by Bruce da Plug
What makes great managers when it comes to leadership? How do you immeasurably gauge top-tier management and become it in the process? Through stressful though highly rewarding failures that become effective habits that build towards interdependence.
I personally failed in instilling Covey’s seven habits so spectacularly that it harmed both my business and personal lives, detrimentally. I remember it got so bad I really thought I was going through an identity crisis when I tried to ‘rebrand’. These failures stemmed from my handling of work issues which were getting entwined with my personal life in toxic ways. When childhood friends and romantic interests play roles they’re not supposed to in your work life, you fail in leading them out of a mess you’d have helped make.
Worse yet you also fail in attaining the interdependence you wanted to become a productive creative entrepreneur capable of managing their self-interests and affairs in solo and team settings.
Be proactive.
To lead is to break away from the herd and play shepherd, you start off as one of the sheep eventually you’ll be the black sheep of your family or friendship circles. Break your dependence on these groups for it is imperative that you trust in yourself to do what must be done. Proactivity means you take responsibility for your own behavior and don’t shift blame to circumstances, conditions, and importantly how you were conditioned to behave. You actively choose your response to any situation and the person you encounter – be prepared to respond in ways that make you proud. If that’s going to be hard, then so be it.
I failed in breaking off toxic relationships that drained me of the resources and energy needed to make better decisions regarding my work. I failed to draw boundaries.
Begin with the end in mind.
Never do anything without having a big idea of what it could be or become after you put your best work into it. Your life’s work is and has to be important because your life doesn’t belong to you alone thus your work will and shall impact others. Visualize the future you want after undertaking the work you’ll journey on. You live your life and make decisions accordingly to your strongly held opinions that become your fundamental truths.
I failed in possessing strong opinions about what constitutes good work that deserves to be shared despite my team making sacrifices to present quality work. I failed to fight for my team’s vision.
Put first things first.
You’re a manager thus control will always be at the center of how you operate- no matter how creatively laissez-faire your work is. Remaining disciplined in the face of mounting tasks and overwhelming activities is key to attaining the interdependence needed to maintain your independence. The important things will always be building relationships, writing a personal mission statement, making your long-range plan, doing your workout, and preparing for next week’s presentation.
The first things will always be the most important instead of the most urgent. The latter only happens when you slack on doing the important things thus you delay or dismiss them which only adds to your overflowing to-do list. Reaching the point of independence and using your time to pursue your most important goals effectively means you must increase your effectiveness with others around you.
I failed when I tried to put everything and everyone first before me, my family, and my life’s work. I failed because I kept thinking I wasn’t trying hard enough for others.
Think win-win.
I genuinely believe in teamwork my father raised my brothers and me to rely on each other. We’re still figuring out how to be more efficient but we always share. So I do believe in abundance, I have faith that there’s enough for everyone involved whenever effective teamwork is at play. Enough of what really matters when you think about what really matters to you – we live in an era when the metaverse collided with Zimbabwean genius. One person’s success doesn’t bank on another’s failure. Pray for your enemies.
I failed in balancing my entrepreneurial spirit and collaborative drive to the point I became opportunistic. There’s nothing wrong with that, I’m coming to terms with what I bring to the table and realizing what my creative superpowers are. My failure is not thinking win-win but breaking my back for your win-win.
Seek to understand before being understood.
I talk too much. I have a habit of trying to finish your sentences with you. That’s me showing I’m paying attention to you, I’m usually charged up so I overthink things and fail in communicating either the intention or the good reason why I’m talking so much. Regardless over time I’ve come to realize that no matter how hard you try there’s always something lost in translation coz we all don’t communicate on all levels at once especially in creative industries – the degree of self-interest varies in scope and depth.
Listening with the firm intention of understanding another person fully and deeply on an intellectual, analytical, and emotional level is hard. Do it. Always diagnose before you prescribe.
I failed in listening to the right people and acting on their advice. Now I am.
Synergize
Doing what I do is not easy, it’s hard enough opening up your mind to new creative ideas, turning yourself into an agent of innovation, trailblazer, and pathfinder is a tall order. Understanding new ideas and having the foresight to combine them into a whole greater than the sum of its parts is a trainable skill. The difficulty is making the moves in between turning billion-dollar ideas into dreams with receipts. Figuring out the skillset needed to do so stems from following Covey’s seven habits of highly effective people and figuring out how to value and appreciate differences between people.
I failed in applying the formula of networth = network + currency.
Sharpen the saw.
This is what it looks like. You have reached the stage of interdependence earning the admiration of your family, friends, and co-workers for your effectiveness. Nevertheless, you don’t slack and you don’t rest on your golden laurels. Constant improvement demands endless curiosity, insatiable experimentation, and enduring confidence to turn L + L = W.
I failed in adapting as I learned. I bookmarked too much, I saved pages too much, I learnt without practice too much. Made too many excuses for my own slackery but ultimately I learnt that the whole point of learning is to be ready with knowledge when opportunity sparks in the dark.
This is the hack to my productivity – things that get into motion, tend to stay in motion. Have faith in you, your why and the Lord.
