In this article, we will look at the main difference between what it means to be a manager or a leader and how this fits in with today’s organisations. You will walk away understanding whether you need to make a change within your organisation or have validation for what you have already implemented.

Approximate Reading Time: 12 Minutes

 

For many, they define themselves by the title on their business card or position description rather than the responsibilities, accountabilities, expectations and deliverables they bring or are required bring to the role. For many, they are focused on the title of their role but fail to deliver on the expectations the company has of them. 

If we look at what it means to be a manager or leader, we will be able to clarify what it means in today’s business environment to be successful at it.

Lets look at some definitions to put some perspective on this:

Management: The process of dealing with or controlling things or people. (Ref: oxforddictionary.com)

Manager: A person responsible for controlling or administering an organisation or group of staff. (Ref: oxforddictionary.com)

Leadership: The action of leading a group of people or an organisation, or the ability to do this. (Ref: oxforddictionary.com)

Leader: The person who leads or commands a group, organisation, or country. (Ref: oxforddictionary.com)

In the context of business, management or being a manager is associated with controlling or administering a function or people to deliver a result.

Leadership or being a leader is more about being capable of achieving results by engaging , valuing and focusing on the people and their contribution. 

In my experience, there are typically three categories, those being:

1. Manager
2. Leader 
3. Neither

Manager: 

Many have the ability to be great managers, because in my opinion it is a function which can be taught. From my experience, I have seen many transition into management after some experience within, for example project management. What is needed ( in simplistic terms) for success, is to focus on the results and  take appropriate action within assigned responsibilities to achieve them. This is a little “old school”, because Management is very transactional or digital and focuses on attributes such as “budget” versus “actual"

For example, typical management jargon refers to its suppliers and customers as debtors and creditors and de-values the human capital regardless of whether they are internal or external to the business. You might say it is cold, bland and un-engaging ( this is why I refer to it as “transactional”).

Leader: 

Leadership however, is more complicated as it requires an individual to be visionary, to influence, to motivate and empower others to contribute in a way to achieve success for the business (…or the department …or the team). The “art” of leadership is something which just can not be taught in the same way as management can because it is more than transactional; it is engaging and multidimensional. To be a true leader or to display leadership is a quality in my opinion  which is either:

1. inherent, i.e. it comes naturally
2. developed, i.e. through careful guidance, coaching and mentoring over an extended period. It is a medium to long term investment.

Neither:

Although this seems odd, but there are many cases where a person is placed in a management or leadership role who don’t have the ability, skills and understanding of what is required. This quite often occurs because they have either:

1. been a long serving employee and have been given the role as a reward for their longevity
2. are part of an in-experienced organisation
3. have been placed in the role by someone who also lacks the ability, skills and understanding of what is required

When this situation occurs, the results are mostly not favourable. This is because the individual lack the basic skills and capabilities to execute the role. Quite often, the individual is aware of their lack of skills and tends to compensate by micromanaging their team and being the gate keeper of information between them and the rest of the business; closing down any opportunity for individual or team development and contribution.

This poses a risk that seems to be commonly overlooked and can often be a reflection of the company culture, morale and overall code of conduct.

What is the Ultimate Solution?…It is Leadership

The true gem is combining  the traits or expectations of a manager and leader into the one role and many organisations now place this need or demand on its candidates and refer to this a Leadership role. Modern thinking, progressive and future focused organisations realise there is more to success than just traditional management. Sometimes however, they can overlook the challenges associated with wearing these two hats.

Leadership, is finding the right balance between being able to successfully deliver the management objective but to also be strategic and engaging with the human capital. People with good leadership qualities are able to also deal with difficult circumstances better because they don't conduct themselves in a transactional behaviour which is when the crack appear. Instead, they are focused on how they are going to achieve the objective and ensure their team grow and learn from the situation.

I believe individuals which have administrative and operational experience make the best candidates to manage and lead a business function. This is because they have had the opportunities to gain a more comprehensive insight into what is needed to succeed and overcome the various day to day challenges. In other words, there have a better check on reality because they have been close to the coal face.

What qualities are present in your organisation:

If you consider the above and look at the people in your company or department or team, what type of quality do they posses? 

Are they management material?

• Do they know what the key priorities are?
• Are they good at focusing on what needs to be done?
• Are they consistent in the behaviour?
• Do they play favourites?
• Earn the trust of those they manage?

Are they leadership material?

• Do they trust their team and delegate?
• Do they share information and communicate effectively?
• Are they confident and objective, leveraging robust processes?
• To they demonstrate responsibility and accountability?
• Do they convey a positive attitude?
• Are they approachable and genuine in nature?
• Do they have a high level of integrity and honesty?
• Are they able to deal with challenges and uncertainty in an effective manner?

The Wrap Up.

In the current times, modern day, future focus and progressive organisations look for people with leadership qualities in their business rather than only management qualities. Those who are stuck in the past will struggle to find their place. When you understand the difference between management and leadership, it is easy to see where your people’s capabilities are at and whether they are compatible for the roles they are placed in.

What do you think?

Andrew Baldacchino, is a business coach, mentor, facilitator and speaker. He applies his global industry experience  to help product manufacturing, trade and professional service providers be more profitable, time effective, organised and competitive so their business simply works. Develop your people, processes and purpose so you can improve, scale and grow. Progress is impossible without change.

In this article, we explore the common trend of recent years, many business publications and influencer sites are recommending; New Years Resolution for Business…I will give you my take on this and the two reason to avoid them.

Approximate reading time: 12 minutes

Are you considering New Years Resolution…Yes. Resolution. This seems to be a popular trend. Many business social sites seem to be promoting the concept of a New Years Resolution for business.

I always like to look at definitions and defining their context.

What is the definition of a Resolution?

The definition of Resolution is varied but in the context of this article it is:
"A resolution is a formal decision taken at a meeting by means of a vote.“

Also in the definition,
“ If you make a resolution, you decide to try very hard to do something.”

And finally,
“Resolution is determination to do something or not do something.”

(Ref: Collins Dictionary )

What is a New Years Resolution?

Traditionally a New Years Resolution is a Western custom (although now typically practised all over the world) which is centred around making some form of change to improve one’s life. This custom (according to Sarah Pruitt in her article on www.history.com ) dates back to Babylonian times around 2000BC and was in honour of the new year which coincided with the planting of new crops. Over the centuries this was taken up by religious orders as a means to reflecting on ones errors during the past year and resolving to improve or do better in the coming year as a promise to God.

In modern times, this custom has be adopted by most cultures. However,  rather than making a promise to God, people now make a promise to themselves and focus only on themselves. Along this journey over the centuries, the transition from trying to resolve at a holistic level ( ie both internally and externally) has been shifted to a self-centred approach and influenced significantly by opportunistic capitalists wanting to put their hands in your pocket and depart with some of your hard earned cash during the process. The article references statistic reserach results also, and goes on to highlight that as a result, the success rate of achieve your self centred resolution is not that great. With only about 8% of people who make New Years Resolution actually achieving them.

Over recent years, making a New Years Resolution have filtered through to the business and corporate space. December into early January seems to be filled with industry website articles, blogs and vlogs on this topic and how a New Years Resolution is critical for business success. These are the type of headlines you have probably seen:

Top New Year's Resolutions for Small Business Owners in 2018

Reference - Inc. 

 

8 Entrepreneurs Share Their New Year's Resolution

Reference- Business New Daily

4 New Year's Resolutions for Small-Business Owners

Reference - Entrepreneur

These articles are informative and they provide some good insight, suggestions and recommendations on what business leaders /owners or entrepreneurs should be doing to prepare for the new year. These suggestions include:

• operating budgets
• record keeping
• work life balance
• training and development
• plan ahead
• competitive analysis
• manage cash flow
• find better payment options

On a softer level, suggestions also include:

• find time for your passion
• be authentic
• focus on what is important

These recommendations are all positive and encouraging and I am sure the articles, blogs and vlogs were written or compiled with every good intension to add value. The problem is they are all too closely related to the classic New Years Resolution the modern day person has become accustom to. And here is part of the problem. In fact, from my perspective, I really have two issues with business related New Year Resolutions, which are:

1. Having a New Years Resolutions….Full Stop
2. The stigma associated with January 1 or the New Year.

1. Having a New Years Resolution:

I understand the concept of a New Years Resolution…I really do. As a youngster in my late teens, I did it a couple of times. I consider myself to be a person who is honest, strong willed, committed, disciplined, and follows through on promises. It’s a reflection on how I was brought up. But talking about honesty…And if I am truely honest, I didn’t achieve my New Years Resolution. Sure I was young at the time and perhaps one might conclude that my age had something to do with the success or lack of success. Maybe it did. But when you look at the statistics on New Years Resolutions, it is clear that success ( or achievement ) is not too successful.

Based on a survey (from a different source) conducted for last year (2017) only 9.2% of people felt they were successful in achieving their New Years Resolution. In a paper published in the American Psychologist, authors Janet Polivy and Peter Herman said “New Year’s resolvers typically report making the same pledge for five years or more before they manage a six-month success, and of those who fail this year, 60 per cent will make the same resolution again next year,”

This is my issue with recommending business leaders and entrepreneurs to make New Years Resolutions for their business. We ( i.e. people ) don’t have a great track record at keeping them and the statistics along with the research supports this. In many cases, the resolution decision is made very late with not much consideration of what is needed to succeed. We are unclear on what we want to achieve and that is usually accompanied with a lack of focus on the things needed to be done. This can be made worse, because when you consider the purpose, you continually swing from it being a new years resolution to something you are trying to achieve….very confusing. When dealing with the change and the challenges associated with all this as well as the challenges of life getting in there too, quite often the New Years Resolution are not taken all that serious. And when you don't take something serious or to be important then it doesn’t get any attention. Or in simpler terms, it doesn’t get done. 

Circling back to my issue with recommending the business community to make New Years Resolutions. Given; 

1. we don't have a great track record at succeeding with New Years Resolutions and 
2. for one reason or another we don’t tend to really take them serious,

it really isn't the right message that business needs.

"Serious", is the keyword here. What I mean by this is that business needs to be taken serious. Yes you should enjoy yourself and yes it should be fun and enjoyable. Like everything else in life, it will have its ups and downs. But, all that aside, business is a serious matter. It impacts you, your employees, your suppliers and of course your customers. If you are going to embark on something which is to improve an aspect of your business, then it needs to be taken serious, planned well and given the necessary support or resources to be executed successfully.

2. The New Year Stigma:

Let’s get to the point. What is so special about January 1 that you could not do on December 1 or November 18 or any other day of the year?.

The concept of putting it off until the new year, isn’t a good business practise. Good businesses which are successful, are so because they are based on good practises with strategic intent. These strategic actions are formulated to answer the big “Why” of the business. In my opinion, the only factor which would delay an action is a resource constraint. In other words…Taking action whether it be an improvement or opportunity related should be constrained by resources ( time, manpower and budget) and not the new year.

It all comes down to common sense. Take action when it’s needed. Don’t put it off until after the first working day back in January. Yes it is important to improve. And yes it is important to reflect on what you can do better. But not package it into a New Years Resolution and throw it into next years basket of things to do because that is the trend…Or even worse, that is the recommendations plastered across many industry influencer websites. This is not how business is run or works.

Ok... So What should you do:

It all comes back to basics. Keep things simple. Every business needs to have a business plan and business strategy. It needs to have clarity, focus and purpose so its big “Why” is defined. If you have tried to do this and it still feels a little wishy-washy or ambiguous, get some help to sort this out. Check out this free eBook which will help you get on the right track. Because, if you can’t define your big “Why” ( = Clarity, Focus and Purpose), then how will you know what you need to do to make your business or idea or opportunity a success.

To be clear. Every business needs to have defined their “Why”. What it is they are all about. What they are in business for. What their objectives are. When this is done, you can plan the actions need to deliver success or the outcome you need. 

If you are past this phase and confident that it is well defined. You need to do the following:

• establish the cycle, the period or time frame your business plan covers
• have periodic reviews ensure your initiatives are heading in the right direction. 

Reviews of your business are important. In the event you need to make changes because of new information or changes in circumstances.

• This process or behaviour or activity must occur continually.

It needs to happen continually, so you can keep your finger on the pulse of your business or project or what ever it is you are working on. It is not hard to do. It is simple. Actually, it is one of the most simples and most effect means to achieve success but in reality is quite often overlooked especially in the SME space.

Successful business enterprises do this like it’s second nature ( without even raising an eyebrow) . It’s part of their business systems and processes. And for you small business owners who believe this is only for the corporates who can afford to do this…Well, you need to change your beliefs. I have worked for successful global multi billion dollar organisations and I have worked for small Australian business and the only real difference is scale. The larger organisation do things on a larger scale because they need to. Having a robust business model defined, along with robust systems are applicable and are necessary whether you are:

• a company of 1 or many
• operating from a single site or multiple sites
• a multi-billion dollar revenue company or a sub-million dollar revenue company

Getting back to “What should you do”

1. Have a Business Plan and Business Strategy
2. Have Robust and Effective Systems to run and support your business
3. Have Clarity, Focus and Purpose within your business
4. Work on developing and improving your People and Processes
5. Have continuous improvement as an active and integral part of your business and business culture.

The development, improvement and execution of your product or service will happen by default if you have the above five elements nailed.

The Wrap Up.

Forget about New Years Resolution for business ( and really for yourself) because they come with a bag full of statistics and history which don’t lend themselves to leading you to success ( in most cases). 

Don’t put off until the New Year what you should be and are capable of doing sooner. 

Your business needs to be driven by your big “Why” and as such your must have a business plan and strategies to define the objectives and the actions you need to undertake to be successful. 

Having robust, simple and effective systems in place will drive good planning and decision making and enable you to take calculated risks to improve, scale and grow your business and succeed.

 

What do you think?

Andrew Baldacchino

Principal - ANBA Solutions

www.anbasolutions.com

ANBA LinkedIn Page

Andrew's LinkedIn Profile

Andrew Baldacchino, is a business coach, mentor, facilitator and speaker. He applies his global industry experience  to help product manufacturing, trade and professional service providers be more profitable, time effective, organised and competitive so their business simply works. Develop your people, processes and purpose so you can improve, scale and grow. Progress is impossible without change.

To have perfect or imperfect action that is the question! You might be thinking, wow that is pretty heavy or profound. And yes, I am drawing a parallel with Shakespeare's famous literary line “to be or not to be that is the question”. The “to be or not to be…” line is all about whether it is better to live or die for the character in the play. However the subject matter of interest is “Action' instead of Life. Action? Yes, action! Sometimes we do not do ourself any favours by taking too much action, in the sense that we wait until something is absolutely perfect before stopping and saying “it is done”.

Action is defined as "The fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim.” (Ref: Oxford Dictionary )

Perfect is defined as "Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.” (Ref: Oxford Dictionary )

Imperfect is defined as "Not perfect; faulty or incomplete.: (Ref: Oxford Dictionary )

In other words, action is doing something (for example, gardening, painting, washing the car, writing a report, developing an ebook, designing a course, writing an email, compiling a presentation and so on) to achieve a goal. When something is perfect, it is considered to have every single aspect to a degree where there is no room for further improvement; hence “as good as it is possible to be”. So therefore, if something is imperfect, in the context of action it may not be as good as it is possible to be.

Working to strive for perfection and working to be the best that we can be should always be our intent. However, we need to also be mindful of the reality and impact this can have. For instance, products need to be the best that they can be because if the are imperfect and have a fault, then the potential for damage, injury or death can not be ignored. What I mean by this is that products and equipment which impact human life need to be perfect.

Things which are expected to be perfect are:

• aeroplanes
• motor vehicles
• safety systems
• medical and operating equipment
• pharmaceutical drugs and so on...

 

The reality of always striving for perfect action can mean having results in a range of different outcomes:

• we may never deliver because we are always tweaking what we do
• if we do end up releasing something, we may not reap the rewards of all that extra effort
• deliver something which is off target and no one wants because we were too inner focused on getting it right instead of getting it relevant
• overshoot our time constraints which can have more severe consequences than delivering on time an imperfect result
• overshoot our budget and not deliver any added value with this perfect result
• deliver on time, on spec and on budget ( a rare occurance)

To some extent, you could say the IT industry has an imperfect approach. Mobile phone companies and software companies release their new products models all the time. They have impressive presentations which talk to all of the features and benefits of the new model release, knowing their products are mostly likely imperfect at the time of release. Why do I say this. It is because what ends up happening quite often is:

1. the new product model is released ( e.g. Model 1A)
2. consumer feedback start to trickle in to validate the vulnerability most likely already known,
3. shortly after a software update comes out. ( e.g.. Model 1A.01 )
4. hotfixes and patches trickle out after a software update (Model 1A.01) indicating that even the update was imperfect.

The result could be something like this:
Model 1A → Model 1A.01 → Model 1A.01.1 → Model 1A.01.2 → Model 1A.01.2.1

You might be thinking…Why do this? Why release or say something is done when it is not perfect? Because sometimes perfection does not always mean success or progress.  Or, conversely, something which is imperfect (not because it is faulty or has low quality) can still meet the brief or objectives and will allow you to progress. Why? Because in most cases the imperfect actions have resulted in an outcome which is “almost there” and meets the expectations of target audience. The IT sector does this well and they leverage tools and methodologies like AGILE to do this time and time again.There is a great quote from Tony Robbins which sums all of this up” winners take imperfect action while losers are still perfecting the plan"

I am a firm believer that you need to do your best and deliver the best you can with what you have to work with. This typically means, resources, budgets, targets and time. It is the time factor that usually undoes most people. That is, they don’t have a plan on how to get to the outcome and therefore procrastinate, loose focus, become easily distracted and find reasons to constantly tune what they are working on because there are no hard targets which includes timeframe.

To overcome this, it is always good practise to setup some realistic and achievable targets and this includes time. This way, you can hold yourself accountable to progressing and achieving certain milestones. You will find by doing this, you will become focused and more efficient in what you do. It is far better to release your report or presentation ( i.e. the results of your action) which is imperfect because of trivial matters like the margins are not quite right or there is some more data which could be analysed and included but does not really change the outcome, than not to release it at all.

I am working on a new business project outside of ANBA Solutions. Initially when I started work on this, I was a little dismayed at the mechanisms of this space I am going to be entering. I soon realised and concluded that in order for me to get this up and running, I need to have an action plan. This action plan may not be perfect and is mostly likely not. However, the point here is that I am taking action and will be doing the best I can with what I have in order to launch this business project over the next 2 months. The key element for me to achieve this result is to spend 1 to 2 hours a day, three times a week to work through my success plan.

The Wrap Up

 

This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 7

It's day 10 of the 10 Day Blog Challenge and I can now see the finish line. I have found this challenge, a challenge, but in a good way. I do enjoy writing because it is a way I am able to connect with people and share experiences while looking at things from a different perspective. The hurdle I quite often face is to hold back from being too detailed ( its the engineer in me...I may of had a small relapse - did you see how long my day 9 blog is!! ) and expressing myself in an effective way so that my message is not lost, and because of this my blog post seemingly take up a lot of time which frustrates me.

I decided to participate in this challenge, because I wanted to try and tune my writing skills and also see what I can discover about myself as well and exploring how I might be able to develop some new skills. The challenge for today is to review the journey over the past ten days 

What I enjoyed most about my experience of taking part in the blog challenge?

Like I said above, I found this challenge a challenge but in a good way because I was taken outside my comfort zone to open up more about me instead of what I know. I believe everything in life can be considered a project and found that I was treating every challenge as if it was a project plan and I needed to in order to cross the finish line every day. This is something which I actually don’t mind because quite often these times quite often provide great opportunities for learning and growth.

My favourite challenge day and why.

I have two favourite challenges:
Day 2 - What does FREEDOM mean... I found writing down what freedom means form me a pivotal moment which I know will define, drive and motivate me to further develop my business and career to ensure I am able to the best of my ability have this freedom.
Day 7 - To have perfect or imperfect ACTION. As I was planing this post and worked through my thoughts and response, I rediscovered the importance of progress versus perfection. The Tony Robbins quite "winners take imperfect action while losers are still perfecting the plan” resonates deeply in me and is a very important aspect that I must make sure I exercise to achieve my goals. This is strongly related to days underlying association with crossing the finish line. 

The biggest takeaway I’ve had from the overall challenge.

There are more aspects or dimensions to my strategy which are outside of my business needs. 
The next steps are what I am going to take to make my freedom plan a reality:

For ANBA Solutions, I need to put some more work into understanding my ideal clients and their challenges so that I can add value for them in the most effective way.

For my “other” venture, I need to stick to the plan and be disciplined to put the time into it as outlined in my day 5 Success Plan post.

 

The Wrap Up

The ability to stake stock of where we are and what we need to do in order progress is a valuable thing to do. This applies to to us throughout our  journey in life. Students do it in preparation for their examinations and beyond and sports people do it through their training drills and preparation all the time. So as I cross the finish line and look back over the 10 day challenge, I realise that I was able to also stake stock.  I was able to remind myself of all the important and significant things which I already knew but perhaps took for granted. There wasn’t anything in there that I already did not know, however like the student or the sports person it is important to prepare and go through the training drills to be in the best shape possible cross the finish line and to succeed, and therefore it is the start of something new.

 

This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 10

For many, work means they must on location or on site somewhere everyday. This typically applies to everyone from the cleaner to the receptionist to the finance manager to the managing director and the business owner. And quite often, the days are long, laborious and demanding. But do they have to be? Is there another way? Can the business still operate and function without the need for everyone to be at the business location or onsite every single working day? For some roles, this is not possible because there are roles which can not be performed away form the business and need to occur at on location or onsite. For example:

• product operator
• emergency services (police, ambulance, fire brigade)
• surgeon
• baker
• painter

1. they are so entrenched at work that they see there is no possible way to get away. 
2. they are terrified of the thought that work might actually run without them and perhaps return only to be shown the front door. This is a real world concern for many and unfortunately it is an indication of where they are at and more importantly the type of culture within their business.

Years later when I found myself in leadership roles, I exercised this same approach with my team. My approach to this has aways been that you don’t need to be at work all the time in order to still get things done. We all have personal needs from time to time that for some can make it difficult or challenging to ask for some time off. So my approach has always been along the lines of: If you are not physically required to be at work, then I am very open to you working at an offsite location when needed. You know what your responsibilities are and the deadlines which are needed. You control your time and how you use it. 

I was the Department GM of a large technical group and I needed to take 6 to 10 weeks off for person reasons. Prior to this happening, I had undertaken a major organisation transformation to optimise and improve the way the department ran. The legacy structure was far from efficient and optimal. Along with the transformation, I implemented LEAN principals into this technical office, rationalising the reporting and streamlined the communication channels into and out of the group. As soon as I discovered the family issue, I discussed it with my MD and advised that I needed to take a leave of absence for 6 to 10 week in two weeks time. I was very fortunate to have an understanding and supportive MD who understood. He was great at the time and said that he would make some changes and step in for me during my absence to support my team during this period. During my absence, my needs were respected and I was not contacted during this time. When I returned, I had a debrief with the MD, only to find out that he did not need to step in because my team had everything under control to his surprise. I had developed and implemented good processes and a framework which was engaging and effective, such that, the team just knew what to do, when to do it and to how to deal with pop-up issues in an objective and logical manner. For many senior managers, this would be a scary or threatening scenario to consider. That is, to be told by the MD their team can run without them. The natural instinct is to fear that maybe you are not required anymore. For me, the opposite is true. I look at it from a different perspective: I know my capacities, I know the value I bring to the table and if my area of responsibility can operate without me, then I know I have done my job right.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to go on holiday, say to the other side of the world and know that everything back at work is ok! It is possible and I have done it. I was the GM of a small company which I headed and took to market. About 12 months after commencing, I gave 6 months notice and requested 8 weeks off to travel to Europe from Australia. Again, based on the good relationship I had with the CEO who was the owner, this was approved. Like with my  Department GM example above, I had implemented some robust processes and framework during my first 12 months. When I was on my holiday with my family in the Mediterranean, I used my trusty iPad and some mobile internet data and was able to check in to work via email and see how all was progressing. I did this about 3 or 4 times per week just to keep the finger on the pulse. I recall that over the 8 weeks, I think I got involved ( albeit briefly) two times in a quick email chat to help out with a decision. I returned to find the business was in good shape, nothing had broke and no issues had come up. For me, this was the ultimate balance of being able to stay connected with work while being on a fantastic holiday with no negative impact on my family. I would check into work in the morning before my family would wake up and then sometimes again in the late afternoon while they were washing up after our afternoon swim in the Mediterranean sea. In between, we traveled, saw some great sights, caught up with family and friends and of course had some great food and drink.

The Wrap Up

 

The ability to have your business ( or department / division ) function without you needing to always be there is a great achievement and the benefits of this I believe are greatly underestimated. There is no doubt for all responsible business leaders and employees that work commitment and work success is important. But at the end of the day, it is just work. Family and health are far more important and valuable. There are only 24 hours in the day and there is only one of you, so having the ability to control your time and how you want or need to spend it, particularly on important moments is essential. Quite often, it is us who chain ourselves to our desk because we feel that we have to in order to succeed. From my experience this does not have to be the case. We need to have good and robust processes and a framework which supports good communication, effective decision making capabilities, engagement and trust. 

This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 9

Do you make time for adventure? Do you like adventure? Do you wish you could go on adventures more often? What would an adventure look like for you? And what do I mean by adventure? I am referring to any activity that you would undertake that is not work. Something that you would do away from your day to day work routine. It is easy to get bogged down during those busy periods and all of a sudden realise that it has been a while since you stepped off the proverbial train. 

This weekend, I did. Only for a few hours… I am fortunate ( other might think otherwise) to have a larger than average back yard. The crazy thing that some of you might find is, that I love being out in my garden. I say this because for many they see gardening as an unfortunate chore. For me however, it is a great place to be. I can relax while working hard and I don’t have to think. Although I quite often come up with some great thoughts while “not thinking”. Over the winter here in Melbourne and even more so during these first couple of weeks of Spring the cold and wet weather coupled with a young family including a now 11 month old, has made the garden a no go zone. It is fairly low maintenance garden, however weeds are always an ongoing activity along with some care and attention that the intended flora need to keep them vibrant and strong. This weekend is the first weekend that I can recall for quite a few, where the rain held off long enough for me to get out there on my own local ( very local ) adventure and discover what the winter has left in store for me.

You might be thinking…Gardening! Really? You couldn’t find something better to do? I sure can think of other more exciting things to do…But the thought right now for my wife and I to pack up the kids, especially considering the challenges and logistics of getting a 12 year old along with a 11 month old ready to go out, just doesn’t cut the mustard. Don’t get me wrong, we have done it before, but we were exhausted before we event walked out of the door at home. We intend on making up this in the not too distant future when it will be a lot easier. So right now, a meaningful adventure for me is to get out in the garden and get some stuff done.

The Wrap Up

Regardless of what adventure means for you, it is something which is a good thing to do from time to time. It is a chance to recharge and spend some time ( short or long)  to experience time outside of the day to day work and home routine. 

 

This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 8

To have perfect or imperfect action that is the question! You might be thinking, wow that is pretty heavy or profound. And yes, I am drawing a parallel with Shakespeare's famous literary line “to be or not to be that is the question”. The “to be or not to be…” line is all about whether it is better to live or die for the character in the play. However the subject matter of interest is “Action' instead of Life. Action? Yes, action! Sometimes we do not do ourself any favours by taking too much action, in the sense that we wait until something is absolutely perfect before stopping and saying “it is done”.

Action is defined as "The fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim.” (Ref: Oxford Dictionary )

Perfect is defined as "Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.” (Ref: Oxford Dictionary )

Imperfect is defined as "Not perfect; faulty or incomplete.: (Ref: Oxford Dictionary )

In other words, action is doing something (for example, gardening, painting, washing the car, writing a report, developing an ebook, designing a course, writing an email, compiling a presentation and so on) to achieve a goal. When something is perfect, it is considered to have every single aspect to a degree where there is no room for further improvement; hence “as good as it is possible to be”. So therefore, if something is imperfect, in the context of action it may not be as good as it is possible to be.

Working to strive for perfection and working to be the best that we can be should always be our intent. However, we need to also be mindful of the reality and impact this can have. For instance, products need to be the best that they can be because if the are imperfect and have a fault, then the potential for damage, injury or death can not be ignored. What I mean by this is that products and equipment which impact human life need to be perfect.

Things which are expected to be perfect are:

• aeroplanes
• motor vehicles
• safety systems
• medical and operating equipment
• pharmaceutical drugs and so on...

 

The reality of always striving for perfect action can mean having results in a range of different outcomes:

• we may never deliver because we are always tweaking what we do
• if we do end up releasing something, we may not reap the rewards of all that extra effort
• deliver something which is off target and no one wants because we were too inner focused on getting it right instead of getting it relevant
• overshoot our time constraints which can have more severe consequences than delivering on time an imperfect result
• overshoot our budget and not deliver any added value with this perfect result
• deliver on time, on spec and on budget ( a rare occurance)

To some extent, you could say the IT industry has an imperfect approach. Mobile phone companies and software companies release their new products models all the time. They have impressive presentations which talk to all of the features and benefits of the new model release, knowing their products are mostly likely imperfect at the time of release. Why do I say this. It is because what ends up happening quite often is:

1. the new product model is released ( e.g. Model 1A)
2. consumer feedback start to trickle in to validate the vulnerability most likely already known,
3. shortly after a software update comes out. ( e.g.. Model 1A.01 )
4. hotfixes and patches trickle out after a software update (Model 1A.01) indicating that even the update was imperfect.

The result could be something like this:
Model 1A → Model 1A.01 → Model 1A.01.1 → Model 1A.01.2 → Model 1A.01.2.1

You might be thinking…Why do this? Why release or say something is done when it is not perfect? Because sometimes perfection does not always mean success or progress.  Or, conversely, something which is imperfect (not because it is faulty or has low quality) can still meet the brief or objectives and will allow you to progress. Why? Because in most cases the imperfect actions have resulted in an outcome which is “almost there” and meets the expectations of target audience. The IT sector does this well and they leverage tools and methodologies like AGILE to do this time and time again.There is a great quote from Tony Robbins which sums all of this up” winners take imperfect action while losers are still perfecting the plan"

I am a firm believer that you need to do your best and deliver the best you can with what you have to work with. This typically means, resources, budgets, targets and time. It is the time factor that usually undoes most people. That is, they don’t have a plan on how to get to the outcome and therefore procrastinate, loose focus, become easily distracted and find reasons to constantly tune what they are working on because there are no hard targets which includes timeframe.

To overcome this, it is always good practise to setup some realistic and achievable targets and this includes time. This way, you can hold yourself accountable to progressing and achieving certain milestones. You will find by doing this, you will become focused and more efficient in what you do. It is far better to release your report or presentation ( i.e. the results of your action) which is imperfect because of trivial matters like the margins are not quite right or there is some more data which could be analysed and included but does not really change the outcome, than not to release it at all.

I am working on a new business project outside of ANBA Solutions. Initially when I started work on this, I was a little dismayed at the mechanisms of this space I am going to be entering. I soon realised and concluded that in order for me to get this up and running, I need to have an action plan. This action plan may not be perfect and is mostly likely not. However, the point here is that I am taking action and will be doing the best I can with what I have in order to launch this business project over the next 2 months. The key element for me to achieve this result is to spend 1 to 2 hours a day, three times a week to work through my success plan.

The Wrap Up

 

This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 7