Leadership

When the Price of Going Fast Costs Too Much

Signs your team may be headed for a crash

Is there such a thing as pushing too far beyond our limits? Some may not think so. The highly driven among us may possess certain characteristics helping them to consistently deliver high performance. Individuals equipped with physical capabilities and mental toughness choosing to take on the challenge of preparing for a marathon may not find long-distance a problem when they put in the work. Usain Bolt, former Olympic sprinter from Jamaica is considered the fastest human holding records in 100, 200, and 4 x 100 meters relay. Speed wasn’t a problem for him when competing at his peak. But, are we all built for that type of performance?

What are the ingredients for sustained success?

Famous coach John Wooden teaches running a successful race requires planning, preparation, practice, and performance. Considering he won 10 NCAA national championships in 12 years while leading the UCLA Bruins he would know. Could it be in our workplace and in life we are leaving out some important ingredients?

Practicing alone can take considerable time before making a world-class performance. For instance, it can take up to 20 weeks to train for a marathon and 12 weeks to be ready to run a 100-meter dash lasting only a few seconds. Spectacular performance is possible when there is a method, training, and rest.

The importance of sustainability

For most of us, our performance requires a sustainable pace that we can run every day, deliver value to others while living healthy lives with enough margin to explore other life-giving interests. All of it; to make us the best human we can become and share what we are learning along the way.

We don’t run a marathon every day, why do we ask some teams to work in sprints?

Moving too fast can lead us into real trouble

What are the signs indicating we may need to make a change? The best leaders don’t want to lose their people along the way. The best of us need reminders.

4 signs we might be going too fast

Sign 1: We notice others aren’t keeping up When we notice that 80% of our people are unable to keep up, we may be in danger of losing them all. We need to take a pause and find out why before pushing on. If we don’t we may arrive at the destination alone.

Sign 2: We feel resentful towards our people If we begin giving in to the temptation to think the worst of good people, the problem is likely us. Losing empathy along a tough road is common. We need to renew our commitment we once had to understand the challenges of others. Listening to your team in these times can help.

Sign 3: We blame “others” when things don’t go as we planned Becoming the victim is never healthy. Once we give up taking responsibility, we lose hope of making things better. It is a human tendency to look for someone else to blame when we encounter a difficulty. A more healthy way embraces learning, then moving forward to make tomorrow better.

Sign 4: We get angry at others that don’t contribute the way we think they should Judgment is so easy. We can easily forget sometimes our teams don’t know what the expectations are or maybe they require additional training. Unless we are clear we create extra work and bring unnecessary toil upon them. We see it every day. Little effort being placed into understanding anyone else. A good cure for us is to look in the mirror periodically. If we are not seeing perfection there, best for us to let go of the judgment.

Last thoughts

Being connected 24x7 to our work can lead us to push ourselves and our teams too hard. When we do it wrong, the work we love and meant to bring value to others can begin to suck the life out of us and those we lead.

Sprinting is a performance. Teams that are only sprinting, eventually collapse from exhaustion. While our pace may vary based on organizational needs, leaders could take a more empathetic approach and purposefully incorporate ebbs and flows allowing for planning, preparation, and practice. If we don’t, we may lose people along the way. Illness, attrition, or toxicity will eventually take their toll.

Shepherding: The art of becoming the leader others want to follow.