Leaders of a company, division, department, or project have to accomplish many things right to achieve their current success. They also had to do many things correctly many times. All these experiences become habits that we tend to fall back on when making decisions. And that is the problem! We must learn about breaking old habits.
Breakthrough business author Anthony Roberts is quoted as saying.
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. ”
That’s OK if the situations you are dealing with have not changed. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, the business world is in constant flux, and the rate of change is increasing. This means that Tony is wrong; if you do what you always did, you will not get what you have always gotten – you will get something very different. And the different outcome will probably worsen your situation if you believe in Murphy’s Law! This is because you are attempting to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s tools. You would never try setting up a pivot table on a VisiCalc program or get driving directions on Windows 95. You would never keynote an important business meeting with your presentation on overhead foils. So why would you not consciously look for new, contemporary ways to solve your problems? In 2007, Marshall Goldsmith published “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful.” The book’s title says it all.
How do you break old habits and become more in sync with today’s world? This is very easy and yet very difficult. It is easy because there is so much information online that you will be spoiled for choice. You can find great advice and context on millions of blogs, articles, reports, books, tweets, and whatever becomes popular the day after I post this blog. The hard part is finding the time to figure out what you need to know and then sort through the millions of words on any topic. Fortunately, there is another way.
In most companies, some bright, communicative, young rising star would love to enter into a mutual mentoring relationship with you. You coach her about career development, strategic challenges, and difficult decisions you are facing (within reason). She also coaches you about what she learned in business school, how her peers use social media, current ethics norms, etc. Or maybe you will be as lucky as I am and have a daughter (or son) who is a rising star in her company and is willing to listen to her old dad while telling me about what her generation is thinking and doing. And she loves to push me to break old habits that clog my brain. It sure works for me.
By now, you understand the challenge and may even think about the mutual mentoring advice, so let me close with a short story. Twice in the past three years, I was fortunate to attend talks by Nick Donofrio. Nick capped a 44-year career at IBM by retiring as Executive Vice-President for Technology and Innovation, reporting to IBM’s CEO. Both talks were at Bentley University and were on different aspects of the innovation challenge. He ended both talks by explaining that as a teenager, his father wanted him to work after school and hold multiple jobs during the summer to help pay for his college education. Eventually, Nick received his Ph.D. and succeeded at IBM. One frustrating day, young Nick asked his father, “Why must I work and study so hard? Why can’t I do like the other kids do?” And Nicks’s father replied,
”If nothing changes, nothing changes.”
Think about Nick’s father and start embracing change – it may be scary at first, but it will soon make you feel great.
About Middlesex Consulting
Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals with the primary goal of helping capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. Middlesex Consulting continues to provide superior solutions to meet the needs of its clients by focusing on our strengths in Services, Manufacturing, Customer Experience, and Engineering. If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization plan for change by breaking old habits, please contact us or check out some of our free articles and white papers here.