If Your Team is Perfect, You're Doing It Wrong.
Mar 04, 2019
A lot is made of getting things perfect. Of reducing flaws in the system down to zero. To get it exactly, precisely and perfectly right - all things moving exactly how we imagine it.
Call it excellence or best practice or whatever you like, but you get the idea. And of course, there's nothing wrong with that. It’s a noble pursuit a lot of leaders aspire to.
So we pursue having it just so; making each aspect of your team and operation completely in order, predictable, and perfectly in line. If you work hard enough at this process, you'll have all your ducks in a row and everything working interdependently and perfect.
And while this may seem like a fantastic goal to devote resource toward, it shouldn’t be.
In our desire to remove all the valleys that delay or divert our frameworks and teams, we also remove all the mountaintops.
You can’t have one without the other.
In reality, having everything in a perfectly controlled state will instead stifle your creative edge.
While that idea may look great in a spreadsheet or an org chart, a promo reel at a conference isn’t how LIFE works.
Growth means change, and change means friction. Imperfection. Incompletes. Things to explore, ideas to grapple with, futures to wrestle out of the present, and more for your people.
If you think you're growing, but there's no identifiable change - you're not growing at all, just re -arranging your current environment.
Change means new, and new will often mean a bit of discomfort at times. New ideas, new dreams, new goals, new initiatives; which means stepping outside your comfort zone. Doing what you've never done before. After all, that’s the only way to be out in front.
Too many of us want the FUTURE we dream of without the UNFAMILIAR that will take us there.
So if your team is perfect, and your processes are flawless, you're doing it wrong. You’re not leading anything.
If you aren't growing, it’s hard to imagine you're leading anyone in your industry. Growth happens at the edges of what’s possible, of what’s already being done. Growth happens where the edges are raw, and there exists a possibility for failure.
If your processes and communication are within reach of being flawless, it's time to shift. It’s likely that it's time to change something that's currently working well so that it works even better. 10% discomfort is worth a 50% return. Now is as good a time as any to adjust your goals + expectations, so you can create new opportunities for yourself and those around you!
If you keep holding onto what you have just because it's got you this far, that’s not enough. If you’re now trying to perfect and fine-tune the engine in your 2007 Nissan, you’ve missed the point. You should be inventing the electric car; or even better, the car that runs on salt water (already happening).
If you’re chasing perfection for what you've got - it's time to think a little harder and a little fresher in order to keep yourself out in front - or else you'll lose all that ground you worked so hard to gain!
In fact, it's probably too late - you're probably already behind and don’t even know it.
Don’t pursue perfect, it’s a false summit. Pursue growth - it will always take you further up the mountain.
G
