Delaying immediate gratification is what differentiates adults from children. It also separates strong leaders from weak.
Routines and repetition are vital for effective leadership.
All the goal setting, action, communication, measuring and sweat in the world count for nothing if not repeated.
You don’t teach your subconscious mind anything by doing it once.
You have even less chance teaching your team, or their subconscious minds.
Convincing people to change takes time. Be careful when you start off on a new track because the track you’re leaving might not be finished yet.
When your mind is shouting for excitement your team is craving for certainty. Or quietly reverting back to what they already know, or believe.
If you really believe something is good enough to start, it’s good enough to finish. Weak leaders don’t know if it’s finished that’s the point. Or maybe don’t care.
If an individual athlete needs practice and routines and discipline to achieve success, a team needs them even more. Sporting or business or anything.
Leaders who spend lots of time thinking up new ideas but don’t spend enough time making them work and embedding them into how things work aren’t leaders at all. They’re distractors.
Their inability to keep their (usually intelligent) minds in check is weakening their team.
“…You don’t teach your subconscious mind anything by doing it once…”
What’s important to your team’s success?
Your mission, things you’re actually doing?
What’s most important? Priorities 1,2,3.
How much time are you spending on them?
Maybe not structured but frequent and focused.
Maybe not every day but at least weekly.
If it’s not done weekly it’s not embedded in your subconscious. Once something is embedded you can back off.
You can’t train a dog once a month so you won’t train a team either.
Do you respect team routines or disregard them? Switching team meeting times might seem easy to you but can be catastrophic for a busy team.
And tells them their working patterns don’t matter to you.
Would you pass up a meeting with your boss if it clashed with one with your team?
What reports do you see every week?
Do you read them, talk about them, ask questions? Even if good? Or is your routine to ignore them unless they show something bad?
Do you connect with your team regularly? Or the work they’re doing? Or is the only time they see you when something goes wrong?
Do regular things the team has to do together happen because of you or despite you?
Do you set routines or break them?
Are you training your team or distracting them?
Are you in a Routine?
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“I might be wrong, but at least I’ve thought about it…”