Why the greatest leaders obsess over their goals, How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably & Why transformation efforts fail
29 January 2023 Newsletter
“A $10M business is not a goal. It’s a symptom of a change you commit to making.”
Hope you’re Thriving!
I hope your New Year is off to a good start.
Over the holiday season, I’ve collected some of my favourite articles and podcasts from the year to share with you. Kind of like a best-of from 2022.
Couple this with my recommended reading list and hopefully, there is something of real interest and value for you each week.
I’m keeping them short and sharp.
We’re back next week.
How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably
If you only read one article this week, this is it.
All of the work that we do at Evolution Partners with business leaders is to help build enduring great companies. We overlay principles and disciplines to create high-performing, scaling businesses. But it’s an evolution, not a revolution.
Our firm’s purpose is to build great companies because greatness is earned and is not instantaneous since greatness in a single instance can be reduced to luck.
This article outlines how great is, in fact, mostly about consistently good, compounding positive impact over a long period of time. In being consistent over time, you become the outlier.
Remember: great is just good, but repeatable.
From the article:
“Being “great” is not about being better than someone else. It is about being dependable and disciplined, and ultimately it is earned. Many people, in theory, want to be “great”. In fact, each month 1,000 people search “how to be great”, 260 people search “how to become perfect”, and 2,400 people search “how to be the best”, looking for discrete answers on how to get from 0 to 1.
Yet, many people in life realistically do not want to put in the effort over a sustained period of time to actually get to 1. They are looking for the “secrets to success” that, in many ways, do not exist.
You know what brings success? Hard work brings success.”
Read the article here: How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably
Why transformation efforts fail
In Sydney, we had been working on executing a strategy for a couple of years, but the ‘hard things’ weren’t getting done, or at least, not getting done fast enough.
It’s a competent team, but they were getting distracted with business as usual, and as you’d imagine, that was pretty frustrating for both me and them! So, in preparation for our workshop, I had them read an article from HBR that outlines why transformation efforts fail.
From the article:
“The most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time. Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and never produces a satisfying result. A second very general lesson is that critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains. Perhaps because we have relatively little experience in renewing organizations, even very capable people often make at least one big error.”
The author then goes on to list the seven errors that leaders make:
Error #1: Not establishing a great enough sense of urgency
Error # 2: Not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition
Error # 3: Lacking a vision
Error # 4: Under communicating vision by a factor of ten
Error # 5: Not removing obstacles to the new vision
Error # 6: Not systematically planning for and creating short-term wins
Error # 7: Declaring victory too soon
Error # 8: Not anchoring changes in the corporation’s culture
Read the article here: Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail
A Plan is not a Strategy
This week I came across this excellent 9-minute video from Roger Martin and HBR.
From the video:
“A comprehensive plan—with goals, initiatives, and budgets–is comforting. But starting with a plan is a terrible way to make strategy. Roger Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and one of the world’s leading thinkers on strategy, says developing strategy means going outside an organization’s comfort zone and escaping the common traps of strategic planning.”
As I’ve spoken about before, it advocates that strategic planning should not be one phrase and that ‘planning’ is something we control, where we decide what to spend money on. That’s why people are comfortable with planning. But, on the other hand, strategy tells us how we make money, which we have very little direct control over and is therefore uncomfortable.
Martin describes strategy as “An integrated set of choices that positions you on a playing field of your choice in a way that you win.”
See the video here: A Plan Is Not a Strategy What Is Strategy? It’s a Lot Simpler Than You Think
This week on The Growth Whisperers Podcast
Why the greatest leaders obsess over their goals
Are you looking to become a more effective leader?
In this episode of The Growth Whisperers podcast, we explore the importance of goal obsession in successful leadership. Discover why the greatest leaders are driven by a deep sense of purpose and relentless determination to achieve their goals, no matter the challenges that come their way.
Learn how to set and achieve ambitious goals that will set you apart and allow you to make a lasting impact.
It’s not enough to have big goals. Great leaders obsess over them. They never let them out of their mind — OR their team’s mind.
Episode 146 – The Growth Whisperers
Listen to The Growth Whisperers
Or watch it on YouTube
Onboarded: Fast Track New Hires to Success – Live Virtual Masterclass with The Growth Faculty – 22 February 2023
Author and coach Brad Giles leads a step-by-step session on optimal onboarding.
Build a stronger organisation with this great onboarding process.
In partnership with Growth Faculty, we are pleased to offer you 25% discount for Onboarded: Fast Track New Hires To Success – Live Virtual Masterclass with Brad Giles.
Onboarding is a critical engagement and retention tool. 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experience great onboarding.
In this 60-minute masterclass, leadership coach and author of Onboarded, Brad Giles will share a simple step-by-step process to accelerate the effectiveness of new and existing team members.
“The new hire traverses three stages of understanding, learning and applying, which should be embedded, whereby at the end they are a successful fit into the role,” says Brad.
Founder of Evolution Partners, Brad works with CEOs and leadership teams to build enduring, great companies. He is the author of Made to Thrive and Onboarded.
“By implementing Brad’s onboarding strategies outlined in this book our team retention for new starters within the first 12 months doubled which had a huge impact on the culture of Aventus and ultimately our financial results.”
Darren Holland, CEO, Aventus
BOOK YOUR SPOT TODAY!
STANDARD RATE: $195 | OUR DISCOUNT NETWORK RATE: $145
Use this exclusive link ONLY to book your discounted tickets: https://thegrowthfaculty.co/3uQ0jlI
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Keep Thriving!
Brad Giles
