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!

 

Are you living in and enjoying the moment?

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A powerful quote by Alfred D’Souza, which I have shared in the past:

 “For a long time, it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last, it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life”.  

Have you ever had the frustrating or upsetting feeling that you are moving too slow, or you are behind in achieving your life and/or professional goals?

I had a conversation with a senior executive who has had a very successful and impactful career so far, in which he has built strong teams, achieved extraordinary results, and has received many accolades. He was eager to find his next promotion and role. Throughout our conversation, he kept referring to his feeling that “he should have been further along in his career by now, given his age and the number of years he had been in his company…”

A different professional who was looking for ways to build greater wealth through investments, shared with me recently that he felt he was behind and he should have been wealthier by now given his age…

I have heard these types of expressions from successful people many times before about different areas of their personal and professional lives. In fact, if I am honest, I have had these feelings from time to time about my own goals.

The problem is that as ambitious people we tend to set bold objectives in order to stretch ourselves, and then somewhere along the way, especially when we face challenges, we feel we are behind, we forget that we were the ones who created these high bars for ourselves in the first place.

We move so fast that we forget or neglect to stop every now and then to review our goals and take stock of our progress.

The whole point of setting goals is to direct, focus, and, most importantly, empower ourselves. The minute our goals are out of tune, it affects our mood, spirit, and performance. We need to have the courage to change, cancel, or adjust our goals to make sure they maintain their relevance and purpose. We also need the courage to acknowledge, own, and celebrate our progress and accomplishments, even if we didn’t exactly hit our set targets.

We definitely want to avoid the trap of feeling that our validation, validity, and “OKness” is based on whether or not we have hit our goals.

The entire “retirement” concept is predicated on the following premise. We work extremely hard throughout our life, often sacrificing and neglecting key areas like family, marriage, health and recreation, in order to achieve financial and professional goals that would allow us to ‘one day’ get to that stage in life where we can “truly start doing what we love to do and enjoy our life“.

Can you hear how ludicrous that sounds!?

And let’s be honest, the dominance of social media doesn’t help at all! In fact, it only makes the pressure and stresses greater. Instead of only seeing our neighbor’s new car or job, we are now exposed to thousands of online ‘friends’ who display their ‘perfect’ lives. No wonder the feelings of ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ are stronger than ever.

Throughout our prime years, as we are working extremely hard, we feel like ‘when we get the next promotion, close the next deal, make the next million, buy the house or car of our dreams, get our children through college or married’ – “THEN life will truly be great.  But then when we reach a certain age, we start looking back and talking about our life in terms of ‘the good old days…’

So, if throughout our life we feel that ‘someday’ we will start living and then at the prime of our life we feel like ‘the best is behind us’ – when is our time??? When do we enjoy today… The moment???

If you want to stop delaying your enjoyment of your life, here are some thoughts about how to do it:

  1. Keep reminding yourself that you are the one who created your objectives and expectations in the first place. As the author of your future, if you find your goals and timelines to be too daunting and/or stressful, change them to ones that are more reasonable and ones that empower you.
  2. Acknowledge your accomplishments – every month, week, and every day. Focus more on your progress and what you have accomplished and less on your gaps, deficits, and what you haven’t achieved.
  3. Make sure to set time in your busy life for activities that fuel you with energy, enjoyment, fun, and fulfillment… If you are a workaholic, make time for the hobby you love or for personal time, or great vacations… and take time off. If you are married and/or have kids make sure to spend quality time with them on a regular basis… force yourself to do that….
  4. Stop equating your material achievements and success with your self-worth. Stop getting caught in the hamster wheel of jealousy and competitiveness. When you reach certain milestones or accomplishments, take the time to appreciate and celebrate what we have accomplished. Do not move right into your next goal; don’t let the rat race continue.
  5. Anticipate now what you will regret in the future if you don’t do or say, and do or say it today!
  6. Avoid falling into the trap of comparing yourself and your life with others… or even worse, being jealous of others. As my wise wife puts it: ‘you don’t want what others have and what they don’t have!’

It’s now or never… literally!

 

Success through Rigor, Clarity, and Responsibility

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Often when managers and employees feel frustrated about other’s lack of accountability, and they describe the reality as: “They promised to do X and didn’t deliver!” there is more to the story than that.

I have seen many times, in situations of conflict or dispute, person A insisting that person B promised to do or deliver something and simply did not do so, while person B denies ever having made the promise in the first place.

Both parties feel frustrated and resentful. Each one believes their version of the story represents the facts and truth. However, in many cases, when both parties step back, look a bit deeper, and try to view the situation more objectively, they realize that it was not bad intent caused their heartache, but rather the lack of rigor and clarity in their initial interaction.

If you want to avoid the common issues that happen when requesting or promising, there are a few things to pay attention to:

  1. Make sure what you are requesting or promising is clear, understood, and agreed to in the same way by both sides. Often, instead of explicitly spelling it out, people assume the other person knows what they are requesting or promising. It probably won’t be an exaggeration to say that, more often than not, people simply do not understand and/or are not aligned about what is being promised or requested. Needless to say, this causes mismatched expectations, that always lead to upset.
  2. Make sure the time frame of the promise or request is clear. For example, if you are asking for additional resources or budget for a strategic project, be specific about the time frame (the ‘by when’). Don’t leave it vague, or hope they’ll understand your urgency or act on it rapidly. And, if the person you are requesting this from promises to make it happen, “As soon as possible,” don’t settle for the lack of clarity… And don’t fall into the trap of assuming you will get what you need in the time you need it. Furthermore, don’t feel disappointed if your expectations were not met.
  3. Make sure the level of sincerity and commitments toward the promise is explicit. When you make a request and someone responses with “I’ll do my best” or “I don’t see any reason why not,” don’t make the mistake of taking that as an affirmation of commitment. A promise is clear, explicit, and unconditional. This doesn’t mean that a promise is a guarantee and, therefore, will always be fulfilled. However, when someone says: “I promise,” “You can count on me,” or “You have my word,” that represents a much stronger, sincerer, and more committed intention to do what they said. People often avoid this level of clarity because it is uncomfortable, and they fear it could lead to the realization that they may not get what they want.
  4. Check-in, follow up, and support the promise while it is being delivered. When someone promises you something, and they are in the process of working on it, your job is not over. You need to stay engaged and involved throughout the duration of the delivery cycle as a committed and vested partner in order to keep the promise alive. This interaction will look different depending on the nature of the promise and person you are dealing with. Sometimes it may mean checking in on a frequent basis. At other times, it may mean looking the person in the eye at the onset to get a sense of confidence that they really mean it, understood it, and will follow through. The main reason for avoiding this conversation is because it is disruptive and uncomfortable. People fear it could lead to the realization that they may not get what they want.
  5. Manage undelivered promises with integrity. No matter how sincere the promise, it is never a guarantee. Things happen, and people who promise sometimes fail to deliver or change their mind. If you understand and accept that simple fact, you will be in a much better mental place to deal with undelivered promises. For the most part, people know ahead of the deadline that they are not going to deliver what they promised. But unfortunately, while people seem to have no problem not doing what they said, they do have a problem being straight up and upfront about it.

The lack of courage to acknowledge and take responsibility for promises that won’t be delivered often goes both ways – to the one promising and the one being ‘promised to.’ Have you ever been in a situation in which someone promised you something, you had a feeling they may not come through, and still you avoided confronting them about it?

Regardless of your position and seniority – if you are not going to deliver on your promise, letting others find out at the last minute and be surprised is not acceptable. It undermines trust, credibility, confidence, and success.

If you can’t deliver what you promised, communicate in a timely and responsible manner. Then the two of you – together – can figure out alternative solutions and routes to rectify the situation or take a different course.

People want to fulfill their commitments and succeed, but they also can handle the truth, even if it is bad news. By interacting with rigor, clarity, courage, and responsibility, you are promoting respect, emphasizing other’s strengths, and enabling success.

 

Are you driving outcomes or activities?

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So often, when teams define their strategy, they tend to target activities instead of outcomes.

For example, they promise:

  • ‘Installing a new order shipping tracking system’ instead of ‘80% of our orders are shipped on time’;
  • ‘Create a process that gives visibility to post-sales issues’ versus ‘all post-sales issues are resolved within 24 hours’; and
  • ‘All sales employees have gone through our sales training program’ instead of ‘we have raised the average productivity of the sales team from 2 million per person to 3 million.’

While activities are essential for executing and delivering the results, they should not be the starting point of any strategy.

The job of leaders is to make strategic choices about where they want to take their organization. When it comes to strategic outcomes, there are no right or wrong answers. In fact, no matter how much analysis you do, you never really know if your bet will succeed. We have all seen sure bets fall short, and unexpected bets succeed beyond expectations. In order for a team to create a powerful strategy, the leaders must be 100% aligned on their strategic choices/commitments.

While outcomes are derived from choices, activities should be derived from the outcomes. Outcomes change when leaders feel there is a strategic reason to change them (for example, market change, merger & acquisition, etc.). However, activities should be periodically inspected and adjusted any time they are no longer useful or effective. Needless to say, the focus and direction of activities could change much more frequently than outcomes.

When a team locks into clear outcomes, that higher purpose helps the managers and employees determine their action plans and activities. But when leaders lock into activities, this often creates busyness in the organization.

I can’t tell you how many times I see people being so consumed with busywork that they have lost track of the higher purpose that led to the busyness in the first place.

In addition, the focus on the activities (means) versus outcomes (end) hinders the ability of the team to assess the effectiveness of their activities and make the necessary changes if they are not effective. Most organizations are good at adding activities, but they rarely stop them.

Lastly, the activity-based approach undermines accountability. Real accountability is always for clear outcomes. Accountability for clear results fosters a mindset of overcoming obstacles. The activity-based approach tolerates shortfalls and promotes a circumstantial mindset of blame and excuses.

People often justify the activity-based approach with statements like: “We can’t control/guarantee the results. We can only control/guarantee our activities…”

But that is like searching for your lost car keys under the lamp post versus where you actually lost them.

Yes, you may be able to control your activities. But the activities you can control may not get you to your desired outcomes.

When it comes to strategy, there seem to be two schools of thought:

“Promise your desired outcomes and then put the activities in place to fulfill them.”

“Promise the activities that you assume will get you to your desired outcomes and hope they will be enough.”

Leaders who believe in the first seem to have a more powerful paradigm and approach towards outcomes.

They seem to believe that they do have control over achieving their outcomes. They seem to believe that:

  1. If achieving their outcomes requires enrolling others who are not part of their team to the task, they have the ability to do so.
  2. If achieving their outcomes requires coming up with new ways of doing things, they have the ability to figure that out.
  3. If achieving their outcomes requires investment in resources and budgets, they have the ability to make the business case for that.
  4. And, if achieving their outcomes requires some “magic” and “luck” if they stay optimistic, positive, and determined in their attitude, conversations, interactions, and energy, they have a higher chance to succeed.

The last paragraph may seem not tangible or real to you… However, ask any Olympic athlete or championship sports team about the importance of positive, high-energy mindset to winning and the amount of focus and time they spend on this topic, and you will be surprised by how tangible and real this dimension is for winning.

In today’s world, where opportunities are abundant, resources are scarce, competition is fierce, and everyone is looking for ways to scale and do more with less; you can’t afford to waste time and cycles on busyness and activities that may not deliver the results you want. You have to be much more deliberate and powerful than that.

The job of a leader is not to track and report on activities. It is to cause outcomes.

So, if you are not going to promise to cause specific outcomes, don’t promise anything at all!