The equation is daunting:
One person must do the job a team used to
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the consumer is more sophisticated
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the market is moving faster than ever
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Employees being told to be more agile.
This is the opportunity to differentiate your team. In some organizations the plea for a more agile workforce is interpreted as a demand to do more work, faster. (As if you just need the right attitude.) The Accelerator, though, understands that agility is a skill, one that must be developed and supported by the culture.
Telling someone “you need to be more agile” is akin to telling them to speak a foreign language they’ve never explored.
We’re inspired by the leaders who equip their teams to be agile – and tap into each person’s “why it’s important.” They’re asking questions like:
– What does it look like to be successfully agile in our organization?
– How do you know you’re agile?
– Why do you want to be agile?
This awareness, along with the response to last week’s post (The Leadership Collision), remind us of this piece in Degrees of Strength:
“By choosing to be responsible . . . we build the capability and capacity for speed and agility as we respond to and drive market conditions.”
What happens when team members move from allowing daily events to define them . . . to growing in their ability to define events? The capacity to do this frees individuals and teams from the emotional wreckage that comes in the aftermath of when things go “wrong.” Agility is the natural byproduct.
This skill of redefining how we see events means that life and business no longer happen to us; we happen to them.”
What does it look like to be successfully agile in your organization? Please share below.
Agile people are born pro-active ones and v.v. I would say.
Pro-active attitude, thinking to act ahead and try to do better each time. So much needed.
I recall my father, who is 87 now, saying when he was a younger man, “I am a jack of all trades.” Yet I saw him “master” many things throughout his personal life and work. His words stuck with me, and I promised myself long ago, to also not allow myself to be a jack of all trades and master of none…I learned to become successfully agile, while staying true to who I was, and not allowing others to define me. I have become the exclamation point of my own life! (not just an ongoing question mark…) Mastery of any skill takes time and much effort. The leaders who recognize strengths in individuals, especially in the area of being agile, diverse with their skills, multi talented but not diluted, sees the potential to help an organization grow and tap into this self motivation. My heart is always looking for ways to help others realize their own potential and find that self motivation as well.
Ewout, thanks for your insights about the nature of pro-active and agile leaders. The ideas of thinking ahead and trying to do better every time resonate. You’re an amazing model for other leaders.