I’ve been thinking about The Navy Seals saying – “Slow is smooth; Smooth is fast.” How on earth does this apply to you as a leader or business owner, you might ask?
Many of the leaders I work with are biased toward taking action. They’re movers and shakers. They don’t let dust gather on them. Maybe you’re like them too. And that tendency to drive forward fast can be an asset.
And sometimes it can be your greatest downfall.
Let me unpack that.
One of the things that my client, Ellen wanted to work on when she came to me for coaching was growing and scaling her business. She wanted strategies, tactics, and methods to handle the increased workload from all this new client work. She was seeking help in leading her expanding team.
As I listened to her talking about her business, I sensed something beneath the surface that wasn’t being said (which is often the case).
I posed a series of deliberately crafted questions designed to help Ellen consider why she wanted to grow her business, her revenue, and add to her team. The real reason was not as obvious as you might think.
As we explored her “reasons” and I had her envision how she would feel once she’d experienced all that growth, she suddenly blurted out that she really didn’t want to scale her business. Nor did she really want to add a bunch of team members. In fact, she wanted to totally pivot her business focus so that she’d be doing work that absolutely lights her up.
Ah. There it is.
When setting a lofty goal for yourself or your organization or team, it’s important to think about what that end result would look like in real life.
In other words, it’s crucial to slow down, go within, and really consider whether this is the best course of action.
Whoa. That sounds really sofffttt and woo-woo and certainly counterintuitive to a lot of the business practices many gurus are spouting.
But let’s remember that this is a mantra of the US Navy freakin’ SEALS: “Slow is smooth; Smooth is fast.” And there’s nothing soffftt or woo-woo about them.
The fact is, if you decide on a direction to take your team and then take off like a bat out of hell, you may be wasting time and resources going in the wrong direction.
Or in my client’s case, she was climbing the ladder of “success” and may have gotten to the top, only to realize that it was leaning against the wrong building.
It’s better to first carefully consider and be a bit slower to start so that once you do start, you can go forward more smoothly with less zigzagging and backtracking, thus going faster in the long run.
Some ideas for how to implement the Navy SEALS mantra in the way you live and lead:
• Carefully examine your why. If you find that you miiiight be trying to keep up with the “EntrepreJoneses” (a term I first heard from podcaster Jenny Blake), or you’re “shoulding” on yoself, stop, drop (within) and roll this around some more to ensure this is truly the right direction for you and your team.
• Get absolutely crystal clear on YOUR definition of success. Not the definition posted by your favorite “Insta Influencer,” or the one society crams down our throats.
• Envision what this end result would mean in totally practical terms – as in what would it look like on an average Tuesday at 10:00 AM?
• Get a different perspective. It’s hard to see the label from inside the wine bottle. That’s where a great coach comes in. I don’t know anyone who couldn’t benefit from having help seeing things from a different angle. My coach helps me choose the lens through which I view situations and re-frame my thinking when necessary. Because you and I absolutely get to choose our thoughts. (If you’d like to know what coaching with me is like, schedule a complimentary discovery call.)
• Ask for input from stakeholders. Yeah, those people who will be on the frontlines implementing this new initiative can offer huuuugely valuable input and insights about the viability of this plan.
Listen, if you’re an action-oriented, fast-paced leader, I get that you don’t want to slow down. But if it works for the Navy SEALS, who are totally badass, it might be worth it for you to give it a whirl.
If you do, I’d love to hear about your revelations and experiences.
You might also like:
The Best-Kept Secret of High Performing Teams
Lead Yourself and Your Team Out of the Land of Stuck
Jennifer Ledet, CSP, is a leadership consultant and professional speaker (with a hint of Cajun flavor) who equips leaders from the boardroom to the mailroom to improve employee engagement, teamwork, and communication. In her customized programs, leadership retreats, keynote presentations, and breakout sessions, she guides leaders to live and lead by choice, not chance.
Image by chris18769 from Pixabay
