W.I.N. Wednesday: Which 'E' are you focused on?
I have read some great books lately and will be sharing some of those titles with you soon. One of them is Turn the Ship Around: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders by U.S. Navy Captain (Retired) David Marquet. The book is about his experiences as the Captain of the USS Sante Fe, a nuclear submarine. The book provides insights on turning organizations from a culture of Leader – Follower to one of Leader – Leader.
There are many great questions, insights and ideas I took away from the book. Here are three of those questions for you to consider in relation to your organization or agency:
- Are your people trying to achieve excellence, or just trying to avoid mistakes?
- Has your organization become action averse to avoid errors?
- Do you spend more time discussing errors that celebrating successes?
Here is a variation of the three questions for you to consider in relation to you personally:
- In your work, and your life are you trying to achieve excellence, or just trying to avoid mistakes?
- Have you become action averse to avoid errors?
- Do you spend more time discussing your errors than celebrating your successes?
Are you focused on Errors or Excellence? Are you focused on not making mistakes or focused on making a difference? Have you embraced inaction as a strategy to avoid making mistakes?
Focusing on excellence instead of errors is not about being reckless. It is about being realistic and starts with accepting that you are human and therefore you will make mistakes, you will screw up and you will fail. Once you get that out of the way you can engage in the pursuit of excellence (excellence not perfection).
The pursuit of excellence requires that you make a commitment to be better tomorrow than you are today, just a little bit better. That means you have to do little things every day in the areas of personal growth and development. Read something new, listen to a podcast or audio book or take a course that will provide new insights and challenge you to think differently. Learn with commitment do more than collect dots (new ideas, skills and knowledge). Challenge yourself to connect the dots so you can apply those concepts in different parts of your life.
What’s Important Now? Focus on the right ‘E’ – Excellence.
Take care.
Brian Willis
www.lifesmostpowerfulquestion.com
Maximizing human potential through Life's Most Powerful Question - What's Important Now?
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Contact me at winningmind@mac.com to arrange for me to speak to your team, your organization or at your next conference.
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