knowyourgoals – Road to improvement

The last one standing

23 octubre, 20196 septiembre, 2020Publicado en attitude, organizational cultureEtiquetado como change, development, grow, knowyourgoalsDeja un comentario

– You were not the first to finish the exam, neither the first to begin writing.

– While the rest of the students talked about the solution to the exercise and all agreed that the answer was 23, you could only think about that your calculation result had been 1,908.

– You were not the one always with a question for the teacher in class.

– You are not always the one saying something at a meeting.

– You can not agree on everything your boss says.

– While everyone is moving, changing their role, you are the one staying, same job, same place. You are the «last».

– While everyone seems to get a sonorous reward, you seem to have been given the toughest task

– While everyone agrees that A is the right and unique choice you think that B could work

And here we are…

….. You weren’t wrong then (well, not always) when you thought that the different, sinous path looked worthy, you aren’t wrong now (well, not always).

Not being the first, not matching the majority doesn’t mean you are wrong. It’s only a different way of thinking, timing and approach. And, that feeling of solitude (facing the «mass-correct-ion») fades away, sooner or later. When, something happens that tells you: you were right not rushing, believing in your rationale. But, it requires patience.

Sailing, freedom and discipline

18 septiembre, 201816 abril, 2026Publicado en attitude, leadership, teamEtiquetado como discipline, knowyourgoals, team developmentDeja un comentario

Did you ever find yourself wondering how did you end up somewhere? Like, if you had gone out for sailing, apparently knowing what your destination was and all of a sudden…. in the middle of the sea, with no clue of at what point did you loose your way or how to rectify to be back on track.

On the long run, when you realise that you are completely on the opposite site of where you wanted to be it’s because (let’s think that) you set your goals, your milestones, … but you didn’t check how were you doing, maybe the wind’s direction changed and you kept doing the exact same thing, you let the time go by, you got carried away. Had the right idea, the wrong execution. What you thought would give you freedom, keeps you captive. But, when you are not navigating alone, if you are the ship’s captain, you have a responsibility towards your crew.

On the short term, the feeling is a bit different. You feel there is never enough time, you are always running behind schedule, slave of your agenda, dependant on your team’s response time. And again, this time if you are the captain, you can not subordinate your crew’s time to your agenda.

We always think about freedom as: time off, financial freedom to do whatever we want (when enjoying our free time), the space to create, to experiment, to have leeway with design delivery, …

There is no Freedom without Discipline. Do you want to be sure you are following the right course? Be disciplined to check the progress, to correct if necessary. Do you want to have free time in your agenda? Be disciplined, respect timetables, respect the others agenda’s. If you live in chaos, you will be always trapped. If you live in chaos, you can drag your team into your chaos, invading their time management.

Each of us is responsible for being self-disciplined, for establishing our rules. If we have discipline, we are «free». Then, it’s easier to define our limits, what we allow and we don’t to others do with our time.

You can read this interesting post (on one of my fauvorites blogs.. ): A learning day (discipline equals freedom) or listen/watch the Interview (Jocko Willink)

If you want to read about my view on Who owns your time? you can find it in this old post.

Thanks Peter, it’s always nice chatting with you.

About books, summer assignments and teams

13 septiembre, 201813 septiembre, 2018Publicado en leadership, organizational cultureEtiquetado como knowyourgoals, leadership, notprocrastinate, reading, teamDeja un comentario

Think back to those school days, (no need to say how many), when being kids, we were asked to do different assignments during summer time. One of them could be to read one or two books, elaborate a summary, answer a list of questions and give our opinion about what was the author trying to tell us. We were «responsible» for completing the task. The teacher was «accountable».

We are not in school anymore, but some principles remain the same although the comparision with organizations can be a bit exaggerated.

In modern organizations every person on a team may be responsible for a given task that is required to complete a massive project. Back to school, You are the one to read the book, write a summary of it and answer the teacher’ questions if the moment comes. You can do what you were asked, ignore the assignment hoping that no one will ever ask, or roll the dice by copying from someone…

But leaders, they need to hold themselves accountables for the results. Accountability «is defined as taking ownership to ensure responsibilities are achieved as expected. This means that leaders must clearly understand expectations before making commitments.» So, as leaders, we are our «team’ teacher». Teachers know the result they can expect, what they want to achieve when having their students doing something, reading, playing, creating. They know each student potential and their limits. They will take ownership for the class lack of performance, they will know how to reward and how to correct. So being a leader means that we can not be the ones asking what was the book about because the principal shows interest. As leaders, we have responsibilities: to know what kind of book we are asking to read, to prepare them for the future, to track our class progress and provide assistance if needed.

We are not in school anymore. But we still have a lot to read.

resonsilibity and accountability in leadership (Eagle’s flight)