A member of my team sent me this message the other day.
“I felt it this morning – an almost imperceptible low grade fear in the team…
Something subtle – like everyone feeling like the success is on them and by contrast, the failures too. We’re operating as individuals performing, not a team playing.
And a yearning for linking arms – we do this together – a unification into a whole.
Can you sense it?
A subtle shift from fighting for what we want vs calling it in.”
We need a shift from getting this right to going all in.
Do you do this? Take on the entire success of your team, or your organization, onto yourself?
Refuse to delegate because you’re worried no one will do it as well as you do, or feel a pressure to hog the credit so that it elevates your impact?
Do you work longer hours than you need to, skipping your workouts and barely getting dinner on the table because you feel so much pressure at work?
Are you so focused on doing well and getting it right that you’re avoiding risks and playing it safe?
If you are, you’re stifling your growth and you’re stifling your joy.
You need a shift from getting it right, to going all in.
Getting it right is perfectionism in disguise.
It keeps you working hard. It keeps you working long. It has you in line, with everyone else, waiting for some external authority to recognize and reward you.
It sucks the joy, but it’s safe.
Going all in is different.
Going all in is about messing up. Figuring it out, sometimes getting it wrong.
Delegate and turn in ‘B+’ work that’s at least done (and by the way, is pretty good even though you didn’t control every detail).
Go home on time. Leave early and leave a few emails unanswered that you shouldn’t be responding to anyway. Get your workout in. Maybe even taste your food when you’re eating dinner with your family.
Take the risk. Screw it up. Learn from it.
I promise, if you’re focusing on getting it right, you’re not having the impact you think you are.
Leaders don’t rise because they got every step right.
They rise because they took enough steps to learn how to deal with challenges, rebound from mistakes and rise anyway.
The entire role of a leader is to guide the company through challenges, into growth and beyond failures. Most often, into territory that’s completely uncharted.
You can’t do the work of leadership if you never let yourself fail along the way.
This year at The Academy, we’re going all in. We’ve learned a lot in the last six years of putting on this transformational event.
It’s not a typical women’s event where you show up, exchange pleasantries and leave inspired.
You won’t leave at all.
The woman who walks into the room on day one will no longer exist by the end of day two.
A different woman will be walking out.
One who isn’t concerned at all with getting it right.
One who’s determined to go all in.
I can’t wait to meet her.
With love,
Mari Carmen
