January 2, 2012

3 great ways to avoid the perfection trap

Source: Unsplash

Everyone seeks perfection.

The perfect body. The perfect smile. The perfect manuscript. The product that destroys the competition and wins the hearts of people.

The business plan that on paper maximizes the economic benefits to the organization.

The problem is, perfection doesn’t exist.

It’s like pursuing ‘the impossible dream’. For some reason we drive on to get another 10% of what we think is perfection before taking action.

The consequences of chasing perfection are significant.

We burn time.

The return on the extra time spent is zero.

And the results of the incremental effort are unnoticed in any event (50% extra time might produce something that can be noticed but it’s unlikely that anyone will notice the impact of spending another 10% on anything.)

But the real negative is that it keeps you from doing stuff.

Bre Pettis says it well:

”Perfection is boring. And it keeps you from being done.”

Seth Godin talks about the importance of shipping stuff.
And that if you waited until is completed, you would never deliver anything.

Try these 3 things to avoid the perfection trap:

▪️ Force yourself to get stuff just about right.

And then do it.

The reality is, that anything more is a waste of time given the unpredictability of the world today.

It is impossible for you to accurately account for the unknown so why bother?

Get a 70% solution and ship it out the door.

▪️ Give yourself a deadline to finish your work. When your time runs out you’re done.

STOP. Get it out the door. Get used to doing what you can in the time you have given yourself.

▪️ Track the results of your imperfection with your customers.

Get feedback. Determine if they are ok with what you’ve done or not.

Satisfy yourself that you are able to produce good work in less time.

Tweak your work on the run.

In business there is no such thing as the right answer. It’s what people are prepared to accept.

Solutions to 6 decimal places have no role here.

Round up or down and get on with it.

Ponder no longer.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 1.2.12 at 10:00 am by Roy Osing
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December 26, 2011

The reason why you’re imperfect and should be happy to be flawed

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The reason why you’re imperfect and should be happy to be flawed.

The world has pressured us to be perfect.

School teaches us to follow rote and colour inside the lines. Fashion tells us to dress a certain way if you want to fit in.

Most of us walk away with the feeling that we’re flawed in some way since we find it difficult meeting the acceptable norms of the day.

The reality is, however, that no one is flawed.

Rather they are unique.

Different.

Special.

Distinctive.

Visible.

Uncommon... in some way.

Flawed in someone else’s context or frame of reference perhaps, but incredible in others.

Find your frame

Your challenge is to find a frame that allows you to express yourself.

To realize your potential.

To contribute.

To be happy.

To realize your dreams.

Your frame could be your social network. A skill. A competency. A hobby. A business. A belief. A physical challenge. A community. A profession. A neighbourhood. A family.

Channel your emotions and energy away from defending yourself in the wrong frame. Away from feeling bad that you’re not fitting in

Rather, discover a frame that is right for you. One that describes who you are.

Where you can standout.

Where you can make a difference.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 12.26.11 at 10:00 am by Roy Osing
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November 21, 2011

Why career success can’t be achieved by doing one thing

Source: Unsplash

Why career success can’t be achieved by doing one thing.

Everyone is looking for the one thing that will vault them, or their business, to success and riches.

What is the one thing that, if you knock myself out on, will propel you to success?

Is their one single thing you can do to have an amazing career plan?

The harsh reality is that you can’t count on one thing to succeed either personally or in business.

Success is a journey.

— Made of single wins;
— Incremental gains;
— Nano-inches of progress;
— Passion;
— Tenacity;
— And pain, a high threshold for it.

The intellectual master plan rarely produces a star.

Want to win? Set your sights on what you want to be. Get going. Learn from your actions. Keep going.

Success comes from doing lots of stuff not pontificating on theoretical possibilities

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.21.11 at 10:19 am by Roy Osing
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May 30, 2011

Why supporting the leader makes sense for your long term career success

Source: Pexels

Why supporting the leader makes sense for your long term career success.

Be on the side of the angels during a period of volatile organizational change. You need to support and be seen to support the direction that the company has decided to take whether you are totally in agreement wish it or not.

Clearly you only have one other choice, and that is to leave the organization.

A previous boss of mine used to say: ‘You really have only two choices: one, leave the organization if you can’t support the direction the leader wants to take, or, two, dig down deep and support the boss’s “dumb idea”.

Both thoughts effectively drive home the notion that the non-supportive option is really no option at all unless you are prepared to seek other employment. The higher up the organization you go, the greater is the expectation that you will put aside your personal views and objections and support the CEO’s decision on corporate strategy.

My story

When I was first appointed to an executive position, I was tutored that my main duty and responsibility was to support the CEO no matter what. Obviously this was not intended to be taken literally, however, the underlying theme of what was said resonated with me and served as a guide post for me over the many executive positions I held throughout my career.

Do whatever you can do to be supportive of the CEO and still be true to yourself: the side of the angels..

Of course this principle applies to whatever position your boss holds. It doesn’t have to be the CEO.

When a new CEO was recruited, there was the usual apprehension among the executive team about his personal style, where he would want to take the organization in the future and the role of the existing executive team.
His approach was to pull together the existing executive team to develop a new strategy for the organization supported by a new value system and organization structure.

I found the strategy building process He used very liberating. Here was a leader without any internal bias at all. His only interest was to set a future direction for the business that created growth in shareholder value.

Don’t hold onto the past

Reasons for past decisions made were really not relevant for him and he didn’t want to spend any airtime hearing about “why things were done that way”. One of my peer executives had a great deal of difficulty with this “let’s start out with a blank sheet of paper” approach. He wanted to try and convince the CEO that certain decisions taken in the past should be honored in the new plan that we were developing.

New leaders don’t want to hear why things were done in the past; they want to get on with their own agenda.

I disagreed with my colleague’s view as did the CEO. The strategy sessions became at times acrimonious debates with this out-of-sync individual. The beginning of the end for this person was clear to me, but the situation worsened as we concluded on our strategic course and turned our attention to the really tough decision on the appropriate organization structure that would deliver the desired results. More acrimonious debate ensued with my colleague’s attempt to dominate and sway the outcome, but the final structure mirrored the CEO’s views as you would expect.

The thing was the new organization structure wasn’t new to me at all. In fact it was a model that we had years before, and with all organizational approaches it had its plusses and minuses. So, I found myself actually in the same intellectual camp as my out-of-favor colleague on this matter and the CEO felt my reluctance to jump in and immediately support his call. He handled me with a great deal of respect and patience; asked me to think about whether or not I could support the new structure and let him know.

Even though I had reservations about his structural decision, I supported it in the spirit of helping out the CEO.

The end of the story is that my colleague who fought him tooth and nail on virtually every issue left the company.

I was appointed executive vice president & chief marketing officer.

You always have a choice.

Choose for the long term.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.30.11 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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