Basketball is my favorite sport. Growing up in the Philippines, I’m used to playing basketball using hoops that were attached to trees—not the typical manufactured basketball hoops that we purchase and assemble here in the U.S. Trees are living things. They grow. As you can imagine, this presents a challenge to me and my friends as we try to be proficient in shooting a basketball on this “Groot-esque*” hoop. However, the real challenge is for the new folks who want to join in.
My friends and I grew up playing on that hoop. As the time goes by, we learned to adjust our game as the tree grows in height and in angle. We were able to make iterative adjustments on how we make our shots to align with the gradual changes to the parameters of our game. I see these iterative adjustments as part of the process of being proficient in playing in our special hoop. Kids who wanted to join have struggled to do well because they’re not used to the height and the angle of the hoop. We were able to win almost every match because we’ve been sticking to this “process” for several years.
I hope you see the relevance of my story to the “principles of the process.” My point here is that there shouldn’t be any step skipped. It’s like a child learning how to walk for the first time. A child will not learn to walk, before learning to turn over and crawl. A child will not start walking if they haven’t learned how to stand on their two feet in proper balance.
Now, how does this relate to you and the workplace? Of course, you’ll find many examples of internal processes that require learning, step-by-step practice to become proficient in it, but that’s not what I want to stress here. If you’re reading this, you’re probably someone who has a career path in mind or a desired position you’d like to achieve within your organization.
Finding “shortcuts” to get to your goals may work in the short-term. Perhaps, you’re able to pull it off and sustain that success for yourself. If that’s you, I’m happy for you. However, you’ll find that many of the great leaders, at every level within the organization, have gone through some type of process to be well-equipped for their roles. In your current organization, I’m pretty sure you’ve met several leaders who either have gone through many different roles or have stayed in the same type of discipline to become the best they can be at that role. In each step of their process, they pick up skills and experiences that help mold them to be the right fit for their current roles. No shortcuts. Many even didn’t plan to be in management. It just became a natural progression for them.
We all have our own ways to journey the rigor of mastering our skills, while inching away on our “process.” In my opinion, there are traits or principles needed to be successful in your journey. I’d like to capture the necessary traits to be successful into my “flywheel” below. Items within this flywheel came from my personal leadership philosophy: Sincerity, Horsepower, Impact, and Perspective (S.H.I.P.).
A flywheel is an analogy used by many business and thought leaders. This analogy describes how a flywheel gradually builds momentum, making it hard for any outside force to stop it. I’d like to use this same analogy using these three components that I think is important for this topic:
Horsepower
Perspective
Impact
Horsepower is a component that allows an individual to move forward. Rigorous forward movement to get things done. Horsepower is the invisible force that pushes you to take that next step—big or small—as long as it gets you closer to a certain goal. To me, horsepower is not just about grit. It’s also about the talents, skills, and capacity needed to actually do the task well. If you lack the skill or the knowledge to fulfill the task, you’ll need the horsepower to educate yourself, learn, and practice what you’ve learned. If you lack the capacity—time or energy—you’ll need the horsepower to plan your resources, delegate, or create efficiencies to find that capacity.
Perspective may not be a common component in many flywheels, but I’d like to think that this makes mine unique. To me, I find that culture is an important factor for success in any role. In my experience, I find that getting the proper perspective from the different departments, roles, and functions, allows you to exert your horsepower to the right direction, properly aligned to the organization’s culture. It also provides you a bigger outlook of the organization altogether, giving you insights as to what type of activities would make sense for the organization.
Impact are the results and the overall meaning of the work you’re doing. Some people may call it their “why.” Impact also defines the satisfaction one gets when they accomplish something. To be clear, it’s not singularly about the enjoyment or self-gratification you get when accomplishing a task. Impact is about how your task creates value to the organization, your team, your customers, or the community you’re a part of. The personal joy and satisfaction would just be a residual from that impact. Adam Grant, best-selling author and speaker, once said, “Enjoyment fades, (but) meaning lasts.” Impact, to me, equates to meaning.
Crowdsourcing FTW
What components do you have in your flywheel? What other component would you add to my flywheel? And, in your opinion, what should I name my flywheel? Please do share in the comments below.
*Groot-esque – refers to “Groot” Marvel character.