LeaderLine

Keeping Your Focus on the Future!

Tiger Woods knows the importance on focusing on the future: "People want to compare my performance to the past, and I'm trying to get better in the future, not the past."

Tiger Woods seems to win more than he loses and is consistently close to taking the trophy in the golf tournaments he plays. Yet, with all the victories and great moments in his career, his focus remains on improving every time he plays. 

Consistent performers don't bask in reliving the past; they keep raising their own bar! They don't want a good year; they want a dynasty they can sustain. Professionalism is not about coasting or resting on one's laurels. It's about lifelong learning and the pursuit of excellence. You earn it one day at a time...every day!

Even when at the top of his game, Tiger Woods changed his swing and paid the price as that change took time to produce results. Why? He knew it would help produce better results in the future. Where are you and your people resting in outdated processes or skills? What do you need to do to take advantage of what the future has to offer? Instead of dwelling on lost opportunities or reliving past successes, get busy this week in focusing on the one thing you have control over--what you do today to impact your future success!

What do you think?

(Source: Tiger Woods in Chuck Culpepper, "Six wins that can't eclipse a loss," LA Times, October 2, 2006, D7)

Speed Counts

Andy Grove has a way of making provocative points: "When products and services are indistinguishable from each other, all there is by way of competitive advantage is time."

Speed to market, time to customer, being there when and where people want your service or product--Speed has value in today's high-speed global economy.

How many of you are trapped in never-ending task forces looking at projects that should have resulted in action months ago? Agile competitors are making the moves you ought to be making. Americans have a short attention span and an inability to look at things in depth. Those you serve want you to do high-speed due diligence to provide solutions they need, and they want those solutions yesterday.

The best leaders keep speed to market as a primary metric worth driving. When you make it important, your people will make it important. New innovative projects are too easy to add to the pile. We get stuck protecting established habits and outdated products and services. When you hold to aggressive time lines, people have to be innovative to survive. They come up with creative ideas they would not even mention if time was not as critical. Aggressive deadlines may have to be adjusted, but they prompt purposeful action in pursuit of strategic goals.

Where do you need to add time pressure to the projects that matter most?

(Source: Andy Grove, Bauman, 3M Accelerated Leadership Development Program presentation, September 16, 2005)