Slowing Down To Speed Up – Growing As a Leader

The period of COVID-19 has forced many of us to slow down, even if it is just less travel and no wasted time commuting. When your goal is growing as a leader, you often want to have a quick chat with your team and get to work executing. However, there is a question I often use with my clients that goes like this “Have you seen a benefit in slowing down to speed up?” I get a 100% yes to this. yet so many people focused on growing as a leader don’t actually adhere to this mantra. It is quite interesting that we know the value of slowing down, but forget to do it so often. Today, we look at how slowing down to speed up effects your growth as a leader and the growth of your people too. I share the single most important reason for slowing down to speed up with you today.

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Slowing Down To Speed Up: The Transcript

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Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.

So you might be asking yourself, why is he holding an ax? Well, I wanted to bring a prop into this video because it makes me think of that old quote they gave to Abe Lincoln. If he had six hours to chop down a tree, he would take four to sharpen the ax.

Well, there’s many interpretations of what that means but here’s what it means to me, that sometimes it’s better to slow down than speed up. You probably heard this before but as a leader, do you really adhere to that? I ask this question of my clients all the time, go something like this, have you ever seen a benefit in slowing down to speed up? The answer is 100%, yes, but yet when they think about their own plans once they get an idea, they go right into execution mode, and sometimes they’ve got to slow down to speed up. You understand the value, but are you doing it?

I started this whole video about this quote from Abraham Lincoln about if he had six hours he’d take four to sharpen it, he’s slowing down. The main reason behind that, he’s getting perspective. He’s not just using his energy and hard work to put through it, he’s like you know what, let’s sharpen the ax, let’s do this smart, not just do it hard and fast. You could probably interpret that quote in many other ways but as far as it comes to you growing as a leader, are you slowing down to speed up? On the last like 38 days, my family’s been on kind of a lockdown or shelter-in-place. COVID-19 has rocked all of us in many different ways, but there’s been some benefit behind this. Slowing down, getting perspective.

In fact perspective is the number one benefit behind slowing down the speed up. When you can slow down enough to get a perspective of, what’s really going on. Why are we going in this direction? What’s necessary to align before we actually start the work? Who do we need to get buy-in from? Getting buy-in from your team, slowing down enough to have the conversations, instead of just having a quick conversation and then just getting into execution mode. I understand the value of that in some cases, but for most, you’ve got to slow down to speed up. I share this with you because a lot of leaders are faced with a different perspective today than they were three months ago and three years ago. But you’ve got to think about where you’re going next.

The opportunity, maybe it’s an innovation, maybe you’re trying to create a Blue Ocean Strategy out there so that this never happens to you again. A lot of those things are running through my own mind, in my own business and how I serve clients. But, you gotta slow down, to speed up. So this is just a reminder for you as a leader. Not only is this a good message for you but it’s also for your team members. Get them to slow down a little bit instead of just move straight into execution mode.

Are you doing it the right way? Is this the right tool? Is this the right process? Do we have the right buy-in? Do we understand why we’re doing it? All of these are valid questions to give you a better perspective about how you’re going to move forward, and how are you gonna grow as a leader.

My name is Gene Hammett, I bring you behind the scenes once a week from my podcast, Grow Think Tank. I love working with those leaders there in the defining moments of their own journey. And we’re in one of those right now. So if you have any questions about where your company is going and how you must show up as leader to engage that company, to inspire others and develop them, make sure you reach out, I’d love to get to know you. You can find me at genehammett.com, my email is [email protected] and if you love this podcast, make sure you subscribe, share with a friend and as always leave a comment.

Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.

 

Slowing Down To Speed Up

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