The best way to be in charge of something is to embrace the mess.
Of course, you should be committed and you should deeply care. You should bring your A-game and make sure that everybody involved can bring their own too. You should plan and execute and iterate and educate and plan some more.
And then, when chaos strikes, as it certainly will, you should be ready to throw everything in the air and play with the mess of the new setting.
It might not only be the best way, but also the only one.
If you are really good at something, there’s no reason to make others feel bad for not being at your same level.
Lift them up instead, or at the very least show them a new way to think, to act, to relate, to commit.
You’ll make your good worth it.
A few of things to take away from Brandon Sanderson (popular writer of fantasy and science-fiction) breaking Kickstarter in the past week or so.
If your organisation has a problem with silos – that is to say, you are dealing with departments caring mainly about their internal processes and KPIs, blaming poor results on others, not aligning around what success looks like -, the best way to break down the silos is to start a project that needs the input and commitment of people that come from the different silos.
Make them know each other, come up with ideas and execute in the same space, define success and celebrate together.
It will teach them empathy for other functions and it will allow them to take that empathy back to their respective teams.
When you feel the pressure of a deadline, a lack of results, a performance review, and you still manage to let things be, that’s when you are setting yourself up for long term success.
It is the day-to-day work, the long-term commitment that set you up for the outcome. It is not the last minute urgency, the sudden opportunity, the finalisation of all minor details.
Act in the present, believe in what you did in the past, and take what’s coming tomorrow as a continuation of your journey. Zigzagging without purpose is not the solution.
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