Stop Prioritizing If You Want a Breakthrough

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Stop prioritizing may sound reckless, even irresponsible. Not because focus does not matter. But because prioritizing has quietly become one of the most effective ways people avoid responsibility, protect themselves, and stay exactly where they are.

Prioritizing is often sold as mature responsibility. In reality, it frequently becomes a sophisticated cover for excuses.

Think about how prioritizing usually shows up. You list everything you want to do. Everything you should do. Everything you said you would do. Then you rank it. High priority. Medium priority. Low priority. You feel organized. Responsible. In control.

But what actually happens next?

  • “It was a lower priority.”
  • “Something more important came up.”
  • “Priorities shifted.”

Prioritizing gives you permission to fail without owning the failure. It allows you to stay circumstantial. To let conditions, time pressure, or competing demands dictate who you are being. It keeps your identity intact while results stagnate.

This is why prioritizing is deadly to transformation.

Breakthroughs do not come from managing importance. They come from taking a stand. If your transformation is merely one of your priorities, it is already in trouble.

Why? Because…

Priorities compete. Promises do not.

When transformation is a priority, it sits on a list next to everything else. It gets worked on when time allows. When energy is high. When circumstances cooperate. The moment pressure increases, transformation slides down the list. And when it does, you do not feel accountable. You feel justified.

That is how organizations talk themselves out of change.

Promising is different. When you promise, you step into responsibility. You put yourself on the hook. You no longer get to hide behind conditions. You cannot quietly deprioritize without consequence. A promise requires courage because it puts your word, your credibility, and your identity on the line.

Promising forces you to grow.

Every meaningful transformation I have seen began with a promise, explicit, bold, and non-negotiable.

  • “We will become this kind of organization.”
  • “We will deliver at this level.”
  • “We will change how we lead, no matter what.”
  • Not, “We will try.”
  • Not, “We will see how it goes.”
  • Not, “This is a priority this year.”

Those statements protect comfort. They do not produce breakthrough results.

Prioritizing keeps you small because it allows you to retreat without admitting it. Promising stretches you because retreat costs you something.

This is also why promising changes how people work together. Priorities are private. You decide them alone. You inform others after the fact. Promises are relational. The moment you promise, others are involved. Expectations are set. Conversations deepen. Ownership increases. Breakthroughs never happen in isolation.

They require shared commitment, mutual accountability, and the willingness to stay engaged when things get uncomfortable. Promising creates that field. Prioritizing dissolves it.

Let’s be honest. Most people do not fail at transformation because they lack strategy. They fail because they want progress without exposure. Change without risk. Results without vulnerability. Prioritizing offers that illusion. Promising removes it.

When you promise, you step into responsibility. You put yourself on the hook. You no longer get to hide behind conditions. You cannot quietly deprioritize without consequence. And yes, you could fail at delivering your promises. That is not the point. The point is that when a promise is at risk, real leaders step into dialogue early. They renegotiate consciously. They stay accountable. They protect trust. That behavior builds capacity and credibility even when outcomes take longer than expected.

Prioritizing avoids that conversation. Promising demands it.

So if you are serious about transformation, ask yourself this: Is your transformation a priority, or is it a promise?

If it is a priority, it will be negotiated away the moment pressure rises. If it is a promise, it will force you and your team to become someone new.

Breakthroughs do not belong to those who manage their priorities well. They belong to those who have the courage to promise and then grow into their word.

When failure is proof that you are on the right path

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Winston Churchill once said, “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

It is a simple sentence. It is also greatly misunderstood.

Most people hear this quote and assume it is about resilience, grit, or optimism. It is about something far more demanding. It is about how you interpret difficulty while you are in the middle of change.

Any meaningful breakthrough or transformation brings turbulence. Obstacles appear. Plans break down. Results dip. Progress feels slower than expected. Sometimes things get worse before they get better. Sometimes you fail outright along the way.

The difference between those who succeed and those who do not lies not in intelligence, strategy, or talent; it is in how they respond to these moments.

Many leaders interpret hardship as evidence that something is wrong. They treat setbacks as proof that the effort is failing. They see problems as signs they should quit. Eventually, they retreat. Often with good explanations.

Powerful leaders see the same events very differently.

They expect resistance. They understand that creating a new order of results disrupts the old one. They interpret obstacles as evidence that change is underway. They see mid-course failures as feedback and often as gateways to deeper breakthroughs.

They stay encouraged not because the path is smooth, but because the struggle confirms they are on the right path.

I worked with the CEO of a regional sales organization within a global telecommunications company. When he took on his role, his team was generating roughly $250 million in annual sales. On paper, the business looked strong. In reality, it was fragile.

The team struggled with forecast accuracy. Commitments were unreliable. Leaders lacked discipline around pipeline management. Results were inconsistent and unpredictable.

The CEO committed to a bold goal. Triple sales organically within three years. Not through acquisitions. Not through shortcuts. Through discipline, clarity, and execution.

This required a fundamental shift in behavior. Forecast rigor. Clear accountability. Hard conversations. New standards. For months, performance was uneven. Some quarters were disappointing. Some leaders questioned whether the changes were worth it.

It would have been easy to declare the effort a failure. He did not.

He stayed focused on the intention. He treated setbacks as part of the process. He kept reinforcing the new standards even when results lagged. He encouraged his leaders to stay present and learn rather than retreat.

Less than three years later, his region exceeded one billion dollars in annual sales.

Nothing magical happened. What changed was discipline, trust in the process, and the willingness to stay the course when the data was uncomfortable.

Now contrast that with another CEO.

This leader ran an electrical product-related manufacturing company and was committed to a breakthrough in quality, on-time delivery, and growth. The organization was highly siloed and political. Roles were unclear. Decisions were centralized. People protected themselves rather than the enterprise.

He initiated a transformation. Roles and responsibilities were clarified. Leaders were asked to step up and make decisions. Accountability was pushed down into the organization. People were excited about the change. But, as expected, things got messy.

Decisions took longer. Some mistakes were made. Performance improvements lagged behind the effort. The culture was shifting, but results had not yet caught up.

Halfway through the change, the CEO lost patience. He interpreted the turbulence as failure. He shut the initiative down. He returned to top-down command and control. Old silos returned. Cover-your-back behavior resurfaced. People were discouraged. The organization went back to what was familiar, and stagnation followed.

Both leaders faced difficulty. Both encountered setbacks. Both had moments where it would have been easier to quit. One saw the struggle as evidence of progress. The other saw it as proof of failure.

That is the difference Churchill was pointing to.

Giving up at the first or second sign of failure does not require courage. Staying positive, purpose-oriented, and committed while navigating uncertainty does.

If you want to succeed, you must be willing to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. Not blind enthusiasm. Grounded enthusiasm. The kind that comes from trusting your intention, your vision, and yourself.

Challenges are not a detour from transformation. They are the terrain.

The real question is not whether obstacles will show up. They always do. The real question is how you will interpret them when they arrive.

 

What classical guitar taught me about real breakthroughs

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I have been coaching organizations and leadership teams in generating breakthrough results through total team alignment, ownership and engagement for over 30 years. Most of you know me in that context.

In my personal life I am also an avid classical guitarist. And classical guitar has taught me far more than music. It has enforced my understanding of how breakthroughs actually work. Not in theory. In practice.

The same principles that determine whether I master a demanding piece determine whether an organization or an individual achieves real transformation.

In my work with leadership teams looking for breakthrough performance, I see similar patterns play out every day.

Here are three lessons I have learned the hard way.

Lesson 1: Everything is created twice

Every new creation, innovative idea and future breakthrough reality exists first in someone’s mind. In their intention, thinking and declaration.

When I take on learning a new classical guitar piece, it often feels daunting. The technique, the tempo, the precision required can feel far beyond where I am today. In that moment, the gap between my vision and current reality feels daunting.

The same thing happens in organizations when a bold strategy or breakthrough ambition is declared. People see the distance, the complexity, the challenges. They feel overwhelmed.

What guitar has taught me is that the vision is not the problem. The gap is not the problem. The only real question is whether you are willing to stay present long enough for the unfamiliar to become natural.

What once felt impossible slowly becomes familiar. What felt complex becomes fluid. What felt intimidating becomes part of who you are.

Breakthroughs are not achieved by shrinking the vision. They are achieved by living and growing into it.

Lesson 2: Taking small future-based actions, every day builds accelerated momentum

Mastery does not come from occasional heroic efforts. It comes from daily practice.

When I practice guitar, I do not chase perfection. I chase progress. Small gains. Clean transitions. One phrase at a time. Some days feel strong. Some days feel frustrating. What matters is that I show up and move forward, even slightly, no matter how I feel.

Organizations fail at transformation when they expect dramatic leaps instead of disciplined forward movement. Bold visions are not realized in one stroke. They are realized through consistent, often ‘baby steps’ future-based actions taken every day. The ‘every day’ part is where much of the power and magic exist.

When teams take small, intentional steps toward their vision daily, something powerful happens. They begin closing the gap. The vision feels closer. Confidence builds. Momentum forms.

The future does not arrive all at once. You walk toward it one step at a time.

Lesson 3: Staying the course no matter what reassures success

Some practice sessions are hard. Your fingers feel clumsy. Progress feels slow. You question whether you are improving at all or whether you will succeed in your quest.

Then something unexpected happens.

A passage that was impossible yesterday suddenly flows. A technical barrier dissolves. A leap forward appears that you did not plan or predict.

Those moments only happen because you stayed the course.

The same is true in transformation. Things often get worse before they get better. Performance indicators dip. Processes feel messy. Doubt creeps in. This is the moment where most people retreat. And this is exactly where breakthroughs are born.

If you have the courage and perseverance to stay the course, no matter what, unexpected gains emerge. Capability expands. Confidence strengthens. Results accelerate beyond what you originally imagined or expected.

Breakthroughs do not reward impatience. They reward sustained conviction.

Whether you are mastering a piece of music or leading a bold organizational shift, the principles are the same.

See the future clearly. Move toward it daily. Stay the course when it gets uncomfortable.

That is how transformation works

The hard truth about transformation that most leaders cannot tolerate

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If you want real transformation, not cosmetic change, you must accept a truth that most leaders find deeply uncomfortable.

The path to breakthrough rarely feels like progress.

Sales can dip before they rise. Processes can feel messier before they become effective. Engagement can wobble before ownership takes hold. Short-term metrics can soften before long-term performance strengthens.

This is where most transformation efforts die.

Not because the strategy is wrong. Not because the people are incapable. Not because the ambition is unrealistic.

They die because leaders lose their nerve.

I was working with a large manufacturer company that was under intense pressure after COVID. Quality had suffered. Production had fallen behind. Customer confidence was fragile, to put it mildly. The leadership team committed to a two-year transformation focused on three outcomes: restore production performance, rebuild quality, and reignite sales.

The work was serious. Leaders stepped up. The organization leaned in. After one year, the results were clear.

They exceeded their production breakthrough targets. They made meaningful progress on quality, with strong indicators that the trend would continue. And the culture had shifted toward ownership and accountability.

By any rational assessment, the transformation was working.

But the market was brutal. External conditions were unfavorable. Despite the operational improvements, sales numbers lagged behind targets.

The CEO fixated on the sales gap. Instead of seeing the trajectory, he saw only the shortfall. Instead of acknowledging the structural progress, he declared the effort a failure. Against the counsel of his leadership team, he shut down the transformation program.

The response from his leaders and managers was immediate and painful. They disagreed. They were frustrated. Many were demoralized. They had invested deeply, not just in new practices, but in a new way of collaborating and leading. And overnight, the work was deemed irrelevant.

Not because it failed. But because discomfort clouded the vision.

Contrast that with a technology integration company I worked with.

They had been stagnating at around $200M in revenue. Solid business. Good people. No crisis. But the CEO knew that staying flat was a slow form of decline. He committed the organization to a bold goal: $300M in revenue within three years.

It felt ambitious. It felt uncomfortable. It required changes in leadership behavior, operating rhythm, discipline, accountability, and strategic clarity. The transformation journey began.

Then COVID hit. Then global supply chain constraints intensified. Then internal resistance emerged.

At multiple points, executives questioned whether the timing was wrong. Some argued that external conditions made the goal unrealistic. Others suggested slowing down or revising expectations. The pressure was real.

But the CEO did not waver. He listened. He engaged. He adjusted tactics where needed. But he did not abandon the bold commitment. He held the line on direction and standard. Even when his leaders complained. Even when the work felt harder than expected. Even when uncertainty increased.

The result?

They surpassed $300M in year two. They moved toward $400M shortly after. But more importantly, the organization evolved. Leadership depth increased. Ownership strengthened. Execution discipline improved. The company became more capable than it had ever been.

Same type of journey with two very different outcomes. Not because of market conditions. Not because of intelligence. Not because of talent. The difference was resolve.

Transformation requires the courage to stay the course when the data is inconvenient. It requires the conviction to trust the direction when discomfort rises. It requires the maturity to distinguish between short-term volatility and long-term trajectory.

Most leaders cannot tolerate the messy middle. They cannot tolerate things getting worse before they get better.

They expect change to feel clean, progress to feel linear, and confidence to come before evidence. That is not how transformation works.

Real change destabilizes old patterns before new ones stabilize. Performance often dips before capability strengthens. The leaders who succeed are the ones who understand this and refuse to abandon the work when it becomes uncomfortable.

The organizations that achieve breakthroughs beyond expectations are not those with the most impressive strategies. They are the ones with the deepest and strongest commitment and resolve.

If you are serious about optimizing your transformation journey, this is the question you must confront honestly:

“Will you stay the course when the road gets uncertain, when pressure increases, and when it would be easier to retreat?”

Because that moment is not the exception, it’s the rule. That moment is the test.

Make 2026 the Best Year Ever

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I love new beginnings. A new year carries possibility. A new chapter carries hope. A new phase invites you to step forward again.

At the beginning of the year, you often feel a renewed sense of opportunity. You might want to improve your financial situation, strengthen your health, build deeper relationships, or find work that truly matters. The feeling is real. The motivation is real. But the danger is also real.

Many people believe the new beginning exists outside of them. They believe the time of year, the calendar, or their circumstances create the change.

They do not.

A fresh start is not created by a date or circumstance. It is created by the way you think, speak, and choose. The only person who can give you a new beginning is you.

I have a friend who has faced difficult circumstances. Every time I ask how he is doing, his answer is some version of “Same day, different problems.” When I try to open a conversation about new possibilities, he explains why nothing can change. Over time, I have learned something painful. His circumstances are not what keep him stuck. His thinking is.

I frequently see the same pattern in organizations. Leaders say they are open-minded. They say they want change. But the moment someone offers a new idea, they explain why it will not work. They call themselves realistic. Others experience them as skeptical, closed, or negative. Not because they lack intelligence or commitment, but because they are attached to the past.

A new year requires a new way of thinking and seeing yourself.

  • Sometimes that means letting go of old perceptions about yourself.
  • Sometimes it means releasing conclusions you made about what is possible.
  • Sometimes it means forgiving others.
  • Often, it means forgiving yourself.

If you are still holding regret, resentment, or disappointment from the past, you are not starting fresh. You are carrying weight into the future.

And if you are reading this thinking, “I am already very open-minded,” then I offer you a simple challenge. Ask someone who knows you well and cares about you to tell you where you might be stuck. Then listen. Real openness shows up in your willingness to hear what is uncomfortable.

If you want 2026 to be your best year ever, start by declaring it. Clearly. Boldly. Without apology.

A future that excites you pulls you forward. A future you merely hope for keeps you at bay.

Then bring structure to it.

Start with the key areas of your life. Finances. Career. Health. Relationships. Personal growth. Choose the areas that genuinely matter to you, even if you have not been active in them for a while.

In each area, define what you will achieve. Not vague intentions, but clear outcomes.

  • Double your income.
  • Bring renewed intimacy to your marriage.
  • Lose weight.
  • Get into shape.
  • Build meaningful friendships.

These are not wishes. These are commitments.

Then define the projects that will make those outcomes real. If health matters, your projects might include consistent exercise, improved nutrition, and better sleep routines and habits. If career growth matters, your projects might include acquiring new skills, seeking feedback, or pursuing new opportunities. Every project should have clear actions, timelines, and follow-through.

Finally, convert your commitments into a 90-day, 60-day, and 30-day plan. Review it weekly. Adjust when necessary. Do not drift.

New Year’s resolutions fail because they live in talk, not action. If you want 2026 to be different, share your commitments with people who care about you and who will hold you accountable. Ask them to challenge you. Schedule follow-up conversations. Keep your word even when motivation fades.

You have a choice. You can make 2026 the best year of your life. Or you can let it become another year filled with compromises and explanations.

The difference will not be circumstances. The difference will be you.

My wish for all of us is simple. May we have the courage to choose deliberately, act consistently, and live this year fully.

May 2026 be your best year ever.

 

Complete 2025 in the Most Meaningful Way

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Completing a chapter effectively can be a meaningful and powerful endeavor when you approach it with a deliberate and conscious mindset. Unfortunately, most people focus far more on starting a project and executing a project, and when it ends, they simply move on to the next one. We consistently underestimate the power and value of completing things effectively, not merely finishing or ending them.

The dictionary defines finishing as bringing a task or activity to an end. It defines completing as making something whole or perfect.

You do not have to do anything for something to end. That is the nature of any cycle. Things begin, evolve, and end. A year, a project, or even a lifetime follows the same principle. However, to feel complete at the end of your year, with all the good things and the difficult things that happened, you need to apply deliberate and mindful focus and awareness.

How do you complete things?

If you review the year’s events without the distinction of completion in mind, you are likely to focus on the cold facts of what occurred. You may ask yourself questions such as: What did I do? What didn’t I do? What results did I achieve? Most likely, your sense of satisfaction will be determined by outcomes alone. If you achieved most of your goals, you may feel good. If you did not, you may feel disappointed.

In contrast, if you look at 2025 through the lens of completion, your reflection naturally deepens beyond facts alone. You still account for what happened. At the same time, you are compelled to own what happened and what did not happen in a more meaningful way.

You begin to ask different questions.

  • What did I accomplish?
  • What did I learn?
  • Where and how did I grow?
  • How am I better prepared for the future?

This kind of reflection strengthens your connection to your higher purpose and vision, and it creates a deeper sense of satisfaction and wholeness.

Your experience of success or failure is based far more on interpretation than on facts. You can feel successful even when you did not meet all your goals. You can also feel unfulfilled even when you did. Often, the difference lies in whether you brought completion to the year.

Completing the past and acknowledging what you gained from it allows you to put things in perspective. It enables you to put the past behind you cleanly. From that place, you feel freer, stronger, more empowered, and more excited about the future.

When things are left incomplete, they tend to linger. Past incompletions can cloud your thinking, affect your confidence, and influence how you approach new opportunities. You may hesitate to take risks, or you may charge forward trying to prove something. In both cases, you are reacting to the past rather than creating the future consciously.

The good news is that you can bring completion to your past at any moment, regardless of how good or challenging it was. Completion does not require perfection. It requires taking stock, drawing honest and empowering conclusions, and then declaring the past complete. This takes courage. It also restores choice.

How to Complete 2025 in a Practical and Meaningful Way

As you end 2025, take time to reflect. Start by listing the facts. What happened? What did you do and not do? What did you achieve? It is useful to begin there, but it is important not to end there.

Ask yourself:

  1. What did I accomplish?
  2. What did I learn?
  3. Were any of my disappointments blessings in disguise?
  4. Where and how did I grow in the areas that matter most to me?
  5. How did I advance my larger personal and professional purpose and vision?
  6. What am I most proud of?
  7. What am I most grateful for?
  8. Whom do I want to recognize and thank? Make sure you actually tell them.
Click here to download a Completion Worksheet

When you declare 2025 complete, you create space. In that space, satisfaction, peace, and fulfillment naturally arise. From there, you can begin creating your next year intentionally rather than reactively.

On a personal note, thank you for reading my blog throughout 2025. I hope some of these reflections supported you along the way. I will be taking some time off myself and look forward to continuing to share new thoughts and experiences starting early January 2026.

I wish you and your family a happy holiday season and a happy New Year.

 

Beyond SMART: How Bold, “Unrealistic” Goals Unlock Innovation and Passion

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Conventional management tells us that if we want to succeed in our business, we must create SMART goals.

The A in SMART stands for Achievable, which in other words means Realistic. In fact, if you Google ‘Achievable’ under SMART, it states: “Goals should be realistic – not pedestals from which you inevitably tumble.”

Realistic is often analogous to Familiar and within our comfort zone.

When people create realistic goals, they naturally rely on their past experiences. Essentially, this involves reviewing their past successes and failures, analysing them, and deriving rational explanations and conclusions about what worked and what didn’t, why they achieved certain results, and what they can and cannot do in the future. Based on that analysis, they make realistic predictions about the goals they will commit to for the future.

If you think about it, realistic goals are goals that you already know or feel you know how to achieve. In simple terms, this is the past repeating itself.

The main flaw in this past-based approach to goal setting is that it drastically limits our scope of possibilities, and consequently imagination, innovation, resourcefulness, passion, and growth.

Our state of mind and state of being are very much shaped by our goals. Not just by whether we achieve them or not. But by their degree of boldness and challenge. Realistic goals are often predictable and small, so they don’t inspire.

I recently spoke with a senior product executive client who was searching for a new job and had received offers from two companies. One offer was to join a large, mature product firm with a secured pipeline of orders for the next three years, at a mid-level position (lower than his previous role). The second was to join a smaller, well-funded startup with a new proven proprietary product that they needed to optimize, market, and sell effectively at the C-suite level.

The executive, who is a very smart, dynamic, and passionate leader, was weighing the pros and cons of these offers, trying to convince me that the first offer was a wiser choice because joining a large, stable company would provide him more stability and security in the long term. When I probed deeper, he shared that the CEO of the large company assured him of a promotion to a more senior and influential role in 2-3 years, assuming good performance. The CEO of the smaller startup, on the other hand, enthusiastically offered him a strategic position in co-creating the future of the company.

When the executive described the large company, he said all the right things, but his tone was monotonous and disengaged. I could tell he was speaking from his head. However, when he talked about the smaller company, he was excited and lit up. It was clear he was speaking from his heart.

When unrealistic goals are authentic, in other words, they come from our heart, they stimulate, inspire and drive us to think differently (outside the box). They compel us to be innovative and figure out new ways of doing familiar things.

Deep inside, most people thrive on challenge. To stay motivated, our goals must be greater than what we are currently capable of. Great goals should evoke an emotion of excitement and fear.

As Joe Vitale (author) wrote:

“Good goals should scare you a little and excite you a lot”.

But unrealistic goals should not be treated as pedestals from which you inevitably tumble, according to the SMART definition. They must be accompanied by action.

When you take on realistic goals, you often already know how to achieve them. However, it’s okay not to know how to achieve your authentic, bold, and unrealistic goals when you take them on. You should be excited and clear about your goal description, then you must take action.

Knowing the entire plan for their execution is not possible or necessary. However, you must take baby steps toward them. Your first steps will reveal your next steps, and so on. The path to realize bold and unrealistic goals is not a straight line. It often has unexpected twists and turns along the way. You achieve bold and unrealistic goals not through prediction or certainty from what you already know, but through real-time discovery, insight, learning, and growing.

As Goethe wrote in one of his couplets:

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Larry Page, the founder of Google, has driven a goal-setting philosophy within the company that promotes setting ambitious goals where there is roughly a 50% chance of success. Larry’s leadership approach comes from the rationale that inspired people tend to come up with much greater ideas. His approach is not about setting intentionally unachievable goals, but rather about pushing for significant, potentially transformative results, even if it involves a higher risk of not fully reaching the target. What he has found is that the goals that do succeed make a much greater impact. If you want to subscribe to this approach, make sure that around 50% of your goals have a 50% likelihood of success.

At the end of the day, it comes down to the kind of person you choose to be.

  • Do you want to be someone who consistently achieves 100% of your goals by keeping them safe, familiar, and comfortably within reach?
  • Or do you want to set bold, transformative goals that stretch your thinking, fuel your growth, and position you to make a far greater impact?

The choice is yours: pursue certainty and stay where you are or embrace challenge and discover just how far you can go.

Don’t confuse efficient compliance with real transformation

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For a significant transformation initiative to succeed, the CEO must ensure that all their senior executives are fully (genuinely) aligned and own the transformation purpose, outcomes and process.

Large-scale transformation processes are often complex and messy. Many CEOs use a Project Management (PM) function to oversee, track, and manage the transformation execution process. A strong PM function can make a significant difference in achieving the transformation outcomes. However, a strong PM function can also undermine and jeopardize the transformation’s intent and purpose.

A powerful transformation is never just about achieving better outcomes. By design, it is always about aspiration and inspiration. And no matter how complex the change initiative, senior leaders cannot outsource or delegate the aspiration, inspiration, and execution of their transformation to anyone else. It’s solely the role of the senior executive team to fuel the transformation with clarity, spirit, and inspiration. Therefore, organizational transformation can only move as fast as the senior leadership team can lead, drive, and inspire change.

Take a large global technology company, for example, that undertook a strategic transformation program to elevate its product portfolio, market share, customer experience and business performance.

The CEO and senior executives aligned on a 2-year bold strategy with clear breakthrough outcomes to fulfill their change vision of the future. All executives emerged from the transformational strategic planning exercise genuinely aligned and excited to take the company to the next level.

They assigned managers to lead bold execution initiatives under them and added a PM function to manage and oversee the cadence of execution tracking, presentations, and status reviews to ensure consistent and effective execution of their intent.

As with every large change initiative, reality set in. The existing work that hadn’t gone away competed with the future work, and executives were getting overwhelmed with the challenge of managing everything.

As a result, they spent less time engaging in meaningful strategic dialogue about how to make the transformation most impactful. They also deprioritized mentoring, coaching, and supporting their managers who were at the forefront of executing the transformation. In fact, they began to rely more heavily on the PM function to manage the process by providing more frequent updates and status reports on the transformation.

The problem, however, was that the PM function wasn’t privy to the creation of the vision and strategy in the first place. They didn’t have the necessary context of what the CEO and senior executives intended to achieve and why. All they cared about was ‘checking the box’ on hitting the published outcomes on their due dates. They considered their mission to be providing timely and accurate reports on the status of outcome attainment. The PM function did not focus on ensuring that the overall intent of the transformation was being fulfilled.

As the CEO and executives pushed the PM function harder to provide updates, the PM function pushed the execution managers for updates too. The managers, who were overwhelmed themselves, became resentful toward the PM function and the executives for signing them up for extracurricular change-leadership accountability, only to abandon them when things became tough.

A year passed and although everyone worked extremely hard and the PM function presented an overall ‘green scorecard’ for outcome attainment; people didn’t experience a sense of accomplishment or victory. In fact, many questioned if anything substantial had really changed in the company.

There was a growing sentiment among the execution managers and senior executives that their promising large-scale transformation initiative intended to change the company became a major efficiency and process compliance exercise, lacking energy, spirit and soul.

 

Why Bold Visions Fail – And How to Make Yours Succeed

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I have coached many teams and organizations in creating bold and aspirational strategies that take their success to the next level.

Every transformation begins with setting ambitious goals. And every team emerges from this initial exercise highly optimistic, energized and eager to achieve a better future for their company and themselves.

Time and time again, I am impressed and inspired by leaders’ genuine enthusiasm, commitment, and resolve to realize aspirational goals that, at the outset are often viewed as beyond current.

Unfortunately, when it comes to fulfilling aspirational goals and transformational change, there are 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 continue to invest their own commitment, energy, time, and resources into the process.

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

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

However, if you take on any Big Hairy Audacious Goal, it is inevitable that at some point in your journey, you will have to confront your barriers to change. Marathon runners describe this as hitting the wall. It’s the moment, about halfway 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 hurt your performance. However, if you anticipate this phenomenon and prepare for it, you can get through the tough patches with minimal distractions in focus, commitment, and effectiveness.

It is exactly the same thing when pursuing a big aspirational change initiative.

The wall often manifests as: people feeling overwhelmed with keeping up with their existing jobs while transitioning to future work, initiatives taking more time and energy than initially expected to demonstrate results, people losing faith because of temporary dip in performance and results, and people beginning to disengage because of growing frustrations and skepticism.

Leaders who trust the process, push forward and stay the course, no matter what, achieve extraordinary results.

Take, for example, the CEO of a large manufacturing company who launched a much-needed performance and culture change initiative to leap production and sales results. He defined the process as a two-year transformation and got all his senior leaders on board, excited to own the process. Like most transformational initiatives, they started strong and achieved noticeable breakthroughs in production efficiency and output. However, halfway through the first year, the markets changed. While production continued to significantly improve, sales started to suffer, and they ended up behind on their first-year sales results.

Instead of leveraging the breakthroughs that his team achieved in production to send a message of confidence and encouragement to his team, the CEO repeatedly discarded all accomplishments and progress and instead highlighted his frustration and disappointment at the process’s failure. His attitude dampened morale fostered discouragement and resignation, and slowed momentum. People felt that no matter how hard they worked and what progress they achieve it would not be recognized.

Contrast this story with the CEO of a technology integration company who launched a transformation process to break through his long-time sales glass ceiling. As the company battled COVID, global supply chain issues, and local economic and market trend challenges, he stayed firm in his conviction to drive change. His change initiative remained a top priority. He insisted on continuing the process and demanded that his leaders do the same, even when everyone was stretched thin and complaining about the extra work.

In his second year, he exceeded all his aspirational goals. In his sixth year, he doubled his company and positioned it as a market leader. Throughout his change process, his team achieved significant breakthroughs in new technology and product adoption and new market penetrations. Morale in his company soared, and his leaders and managers are even more excited today about the next breakthroughs ahead.

Unfortunately, most leaders are not good at staying the course. Many leaders simply don’t know how to remain 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 worse before they get better, so they react badly to chaos, messy situations, temporary dips in performance, and unpredictable 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 the way and fail, but rather because they do not stay the course and 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 simply 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 not committed.”

The cost of not staying the course lies not only in failing to achieve higher levels of performance and results but, more importantly, in the cynical attitudes—both overt and covert—that arise from the defeat in pursuing great aspirations and dreams.

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

Complete 2020 in the most meaningful way, especially given COVID-19.

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Completing a chapter effectively can be a meaningful and powerful endeavor if you approach it with a deliberate and conscious mindset. Unfortunately, most people tend to focus more on starting a project and executing it, and when it reaches its end, they just move to the next one. We tend to underestimate the power and value of completing things effectively, not merely finishing or ending them.

The dictionary defines ‘Finishing‘ as ‘Bringing a task or activity to an end. It defines ‘Completing‘ as ‘Making something whole or perfect’.

You don’t have to do anything for something to end. It is the nature of any cycle. Things begin, go through their evolution, and end. A year, a project, or a lifetime, it’s all the same principle. But, in order to feel complete at the end of your year, with all the good things and bad things that happened, you need to apply deliberate and mindful focus and awareness.

How do you complete things?

If you review the year’s events without the distinction of completion in mind, you are likely to focus on the cold facts of what occurred. You will ask yourself questions such as: “What did I do?”, “What didn’t I do?” and “What results did I achieve?”. Most likely, your sense of satisfaction would be determined by the number of outcomes you achieved. If you achieved most of your goals, you would most likely feel good. If not, you would feel bad.

In contrast, if you look at 2020 through the lens of completion, you will push your thinking and reflection to a deeper level beyond merely the facts of what happened. You will still account for the facts of what occurred; however, you will be compelled to own what happened and what didn’t happen in a more meaningful way.

You will ask yourself questions such as “What did I accomplish?”, “What did I learn?”, “Where and how did I grow?” and “How am I better, stronger, and more prepared for the future?”. This type of taking stock will deepen your connection with your higher purpose and vision, and it will make you feel more satisfied and complete.

Your experience of success and failure are based on interpretations, not facts. You can feel victorious and successful even when you didn’t meet your goals. And, you can feel disappointed and unfulfilled when you did meet them. The feeling of success or failure is often determined by the notion of completion.

Completing the past and feeling that you have learned and gained the most out of it will enable you to put things in a more powerful perspective. It will help you put the past behind you, and this will leave you feeling freer, stronger, and more empowered, and excited to focus on the future from a clean slate.

However, if you leave things incomplete, past incompletions could haunt you and cloud your thoughts, plans, and aspirations for the future. You could become more hesitant to take on new things because of past failures, and/or you could take on things with a sense of vengeance and need to prove something, which could rob you of enjoying the journey. In both cases, you would be reacting to your past, and that won’t be effective or satisfying.

Completing 2020 in an empowering way seems to be more important than ever because of COVID-19. Everyone’s world turned ‘upside-down’. Plans and routines were stalled, canceled, or drastically changed. People lost their jobs, livelihood, businesses, and perhaps loved ones. And many of us were not able to achieve the goals and aspirations we may have had for 2020 before the pandemic took hold.

The good news is that you can bring completion to your past at any moment, no matter how good or bad things were. You just need to take stock, draw productive and empowering conclusions from past events, and then declare the past complete. It requires taking a stand, and it takes courage. But it can be easy and fun!

How to complete 2020 in a practical and meaningful way:

As you end 2020, reflect on this year. First, make a list of the facts – what happened, what you did and didn’t do and accomplish. It’s useful to start there. But don’t end there.

Ask yourself:

  1. What did I accomplish?
  2. What did I learn?
  3. Where any of my disappointments ‘blessings in disguise?”
  4. Where and how did I grow and improve in the areas I care about?
  5. How did I forward my bigger personal and professional vision and purpose?
  6. What am I most grateful for?
  7. Whom do I want to recognize and thank? (Make sure you tell them.)

Once you declare 2020 complete, you will feel a sense of satisfaction, peace, and fulfillment. In that space, you can powerfully start creating your next year to be your best year ever.

In conclusion, on a personal note – Thank you for following my blogs during 2020 even though I posted less of them. I hope at least some of them were useful to you. I will be taking some much-needed time off myself, and I look forward to continuing to post regular posts at the beginning of 2021.  2020 created a lot of ‘new norms’ and with them new thoughts, insights, and learnings. I look forward to sharing my thoughts and experiences with you in 2021.

Wishing you and your family a Healthy and Happy Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!

 

What is your mid-term mark for leveraging COVID?

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If you had to give yourself and your organization a mid-term mark (four months in) for how powerful you have been in leveraging the COVID era, what would it be?

Based on my observations, from supporting several companies and teams in the last few months, you could be in one of three spaces:

  1. Hoping to survive COVID,
  2. Trying to stay productive,
  3. Excelling and taking your business and culture to a new level.

I am sure most if not all companies went through some degree of survival mode in the beginning when the business and economic reality of COVID hit. At first, some leaders were in denial, brushing off the severity of the pandemic. Other leaders expressed hope that it would simply go away, even when there was mounting evidence that the epidemic was spreading globally and here to stay.

I would like to believe that most leaders were able to collect themselves, think rationally and strategically and move on to a more productive space.

Unfortunately, I saw some leaders who didn’t and remained in panic and reactive mode.  They continued to make panicky decisions such as: freezing all budgets across the board without distinction; stopping all corporate programs – “run the business” and “improve the business” without exception; and laying off as many employees as possible to mitigate short term risk, without any enlightened regard for longer-term consequences.

Some companies seem to still be in that space today after four months. What a waste of energy and time!

Other leaders pride themselves on the fact that they quickly and efficiently shifted their entire workforce to a virtual work mode from home. In many cases, this shift was an admirable logistic undertaking given the size and geographical spread of their workforce.

Some companies are used to working virtually; they have the platform and technology to do so. However, for some companies working from home is an entirely foreign concept. In one case, employees literally unplugged their desktop computers (not laptops) and took them home via Uber.

The physical move to home was no small task for many. And then, establishing a virtual routine of productive business performance and customer service is also an admirable accomplishment.

Unfortunately, many leaders stopped there, settling for uninterrupted productivity.  As long as they could continue to provide the same services (or close) that they were offering pre-COVID virtually and uninterruptedly, they were content.

In one case, the CEO of a large regional division (which was faring well in virtual mode) told his executives to put on-hold all improvement and transformational programs for the time being, because as he put it, “They are ‘excessive’ during these challenging days.”

I believe this CEO’s mindset is quite common these days, and most companies feel that staying productive is a high enough mark.

The companies that inspire me most are those who quickly passed the first two spaces and then pushed themselves to the next level.

One CEO told his leaders to “discard COVID as an excuse.” His words were blunt, but he succeeded in setting the bold expectation of continuing to take the business, that was already on a path of transformation, to the next level – full speed ahead, without reservations.

Another CEO of medium size lighting company with the same mindset launched the most significant improvement programs his company has ever had focussing on many critical areas, including Sales, Production, R&D, and Marketing. By doing so, he increased productivity, effectiveness, results, and impact beyond the best months pre-COVID. His company will never be the same.

In fact, the two CEOs and other leaders who took bold initiatives believe that COVID is not a time to be cautious, think conservatively, hold back resources, or play safe. On the contrary, the COVID era is the perfect opportunity to rethink things, challenge the status quo, figure out approaches to truly work smarter, scale, and significantly improve processes and ways of doing business. Actions not merely to survive or overcome a tough epidemic but to generate lasting breakthroughs in their business.

Much has been written about the influence of COVID on businesses, and much more will be written over time. But when all is said and done, what are you really going to learn and take forward from the COVID era?

 

Complete 2019 in a meaningful way

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Effectively completing a chapter can be a meaningful and powerful endeavor if you approach it with a deliberate and conscious mindset. Unfortunately, most people tend to focus more on starting a project and executing it, and when it reaches its end, they just move to the next one. We tend to underestimate the power and value of completing things effectively, not merely finishing or ending them.

The dictionary defines ‘Finishing‘ as ‘Bringing a task or activity to an end.’ It defines ‘Completing‘ as ‘Making something whole or perfect.’

You don’t have to do anything for something to end. It is the nature of any cycle. Things begin, go through their evolution and end. A year, a project, or a lifetime, it’s all the same principle. But, in order to feel complete at the end of your year, with all the good things and bad things that happened, you need to apply deliberate and mindful focus and awareness.

How do you complete things?

If you review the year’s events without the distinction of completion in mind, you are likely to focus on the cold facts of what occurred. You will ask yourself questions such as: “What did I do?”, “What didn’t I do?” and “What results did I achieve?”. Most likely, your sense of satisfaction would be determined by the number of outcomes you achieved. If you achieved most of your goals, you would most likely feel good. If not, you would feel bad.

In contrast, if you look at 2019 through the lens of completion, you will push your thinking and reflection to a deeper level beyond merely the facts of what happened. You will still account for the facts of what occurred; however, you will be compelled to own what happened and what didn’t happen in a more meaningful way.

You will ask yourself questions such as “What did I accomplish?”, “What did I learn?”, “Where and how did I grow?” and “How am I better, stronger and more prepared for the future?”. This type of taking stock will deepen your connection with your higher purpose and vision, and it will make you feel more satisfied and complete.

Your experience of success and failure are based on interpretations, not facts. You can feel victorious and successful even when you didn’t meet your goals. And, you can feel disappointed and unfulfilled when you did meet them. The feeling of success or failure is often determined by the notion of completion.

Completing the past and feeling that you have learned and gained the most out of it will enable you to put things in a more powerful perspective. It will help you put the past behind you, and this will leave you feeling freer, stronger, and more empowered and excited to focus on the future from a clean slate.

However, if you leave things incomplete, past incompletions could haunt you and cloud your thoughts, plans, and aspirations for the future. You could become more hesitant to take on new things because of past failures and/or you could take on things with a sense of vengeance and need to prove something, which could rob you of enjoying the journey. In both cases, you would be reacting to your past, and that won’t be effective or satisfying.

The good news is that you can bring completion to your past at any moment, no matter how good or bad things were. You just need to take stock, draw empowering conclusions from past events, and then declare the past complete. It requires taking a stand, and it takes courage. But it is easy and fun!

How to complete 2019 in a practical and meaningful way:

As you end 2019, reflect on your year. First, make the list of the facts – what happened, what you did and didn’t do and accomplish. It’s useful to start there. But don’t end there.

Ask yourself:

  1. What did I accomplish?
  2. What did I learn?
  3. Where and how did I grow and improve in the areas I care about?
  4. How did I forward my bigger personal and professional vision and purpose?
  5. What am I most grateful for?
  6. Whom do I want to recognize and thank? (Make sure you tell them.)

Once you declare 2019 complete, you will feel a sense of satisfaction, peace, and fulfillment. In that space, you can powerfully start creating your next year to be your best year ever.

In conclusion, on a personal note – Thank you for following my blogs during 2019. I hope at least some of them were useful to you. I will be taking some time off myself and will post my next blog in the week of January 13th, 2020.

Wishing you and your family a Happy Holiday Season and Happy New Year!