In every role, in every team, there are gaps – work that needs to be done, that we all know needs to be done, but no one has the cycles to do it. These are the gaps. Good leaders identify the gaps, Great leaders fill them – they take on the task and they get it done. That’s how you go from Good to Great.
The Big Event is what you are getting ready for. The release of your software. The presentation you’ve spent the last month working on. The proposal you’ve spent the last week on. The purchase you’ve been saving for. The Big Event is whatever it is that you’ve been wanting to accomplish, working on it bit by bit each day. The Big Event is here – hope you’re ready.
Don’t worry about the closing. Worry about the challenging. If you’re always there, you’re always working, you’re always pushing, you’re never giving, you’re keeping going (like this sentence) – then you are doing the right thing. Always be Challenging.
The question when determining to undertake a pivot isn’t so much what you are going to pivot to as whether your team is going to be able to undertake the pivot. Pivots are executed by people not by products. The product is there to do what you tell it to do. The question will always be – “Can my team pivot, are they able to make this change?” Not all teams can, the follow-up then…
Can you challenge your team? Not by giving them more work, but by questioning why they undertook a certain strategy, why they are following a certain pattern, what did they choose library A over library B? Can you ask them a question and have a discussion, not to assert your knowledge and authority but to learn and grow through asking why? The best teams ask each other why all the time, not for ego, but…