Learnings to take
Your 2023 Boot Room Wrapped
It has been a year of 'snap back'. Back into offices, back to the grind, and back to 'growth-at-all-costs' as everyone scrambles to make up lost ground from two or so years of pain.
Economies have been under pressure, job markets are gradually shifting away from the Great Resignation and flux is being felt in the 'hybrid era' of working.
As we prepare for the the next gear shift in the coming year, what can we take from last year to help us with the challenges of the year to come. I am a big believer it is better to study one book deeply than to read ten. So, which articles resonated the most and are worth readdressing? Which are the most relevant? And, what are the key messages worth going deeper on as 2024 approaches?
Here is a brief summary of the TOP 10 voted by you:
1. Essential Techniques are critical to our performance (Sweating on the technique)
I am often approached to teach new and emerging leaders - professionals that are good at their job and get a promotion into a leadership role. It is one of the biggest shifts in one's career. But, our ability to hone and keep these skills as we graduate up the ladder is critical. There is a huge opportunity for all of us in senior positions to audit the basics. These foundations are anything but simple or easy. They are ESSENTIAL!
Planning, communication, and execution techniques in our everyday leadership need to be honed and developed - always! The bang for buck is gigantic.
2. Connection is at the heart of our work (The connection club)
We under-estimate our impact. What we say, or even how we say something at a BBQ can positively or negatively imprint on another person for days, weeks, or more. So, it is easy to understand how our thousands of hours of work impacts many. By honouring the impact we have in our work feeds a sense of purpose and drive that goes way beyond the stressful targets and deadlines we wrangle with.
Volunteering or working within an organisation can feel heavy. But, take that weight and approach it with reverence. Encourage others to do so. Substantial motivation and drive can be derived from this wonderful source innately stitched throughout our work - we are all 'connectors' of a community.
3. Navigating Hybrid (Where and how hybrid is breaking)
Ever seen a car accident happen in front of your eyes? Everything slows while you see the inevitable destruction happen in front of your eyes. The way heads of business are handling the transition to get people back into the office gives me a similar feeling. Its not looking smooth or pretty...
When in the history of human kind has forcing people to do something through political and legal pressure ever ended well?
Take the lessons from this for how your business navigates this hot topic in 2024, but also for any change management process. A competitive advantage can be taken in this space in the year to come for anyone clever enough to see it and have the audacity to act on it.
4. Team Audit for Antiquation or Innovation (Rome or Singapore)
Do you have dead wood in your team? Is your team full of dead wood? Or, is your team full of fresh meat? And, constantly has 'freshies' coming in?
Creating a balance between experience and youth (in terms of tenure) within a team is a fine balance difficult to strike. But, this is the type of Zoom Out perspective required to ensure performance in the short-, medium-, and long-term of a team or division.
Liverpool Football Club were the most successful football team in all of Europe in the 70's and 80's. One of their most successful captains during those successful years was Graham Souness. He became the manager in the early 90's. He cleared out the aging playing group and renewed the team. Liverpool didn't win anything of note for another 20 plus years. He got this balance gravely wrong.
Being delicate and deliberate in the planning and approach to Performance Management and Team Management is critical. This can get complex quickly, and like most aspects of leadership there are no guarantees. But, doing a regular audit puts us in a position of empowerment.
5. Go slow to get to the core (Go Beyond The Obvious)
Jumping to instinctive questions or statements in meetings and everyday conversations is to play the amateur game. All of us fall into it - some more often than others.
Being able to slow ourselves and the conversation at hand is an art form of The Pro. Investing heavily in this, as well as the many other facets of a pro is a major difference maker for those pursuing meaningful work.
6. No Time. No Worries! (Speed is Your Friend)
Over preparation is a killer of performance. It opens the door to all sorts of second-guessing, anxiety, and irrelevant guff.
By seeing our perceived lack of time as a positive already puts us ahead of the game. To paraphrase Health Psychologist Kelly McGonical, "when my stress is seen as my body's response to getting prepared for something exciting, my courage and health rises".
On top of this, our instincts are usually pretty spot on. Trusting this can be difficult, but the majority of the time we are brilliant at what we do. Systematically investing in this idea is an asset for all of us in our chosen fields and contexts.
7. Strategise your way (Irrelevance is the Enemy)
Paralysis through possibility. This is what most of us suffer from. In the next quarter, half, or year we are tasked with hitting some kind of target. The question is - what is the best way to get there?
The problem is not that we have no options or are drawing blanks in what to do. It is more that we have hundreds of things we can or feel we need to do. Often, they compete for attention and resources. We can feel pressure from above, below, or externally to prioritise certain initiatives. The result can be messy, confusing and super stressful.
A systemic practice of strategising may be one of the smartest ways to move you, your people, and your business forward. In the year coming, and forever!
8. Maxing Effort-In-Performance-Out
We have a few distinct resources at hand to deploy. We have many tangible and intangible outcomes to achieve. The equation is simple, what are you putting in versus what is coming out? This is called Nett Output.
The way we spend our budgets, use our tools and deploy expertise is central. They are all underpinned by where and how we spend our effort (time, energy, and attention). By investing in the ways to improve Return On Effort there will be a larger Nett Output. Seeing our work and our leadership through this lens cuts through the many distractions and temptations life throws at us.
9. Levers to motivate (Your Motivation Strategy)
In all the workshops and individual coaching programs I have done over the last 12 months, I have seen many struggle to leverage the many tools we can use to motivate the seemingly unmotivated. And, in the face of this people and organisations alike continue to fall into the same traps. The costs are large and varied.
Good people are underperforming. They quit and go somewhere else where they do no better. Meanwhile, company's spend outrageous amounts of money on recruitment, onboarding and performance management for little improvement. The waste is unfathomable (and a little disgusting if you think about it a little too long).
There is a wide world of motivation out there built on millions of years of evolution as well as decades of indisputable science. Breaking the cycle of demotivation has to be one of the most effective ways to elevate impact and influence within one's company or industry.
10. Avoid the avoid'ables (How One line can change your year)
Sick of being smashed from pillar-to-post by inbound requests? Notice how certain times of the week/month/year are hardcore stressful? Feel like no one is listening at meetings or when you present your decisions?
These moments and feelings are common. As we forecast into the year to come, what makes us feel this isn't going to happen again?
The Rhythm Effect is based on the idea of removing doubt, hesitancy and friction from our team environments. The feeling of being in rhythm was a personal sensation I leveraged. But, the systemisation of 'what we do' sits within this framework. Six Sigma derived the term Operating Rhythm. The Military use a principle called Battle Rhythm. They all speak to the same thing - organising routines, strategies, resources, and people in a systematic way to create sync.
We can do the same. Creating a timeline for the year ahead shows us where the pinch points will be, what we need to prepare for, and when we need all-hands-on-deck. I love how this can show us in January how the first week in September is going to look like. Knowing this, communicating it, and planning for it is to me the entry level of leadership. It is an essential many are simply not doing - see point one.
Thank you for reading and responding in 2023. In the new year we aim to have more events and group discussions. Also, keep an eye out for our long awaited Prospectus. This will house all the individual programs I run. There is a lot there, so being able to see the difference in all the programs is hopefully helpful.
A big thank you to Sam and Jansen for supporting and driving the work we do - your impact on the hundreds of people we interact with every year cannot be underestimated.
Lastly, thank you to all you readers out there for trusting me with your time, energy, and attention.
Play well in 2024!
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