Improving Effectiveness Always Means Change.
It was grade 3 and the report card was good with one exception. The school I was in didn’t just grade kids on academic performance but on character qualities as well.
I got a “needs improvement” in the character quality of flexibility - and they were bang on! I didn’t do change well. I got used to something, I liked it, it worked, and when someone wanted to change it I had a hard time with it. I fought it.
I still don’t do change all that well. I like to go to the same restaurants. The same patterns in life. My first reflex is to buck change. Why try the new restaurant when I know exactly what I like at Olive Garden? It is one of the parts of who I am which Tamara wishes was different. I am cautious by nature.
I like sameness and if not for another “like” in my life I would be OK with same old same old for a long time. But my desire for sameness has an enemy.
You see, I also like effectiveness. Or more accurately, I loathe ineffectiveness. When I see something which does not work to produce the results it is intended to produce it drives me up the wall. I can’t let it go. Especially if I believe I can DO something about it.
I don’t think this is unique to me - I suspect those two desires are at war in most people.
Most people like the comfort of consistency and predictability (sameness).
Most people get frustrated when things don’t work (effectiveness).
What makes some people leaders is they commit to have their desire for effectiveness trump their desire for sameness.
I suppose there are some leaders out there who didn’t get a “needs improvement” in flexibility in grade 2 and who naturally gravitate towards change just for the thrill of it. Leaders who are addicted to the adrenaline rush of the new. Leaders who have no hesitation in their gut as they barrel devil-may-care into the future.
But I am not one of those and so every single day I have to commit to effectiveness.
If I don’t:
- The comfort and predictability of sameness becomes soul numbing stagnancy.
- I eventually lose the ability to choose effectiveness and get lost in paralyzing fear.
Every day I have to choose.
And so might you.
