This article was originally published by Brien Dunphy on LinkedIn.
Some years back, I watched a professional sports team play an incredibly dispirited last game of their regular season. The team had high hopes for the year and most "experts" expected them to make the playoffs. However, the season didn't go as planned. Injuries hit, players underperformed, and losses piled up. It was a sad ending to what was supposed to be a successful year. The team's energy was flat, the scoreboard reflected it, and everywhere you looked presented listless players just going through the motions… that is all but one player. While the rest of the team groggily trudged through the game waiting for their disappointing season to mercifully come to an end; this one player was pure energy and effort. By the end of the game, he had achieved a career best day.
During the post-game interview, he was asked how he managed to play so well and with such energy in a game that "didn't matter." His answer is forever stuck in my head. After waxing briefly about personal pride, he said something incredibly insightful and practical. He said, "Every game matters. And even if you're playing with no chance of making the playoffs, you're always playing for your next contract."
Many would give up, thinking there's no reason to put forth the effort to perform well in a game they are bound to lose, in a season that is almost over. This athlete, however, knew he wasn't only playing for that moment, or that game, he was playing for his next contract, whether it was going to be with a new team or his current team. This is true in pro sports and it's true in business. It's critical to perform well, whether you are on your way to success, or your dreams are currently being dashed. Why is it important? Personal pride and integrity? Absolutely! But not only that. It's also important because people are watching, and your reputation depends on it. And potential future opportunities hinge upon it as well.
Whether it's a promotion within your current company, a new client, or even a new job, there will be a next contract… a next "something." How you perform now sets you up for success in that next role wherever and whatever that might be. You must be intentional in how you perform now and show up as your best you until the end.
How can you set yourself up for success in your next role and play for your next contract?
Look For Ways to Develop Yourself
Even when the current reality appears bleak, find ways to challenge and stretch yourself. Consider how you can leverage the now. What skills can you develop that will lead to your next role or to future success in your current role? Focus on intentionally developing a learning mindset and work actively to grow your skill set and mindset. By changing your perspective to one of growth and progress, you are setting yourself up to finish strong now, and win bigger later.
Focus on Being the Clear Choice
Knowing your next "something" is watching intentionally cultivate your professional reputation. Commit to bringing value to every conversation, room, and situation you are in; especially when you're tempted to simply go through the motions. In the workplace, how others see you is more important than how you see yourself. Dr. Robert Hogan of the Hogan assessment says it this way, "In business, the you that you know is hardly worth knowing." Your reputation is the anchor to professional trust; and it is based on who you demonstrate yourself to be, not who you imagine yourself to be. Consider how others see you and work to develop an awareness of your strengths and weaknesses. Work actively to improve areas of weakness and confidently articulate your competence in the areas where you shine. Show those watching that you make good things happen. Be strategic, take initiative every day and show up well. Make it clear in your own mind that "No matter what happens, I show up. Every time."
Improve Your Leadership Skills
Develop your executive presence and actively avail yourself of the leadership opportunities you are passing up. (Trust me, they are there. If you don't see them, look with a more open mind). Be solution-focused and look for ways to be a problem solver. Anyone can be a critic and point out flaws, but not everyone can see a problem, find a way to solve it, and execute the solution. Communicate effectively and with intentionality. Focus on developing a positive attitude in less than positive circumstances. Keep a larger perspective and avoid being overcome by the current situation.
Focus on The Quality of Your Work
Find your energy in the quality of your work, instead of the outcome of your work. Just like with our athlete, the scoreboard and the team's record don't matter. Your only opponent is you. Your only goal is to be better today than you were the day before. Focus on the quality with which you perform your work, not on the task you are performing. You may not be able to control the outcomes, but you can control the effort and quality that you put forth. Your next "something" is watching. Show up and show them what they can expect.
Finally, ask yourself, what does success in this particular situation look like? You will perform best when you have a clear goal, a "North Star". It may not be what you originally envisioned, but challenges are simply opportunities in disguise, seize upon those opportunities. Decide to be a transformational influence in the situation by defining aspirational goals in the face of melancholy; then chase those goals!
Regardless of the record, the scoreboard, or the work environment, your next "something" is watching and waiting to see how you show up. You are always playing for your next contract.
This article was originally published by Brien Dunphy on LinkedIn.
“In the long run, men only hit what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.” - Henry David Thoreau.
Dream Big! The higher the aspirations we pursue, the greater the chances we will achieve progress. But while dreaming big is imperative, many of us don’t even dream at all. As we quickly progress through this new year, I have a question to ask you... do you have permission to dream?
The blocker preventing people from dreaming is seldom the inability to dream, but rather failing to grant themselves permission to dream.
Swept up in frenetic, yet mundane workdays, allocating valuable time to dreaming (or even simply to thinking big thoughts) is not acceptable. “I’m too busy/ too driven/too swamped/ too (insert ‘reason’ here) to do such things,” is the common refrain.
Making matters worse (be it the result of a hyper-competitive environment, a somber and defeated outlook, or simply the sheer exhaustion of a severely taxing workplace) permission to muse is not invited, granted, or rewarded.
If you don’t believe me, let me ask you three very short and simple questions that most people I meet have trouble answering.
1) What is your dream for your career? Your life?
Many of the professionals I have coached throughout the years are so caught up in the busyness of work and life, they have never stopped long enough to think about their dreams (not their goals, but their dreams).
“Goals” is too small a word to begin your professional ideations. Goals are best achieved when pursued in the bigger context of “dreams.” Dreams are the larger pursuit and the higher aspiration. When we can articulate our dreams, our passions come to light and our energy follows. Unfortunately, left unchecked, the tyranny of the urgent devours attention to what’s important in life and career.
Dreams are important, but life doesn’t organically provide the time or the permission to pause long enough to acknowledge or craft those dreams. Time to muse, ideate, think, dream… is space we must create intentionally. We don’t need to fight every fight, but we need to fight the fights that need fighting. And your dreams are one of those fights.
If you know what your dream is for your career, or for your life, how much energy have you put into articulating it to yourself? Again, pressed time and constant urgency aren’t incubators for dreams, they are parasites eating away at your largest resource - you.
2) To whom have you told your dream to?
Once you have begun to formulate your dream, who have you shared it with? Sharing your dream with another human being is a critical step in the process of success (a step most fail to employ).
Merely having a dream isn’t enough. Once conceived, that dream needs to be shared and built upon. Find the right person to share your dream with. Chosen well, this connection will be an honest, positive, and solution-focused individual who will feed life to your dream, and creatively assist you over, through, and around obstacles. Invested and genuinely supportive human interaction allows you to refine your dream, making your dream more than a lofty idea, but rather an extension of who you are as a person.
Sharing your dream with the right person gives you the accountability and the drive to push through the dry times. Those are the times when your dream seems impossible, and the road longer than you originally calculated.
3) If you haven’t told anyone, why?
The answer I get most often to this question is some version of, “who can I tell?” When this answer is explored more deeply, the apprehension people feel in sharing their dreams with another person comes down to one word - fear.
Many people do not have someone in their life they consider a safe place for their most vulnerable thoughts, ideas, and imaginations. Largely, this results from having the experience of being burned in the past. Think about the times you have had what you believed was a great idea or revolutionary moment. You eagerly shared your revelation with the person you thought was safe, only to have them tell you why it won’t work. Instantly, you were deflated.
The temptation is to walk away with the defeated belief, “next time I will keep it to myself, and will do it myself.” PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS!! Your dreams are an integral part of who you are and should be an extension of who you are as a person - a person with a purpose.
So here is my challenge to you - push back against the tyranny of the urgent. Schedule 30 minutes on your calendar this week to get alone and undistracted. Ask yourself these three questions:
1) What is my dream for my career? For my life?
2) Who can I tell my dream to who is safe, will help me refine my dream, and hold me accountable to act in pursuit of it?
And once you have answered those first two questions, be sure to ask this last and most needful question:
3) Now that I know my dream and have someone to chase that dream with me, what am I going to do first to make my dream become my reality?
In order to hit the targets in your mind, you have to give yourself permission to dream the dreams you see in your mind. Start now.
(No, really, start now…open your calendar, schedule those 30 undistracted minutes. You’ll be glad you did).
This article was originally published by Brien Dunphy on LinkedIn.
The higher your perspective the slower things move.
This is a scientific fact that was never more evident to me than when I was last on a plane. The ground appeared to be moving at a snail’s pace. Conversely, when I travel by train it looks like everything is moving too fast for me to see clearly. It feels like the train is moving faster than the plane… spoiler alert, it’s not.
This is the scientific phenomenon of Motion Parallax. This phenomenon states that objects moving at a constant speed will appear to move faster if they are closer than they would if they were at a greater distance. I know that if I were flying the same speed at a lower altitude, I would feel like I am moving at 500 mph. This is because we are seeing individual aspects of the landscape instead of large portions of it.
But this perspective effect applies not only to airplanes, it applies to life as well. Our perspective easily becomes so ground-level that we feel like life is moving at 10,000 mph. In those moments it is incredibly difficult to make quality decisions. Whether we are struggling in our careers, dealing with strained relationships, or handling the myriad of ethical quandaries thrown at us in life; the closer we are to a situation, the more complex it seems.
In those overwhelming moments, the first thing we must do is slow down our brains so we can gather the necessary information to respond in the best way. This requires we change the vantage point/perspective from which we are viewing the circumstance or situation. We need the airplane view as opposed to the train view.
It is imperative to pause and step back to gain a different perspective. It means seeing each situation and challenge as a small part of a much bigger jigsaw puzzle that is career or life: gaining a “higher perspective”' instead of just seeing what's coming at us daily. When we do so we can equip ourselves with clearer heads, allowing space for better judgment and smarter decision-making in even the most stressful of moments.
As we enter a new year, I encourage you to take a step back and reflect on what worked and what didn’t last year. Picture yourself at 36,000 feet and reflect on the pieces of your personal puzzle and how they fit into the larger image of the life you are building. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind, but taking a higher view can help you make more informed decisions about how you want to move forward into the next year.
Take time to pause and ask yourself, “What are my values? What are my goals? What do I want to accomplish in the long term and in the short term? Are my short-term goals serving my long-term goals?“ Consider how the plans you have for next year fit into your personal puzzle.
The beginning of the year is a great time to reflect and asking yourself these questions will enable you to gain clarity on what is truly important for you to achieve and aspire to away from the distractions (and speed) of everyday life. By viewing your life, your business and your everyday reality from a higher vantage point (and different speed), you are able to gain clarity around what matters most and eliminate what is not worth pursuing.
Zoom out to zoom in. You may just find that the blurry shapes and colors that you can’t make out as you ride that train, are really amazing buildings and fields when seen from 36,000 miles above.