If you have ever been in the situation where you are on the expressway and the road takes a rather defined sharper turn (mileage signs indicating to slow down) and you attempt to stay at the previous speed, you now must take corrective actions or potentially pay the price of an accident or worse. I know I have been there more than once and each time I believe I have it handled, I learn a little more about myself and the capabilities of my vehicle. Although I may have an interest to challenge certain highway speed limit signs as they may seem slower than required, they are there so that the general driver operating a generally safe vehicle can proceed to their final destination without causing themselves or other vehicles problems.
Speed of progress in business can also have the need to govern the rate at which a leader takes their organization into the future. Too much speed, too much change, too much confusion can lead a generally strong business into a slippery slide which the leadership may or may not be able to drive them out of. Just as my intent of sustaining speed into the corner on the highway and exiting very smoothly at the higher rate of speed, I too need to adjust so that the outcome of arriving at my final destination is accomplished.
This is what defines a great race driver and a great business leader. Knowing when to push the speed and when to appropriately brake so that the vehicles tires do not lose the best traction on the pavement. Once traction is broken the vehicle must be brought back into control, losing precious time, and wasting additional energy. This happens in business when leadership pushes so hard that members of the team begin to break down or begin to take shortcuts to a potential conclusion. This speed choice ends up costing the organization rather than building a contribution value to the business.
As the leader of your organization, it is part of your focus to understand the path to the destination. Are there curves, hills, valleys, smooth or rough surfaces. Although some of the paths are only understood once you arrive at that location, you cannot hope it is smooth and take too much speed into a gravel surface. You place all your hard work up to that point at risk.
As we begin to enter toward the final months of 2023, leaders can sometimes push down on the throttle just a little bit harder to get to the end of the year that much better. If you and your team are already performing at higher levels, then maybe your organization is ready for a little more speed. If on the other hand your organization is simply running at normal speeds, and you push too hard into the upcoming challenges you might just spin out.
This week take a look at your performance to date. Is the rate of performance aligned with the capabilities of your team? Has your team grown to allow it to be sped up for the rest of 2023? Will speed actually bring more of the desired results or just make it happen differently. Every vehicle, team, organization has a speed limit. If you exceed its capabilities, you end up in bigger problems and spend lots of resources to get out of the trouble you might have imposed on the system. As you look at your organization and begin to plan out the remainder of 2023 and start looking into 2024, consider engaging a Promise Guide to challenge some of your business metrics so you actually know the rate of growth you can achieve with out spinning out in the process. JKL Associates Promise Guides can be reached at MI (313) 527-7945 or FL (407) 984-7246
Journey On!
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Celebrating 30 years of Delivering on “Promises”
