Do you have what it takes to stay the course?

I have coached so many teams and organizations in creating bold and aspirational strategies. Every team emerges from this exercise highly optimistic, energized and eager to achieve a better future for itself. Typically, people are most enthusiastic about the boldest, most far-reaching aspirations they commit to, which they often don’t know how to achieve at the outset. However, they believe and hope these bold aspirations would change their game and take them to a new level.

Time and time again I am impressed and inspired by people’s genuine enthusiasm, commitment and resolve to realize aspirational goals that at the outset are viewed as extremely desirable but often, highly unlikely or even a bit impossible.

Unfortunately, when it comes to fulfilling and realizing the unlikely or impossible there are two types of teams… or perhaps I should say, two types of leaders: those who stay the course and those who don’t.

Some leaders love the thrill of a new idea, fad or beginning, especially when it helps them to engage and motivate their teams around a new purpose.  As long as their effort continues to progress with even mild success, and managers and employees continue to feel good about the process and engage in its activities, these leaders stay engaged and they continue to invest their own commitment, energy, time and resources in the process.

However, the minute things get tough or messy, instead of doubling down and using challenges as opportunities for change, these leaders quickly become skeptical, lose their commitment, energy and resolve, and eventually they simply get distracted by other activities, lose interest, disengage and move on to the next new thing…

It is easier to stay engaged and focused at the beginning of big change initiatives when everyone is at the initial excitement stage, there is increased goodwill all around, and people tend to be on their best behavior in areas such as trust, teamwork, and collaboration.

However, if you take on any Big Hairy Audacious Goal, it is inevitable that at some point in the journey you will have to confront your barriers to change. Marathon runners describe this as hitting the wall. It’s the moment, about half way through the run, when overwhelming fatigue kicks in and you feel like you may not have what it takes to finish the race. It’s a devastating and discouraging feeling. If you buy into this it can really hurt your performance. However, if you anticipate this phenomenon you can be ready for it and get through the tough patches with minimal distractions in focus, commitment, and effectiveness.

It is exactly the same thing when pursuing big aspirations and dreams!

The wall often manifests as:

• People feeling overwhelmed with keeping up with their existing jobs while pursuing future work, initiatives taking too much time and energy to launch or demonstrate results, and
• People beginning to disengage because of growing frustrations, skepticism and doubt.

Those who trust the process, push forward and stay the course, no matter what, achieve extraordinary results. I have witnessed this so many times.

In fact, I was in a recent meeting with a global sales leadership team where we were reviewing progress in their seven transformation initiatives.  Whilst their entire strategy was extremely bold, two of their initiatives were so out of the box that when they took them on two years ago they didn’t know how to achieve them or if they were achievable at all. Needless to say, they figured both out and were well on the way to generate some meaningful breakthroughs. But, what impressed and inspired me most was the comfort and confident these leaders had with tackling bold and impossible goals. For them “Anything is possible” was not merely a motivational slogan, but rather a way of thinking that they brought to all challenges and opportunities. Their reward was that when their company was going through cost reduction they were one of the only teams worldwide that continued to receive headcount and investment.

Unfortunately, most leaders are not good at staying the course.

Many leaders simply don’t know how to stay focused when they don’t know what to do next. They tend to stall, stop and eventually give up. Others can’t tolerate things getting worst – before they get better – so they react badly to chaos, messy situations and unpredicted challenges, which are inevitable in any big game.

Many leaders simply don’t know how to stay focused when they don’t know what to do next. They tend to stall, stop and eventually give up. Others can’t tolerate things getting worst – before they get better – so they react badly to chaos, messy situations and unpredicted challenges, which are inevitable in any big game.

Most leaders and teams fall short or fail to achieve their intended transformation outcomes not because they go all out all the way and fail, but rather because they don’t stay the course and they give up at the most critical time in the process.

And, to add insult to injury, most leaders don’t take ownership and acknowledge the simple truth: “We just didn’t stay the course!”. They usually tend to justify their failure with excuses like: “There is too much going on”, “The change initiative is interfering with our core business or results”, and “People are no longer on board”.

The cost of not staying the course is not merely in failing to achieve higher levels of performance and results, but more importantly, the overt and covert cynicism that comes with defeat to achieve great aspirations and dreams.

My recommendation to leaders who want to achieve big hairy audacious goals and dreams: Stay the course no matter what or don’t start at all!

Gershon Mader

Founder and President of Quantum Performance Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in generating total alignment and engagement in organizations.

His work has encompassed a broad range of industries including banking, telecommunications, manufacturing, entertainment, real estate, retail, startups and non-profits.