“Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react and reinvent”. Bill Gates
“If you want to be fast and agile, keep things simple. Speed isn’t the result of simplicity, but simplicity enables speed”. Jim Highsmith
Did you catch the clue in today’s quotes about our subject matter? Yes, it’s agility and leading with speed. I was talking about leadership with one of my new colleagues and mentioned the characteristics hungry, humble, and smart. Gino Wickman in his book Traction would say Get it, Want it, and Capacity where capacity includes the emotional capacity or emotional intelligence to do the job well. I may be stretching that capacity includes humility, but I think you must be capable of bigger things without letting them get to your head. My colleague was quick to add agile and he couldn’t be more right. It’s not enough to be smart enough to get the job done or driven enough to see the project to completion and having the capacity to get it done is important, but all three of these things aren’t good enough if you can’t learn, adapt, and change quickly. Success loves speed. Today’s leader needs agility.
Agility; Leading with Speed
What separates high performing individuals is the ability to adjust, adapt and respond to change quickly. It’s no longer the strong eat the weak, but the fast eat the slow. Being agile has many benefits. It helps us to respond to change better, be more resilient, see the positives out of every change and learn and grow from every opportunity, even when we fail. As John Maxwell wrote, sometimes we win and sometimes we learn. If I asked do you want to move faster, think bigger, and waste less time in your day-to-day life most would raise their hand and say, “sign me up”, but many don’t know how to achieve it at the personal, practical level. Here are some steps you can take
6 Steps for Leading With Speed
- Set bigger goals. If you want something you’ve never had before you must think bigger and aim higher.
- Start doing things instead of talking about things.
- Welcome change. Yes, this one is hard. Begin by appreciating that change introduces opportunity and personal and professional growth.
- Have childlike curiosity. Children are full of optimistic curiosity that fuels their confidence to be creative. Be a sponge for knowledge, take risks, and ask why.
- Adapt constantly. Experiment with new ideas and be open minded.
- Collaborating with as many people as possible brings out new ideas by sparking curiosity and creativity. Just make sure you are stretching outside your comfort zone with your network otherwise you risk suffering from group think which the enemy of agility.
There you have it. Six steps for introducing agility to your life. Set bigger goals, act, welcome change, possess childlike curiosity, and constantly adapt. Friends choose speed and watch how it brings with it a reputation of confidence, purpose, and execution. Develop a reputation for agility and speed and watch how people and opportunities begin to seek you out.
“In today’s era of volatility, there is no other way than to reinvent. The only sustainable advantage you can have over others is agility. That’s it. Because nothing else is sustainable. Everything else you create somebody else will replicate” Jeff Bezos
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin