Leaders have a bias for taking action to pursue a greater vision somewhere out in the future. While this is an extremely important quality of leadership, only looking ahead can cause you to miss key lessons from your past that can propel you to have a highly successful future.
My oldest son has played competitive soccer since he was four years old. He loves the game. I’ve had to grow to enjoy it because it’s not the sport I grew up playing. As I’ve watched him play over the years, one key thing has stood out to me – sometimes, the best way forward is to play the ball backward first.
While this may not make sense at first glance, strategically it can make all the difference in the world.
If you’re like me, it’s easy to put your head down and drive forward trying to knock down all obstacles in your way. However, that is often called “working harder, not smarter.” The smartest play in sports, business, and life is often to pull back, reflect, and reset in order to advance wisely.
I’ve coached youth sports for many years and I’ve noticed that kids tend to plow “full steam ahead” without thinking about what they’re doing. They just know they need to get from here to there. When they do this, they put their head down and find themselves in a mess. If we’re not careful, this can happen to leaders as well.
In order to confidently move forward, let’s consider these three key steps:
1 – Pull Back
Whether personally or professionally, it’s not healthy to have the throttle fully down all the time. It leads to burnout. While you may think you just have to keep charging forward, the best decision is to often pull back to rest and regain perspective. When you feel yourself pressing and becoming exhausted, let this be a warning sign that you need to slow down a bit.
2 – Reflect
When you pull back, you give yourself the space to reflect on where you’ve been so you are then able to wisely proceed forward. Reflect on what’s working, what’s not working, who has been contributing, who has been holding you back, and what resources you need for the next phase. Reflection often leads to some of the best insights to help you confidently move forward.
3 – Reset
After you’ve pulled back and reflected, take the time to reset so you can strategically set yourself and your team up for success. Sometimes busyness creates chaos. During your reflection time, you can see how to reset people in various roles or responsibilities so they can contribute best and be more productive. This allows for your team to accomplish more in less time.
As author and researcher Jim Collins stated in his brilliant business book Good to Great, it’s critical to make sure you have the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. When you pull back, reflect, and reset, you give yourself a winning advantage over those who just keep plowing ahead thoughtlessly.
While you probably have a natural tendency to take continuous action, make sure to schedule time in your calendar to slow down so you can pull back, reflect, and reset. I’m confident that if you’ll make this a part of your regular routine that you’ll see incredible results as you chase the vision that is within your reach.
Until next time…make today GREAT!
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