The Manager 114 - Build your own company (or career)
THE MANAGER - BY ROB LAMBERT
Hi,
I hope you are safe and well.
Life is busy here at Lambert HQ. Family drama, family COVID infections (not my immediate family), consulting, writing and dealing with broken heating. Life is meant to challenge us. Right?
“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Eric Hoffer.
It can be tempting, as a manager, to try and build someone else’s business.
As in, to copy what others are doing, design your work using an off-the-shelf framework, or fall into the trap of believing what well intentioned salespeople say is best.
We can fall into the same trap with our own lives too. We can try to design a career and life based on what other people are doing, or what people say we “should” do, or what we believe society wants us to do.
And this may be ok.
Or it may not be.
Only you can decide on that.
The temptation is to fudge our working practices to move towards what others say we should do.
The temptation is to reach for shortcuts, quick wins and frameworks, rather than do the hard work of studying and learning what works for our company.
The temptation to copy the strategies and life plans of others, because we see them having great success. (Everyone is successful on Social Media)
But behind all of this outward veneer, great web copy and polished sales pitch is the reality. The messy reality.
The off-the-shelf framework that doesn’t work (hint: none of them will fix your problems).
The working practices that we’ve copied that are simply well polished conference fodder.
The marketing pitch about how amazing this new management practice is at company X, yet Glassdoor tells a different story.
The career strategies that work for someone due to good luck, a different personality or simply different privileges to us. Or maybe their success isn’t quite as vast as they would have you believe.
How do we stop falling into the trap of copying other people, rather than doing what is right for us?
Reflection and study.
Reflection on what we’re actually trying to achieve. Studying of the real problems.
What we’re actually trying to achieve is personal to us, and our teams.
It makes sense to put this into words, or a picture. A True North. Something to aim at. I call this a painted picture.
We may then ask this hard question and answer honestly – “If this bright future is so compelling, why am I (or we) not already there yet?”
The answers to this question are your obstacles, problems and opportunities – your current reality. They are the gap between your True North and your current reality. This works in both work and our private lives.
To solve these problems, overcome these obstacles or take advantage of these opportunities, we’re going to need a plan.
A True North with honest reflections of our current reality, combined with a plan is called a strategy. (Acid test your own company’s strategy against this. Does it paint a picture, address the current problems, and contain a plan to overcome the gap?)
We then require hard, daily, sometimes tedious, consistent action to deliver the plan. Routines, habits and discipline to follow the plan.
The plan needs testing often. Is it still valid? Has it changed?
And results will come.
They may not be the results you predicted. They may not be as grand as you planned. But at least they will be right for you and your team.
If you focus your energy and attention on what YOU need to do, you will be delivering on what you are capable of. And that may be very different to what others have achieved or have structured their worlds.
Great results are achieved by lots of small action steps, overcoming obstacles on the way.
And even if it doesn’t go to plan, as long as you’ve focused on what’s directly in your control, you will have become a better person. You will have learned. You will have grown.
And that’s why most of us are really in business. To become a better person.
Business is about becoming who you need to be become. It’s about learning.
It’s not about copying others unless what they do solves our problems.
And it’s the same with our careers.
If you focus on what you can control, you will also have more fun, more control and it will be much more leisurely. And if it doesn’t work out – well, at least you tried your hardest (assuming you did).
Try not to build a career, team or life that someone else thinks you should. Build one to solve your problems and nudge you day-by-day towards your True North. And in the process, you will learn plenty.
As Eric Hoffer once said:
“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
Until next week
Rob..
What's new on Cultivated Management?
This week I released two new videos and articles.
1. Are you chasing the right things?
2. What is succession planning?
FOOD FOR YOUR MANAGEMENT BRAIN
1. If it were easy everyone would be doing it - https://seths.blog/2020/11/if-it-were-easy/
2. Stoic thinking and the preparation for uncertain events. Not sure I've ever mentioned it before, but I am practicing stoicism - it's been revolutionary in dealing with some of my own life issues. It's the foundation behind CBT and really can help you become more grounded. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/08/how-embrace-uncertainty-pandemic-times/615634/
3. Yes. Yes. Yes. Focus on changing your behaviour - not your goals. I always say that goals are important, but they should be about things you can control - and by achieving them, you will become a better person (as in your behaviours will shift). https://thehellyeahgroup.com/blog/how-to-change
4. Six evidence based ways to look after your mental health in lockdown 2 - https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/covid19-lockdown-wellness-mental-health-psychological/
5. Try writing down your team's unwritten rules. This is helpful - I did this a few years back with great effect. It helps to tease out the expectations and norms and make them obvious. Helps new starters, but also helps managers give feedback and nudge behaviours. https://hbr-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/hbr.org/amp/2020/10/write-down-your-teams-unwritten-rules?
6. Don't like running (I don't) but want to be a secret agent (I do) then this new running app sounds really good. Tech meets motivation meets running. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54429713
7. Four Ways to make your job postings more inclusive. https://lattice.com/library/4-ways-to-make-your-job-postings-more-inclusive
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Thanks
Rob..