Want to nail a six million-dollar deal, detonate your rivals with great innovation, or lead your team to the stratosphere with killer recruitment? Then quit going through the motions. You need to dig deeper than your competitors to destroy them like Seattle crushed Denver in Super Bowl XLVIII. If you want to turn your company into the one to beat, you’ve got to step outside your normal goals and responsibilities and make a contribution that powers explosive growth. Put down the GoPro and don’t give me the excuse that you’re too busy. Use the tool on Harvard Business Review’s site to show you where you can free time to do work that matters. Focus on high yield contributions for an hour or two a day, and the results will have you partying at Nikki Beach in St. Bart’s’ next to Jay Z and Beyoncé. To score big, do this:
Face Yourself On the Stand And Fire Away. Most CEOs don’t take time to step back and reflect on what the business needs to jump to the next level now and what they can do or give to make it happen. Ask yourself the right questions and you’ll see faster growth: What matters most to the company to lift it higher? What will drive us forward and create the greatest organizational results? How can I contribute in a big way that counts more? What initiative can I lead that will take us forward, even if I don’t have the budget? What can I contribute today that will achieve a new level of inspiring results?
Act To Kill. Take one or two key steps toward your goal the first thing each day so you can chip away to make it happen. Frank Zane, the only bodybuilder to beat Arnold in the Olympia said to me during one of our training sessions, “Build it one step at a time, each day. Keep building and it happens.” Create a new website. Focus on revitalizing a large deal you had considered or clients you know you can bring back. Build the pieces needed for a new division. Act!
Commit--Or Go Home. Teams live on leaders who decide to pull their company forward and make a conscious choice to reach, climb, and do big things – and more of it. It requires work. It’s something that can be painful, but once you gain momentum, start the process and stay dogged, dopamine release takes over you, and rewards arrive. Make the choice now to lock down.
Rewire The Jet At 36,000 Feet. Sometimes, you hit obstacles and paper walls when you want to contribute big. Instead of waiting for the moment where you can achieve perfection on every front, lock onto your main goals and move forward. Push the not-yet-perfect button. You will at least get it flying and from there you can ascend. Find another expert co-pilot to help you. One of my companies needs a new website. At the time it came out it was cool, gorgeous, and hip. My challenge is I love great art. I have very high standards. Finding an amazing designer who can pull off what I like seems impossible unless they come from the van Gogh family.
Because of that I have been OK with leaving what we have, while I wait to find the right designer. As I went through thousands of portfolios, I was feeling like this may never happen. I eventually hired one who alleged he’d worked on the poster for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and had a portfolio of other pieces that seemed cool. I learned about him from a friend.
One day I got a frantic call and my friend was having a scream-fest with the designer. The designer threatened to hold her website design hostage and mine as well. (He didn’t). Then I learned that perhaps some of the things he represented to my friend had not been true. I did some searching and discovered that his new design was largely a sophisticated template that he had purchased. We terminated the relationship.
My experience was disappointing but it didn’t slow me down. I am now in search of a new top designer to finish off the design. My team and I are not going to stop working on our goal until we hit it. That’s how to get it done.
