Your best isn’t achievable. Progress is achievable.
It’s simple. Teams that make continual progress outperform teams that don’t. We call that traction.
“Making” progress sometimes requires learning something new, and always requires applying what we know.
2 examples:
- We know that discussion without resolution wastes time. We know that time equals expense that reduces profit. So apply what you know. Stop discussing! First identify the issue and then drive input towards a solution. That will be huge progress for you and your team.
- We know we need to objectively measure our performance – what we do. We know that not having measurables for each seat leaves us in the subjective realm of guessing and feeling our way along. So apply what you know. Look at each of your direct reports’ seats and define essential activities you can track weekly to know precisely how they are performing. Do the same for your seat so you can objectively track how you are doing.
There are so many important things we know, but progress doesn’t happen until we apply what we know. If you aren’t making progress, resist the temptation to go looking for that magic new thing that will make all the difference. Start applying what you already know. Take this next week or month to focus on doing one thing you haven’t been doing and you’ll experience progress. Keep doing that and you’ll experience traction.
