do this because they are in love with the products, people, ideas, and capabilities that built their past success. They continue to pour resources into mediocre or failing product lines, even when they’d be better off spending the money elsewhere. They hang on to distracting and underperforming business units long after they should have fixed or divested those units.

When you've invested so much of your personal identity into what you used to be, it can be scary to shift to something different. But by shedding what’s unneeded, you can redeploy resources to more important priorities and free up your attention to focus on creating your intended future.

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I help successful leaders and their teams agree on what needs to change and how to make it happen. I am the author of?Fearless?Growth and?The Agility Advantage.?

For more strategies, videos and free materials, please visit?www.setili.com. If you are curious, here are a few quick examples of the work we do. You might also enjoy my Fearless Growth Podcast.

Contact me anytime to discuss your situation and how I can support you.