Great workers do good work at decisive moments. Commentators may describe such people as having the following qualities:
“They deliver the goods when it matters … They are good at managing crises … They do great work on great occasions.”
Imagine that you want to do this in your own work. You may aim to lead a team, manage a crisis, shift a new culture or do another activity. One approach is to recognise the potentially decisive moments. It is then to focus on the following themes.
Decision Making. This involves making good decisions that increase the likelihood of achieving the desired results.
Doing Your Best. This involves following your chosen strategies and doing your best to perform superb work.
Delivering The Goods. This involves finding solutions to challenges and working to deliver the desired results.
Imagine that you are facing a decisive moment. If appropriate, you can focus on the following steps.
Decision Making
Great workers recognise it is vital to make good decisions at vital moments. Taking this approach can set the course for achieving the desired results.
Great teams also encourage their people to develop the habit of making good decisions at such moments. Bearing in mind what they can control in certain situations, they encourage their people:
To clarify the real results to achieve and translate these into specific goals;
To clarify the possible options going forwards and the key strategies they can follow to increase the chances of achieving the goals;
To clarify the specific things they can do to do their best to achieve the goals.
This is an approach I saw in action when running the kick-off workshop for a yacht crew competing in round-the-world BT Global Challenge. The crew was made up of people from all walks of life, many with little experience of sailing.
The team I worked with had their first meeting in North Wales. After some introductions, the skipper asked people to brainstorm the team’s goals. The crew members got excited, saying things like:
“We are going to win.”
Listening to the presentations, the skipper showed respect for each of the suggestions. After summarising their ideas, he outlined his approach in the following way.
“Looking at the brainstormed ideas and adding to these, I would suggest the following goals. The top one is my guiding principle as a skipper. I would suggest the following aims.”
The crew members accepted the salutary lesson. After some discussion and refinement, they agreed on the real results to achieve. People then did a session where they focused on the following themes.
The specific goals they wanted to achieve … The specific strategies they could follow to achieve the goals … The specific pluses and minuses involved in working to achieve the goals.
The following pages describe the exercises that people did. They then clarified whether they were prepared to do their best to work towards achieving the goals.
The crew members explored these themes. It was important to recognise the tough conditions – such as storms in the Southern Ocean. Then to clarify whether they were prepared to accept both the pluses and minuses involved in working to achieve the goals.
The next step was to clarify each person’s best contribution. Bearing in mind the standards of work required – which sometimes involved life or death situations – it was important to encourage people to play to their strengths.
This posed a unique challenge. A few people had sailed before, but most were novices. They all brought different skills, however, which they could use to help to achieve the goals. They were cooks, counsellors, teachers, salespeople, technicians and had other skills.
Each person was invited to make a flip chart describing their strengths and best contributions. They put these around the walls of the room and explored each person’s strengths.
People made clear contracts about the specific things they would deliver towards achieving the goals. This approach made it more likely they would be able to do superb work at critical moments during the race.
Imagine that you have followed elements of this approach in your own way. You may do this as an individual or when leading a team. The next step is to move into action. This involves focusing on the next theme.
Doing Your Best
Great workers follow their chosen strategies and do their best to perform superb work. Great teams also put people in the places where they can play to their strengths.
Such teams encourage people to focus on the specific activities – and perform the specific roles – where they demonstrate the following qualities:
They have good radar – they see patterns quickly and seem to know what will happen before it happens – and they clarify the desired results;
They have a wide repertoire of tools they can use to work towards achieving the desired results;
They have the ability to reach into their repertoire and apply the right tools in the right way to get the desired results.
The yacht team took this approach. They encouraged people to focus on playing to their strengths and making their best contributions.
The skipper also encouraged everybody to develop the habit of doing their best and delivering high standards. Bearing this in mind, they invited the whole crew to contribute to doing the following exercises.
Great workers keep maintaining high standards. Imagine that you are doing this in your own way. When appropriate, it can be time to move on to the next stage.
Delivering The Goods
Superb workers keep doing their best. Sometimes this is enough to reach their goals but sometimes they may need to do something extra. They may need to rise to the occasion and do something special to deliver the goods at decisive moments.
Great teams take a similar approach. Such teams encourage their people to anticipate difficult situations. They also educate them to encounter such challenges.
The yachting team took this approach. They looked ahead to potentially difficult situations. Such moments could include:
Crew members falling overboard … Medical emergencies … Falling a long way behind other competitors in the race … Dealing with storms.
People having little sleep but needing to help each other … Missing loved ones … Being stationary and without any wind when in the Doldrums.
The yacht crew focused on the various scenarios they may encounter. They then describe the specific things that they could do – as individuals and as a team – to perform superb work at such times. Here is the type of exercise they did.
Great teams have people who take control and act as calming influencers at decisive moments. They buy time to think, clarify the possible options and settle on their chosen strategy. They communicate a clear plan, coordinate people’s strengths and enable people to do superb work.
As mentioned earlier, the yacht crew had the following goals:
To get everybody around the world and home safely;
To get the boat to go as fast as possible every day;
To give people a positive experience they remember for a lifetime.
The crew did get around the world safely. They kept improving their performance and finished in the middle of the pack. This also involved doing superb work at decisive moments, particularly during storms in the Southern Ocean.
The crew members experienced the joy of teamwork plus many dramas. People also learned lessons they could apply in their future lives. Many looked back on it as an experience that gave them positive memories for life.
There are many ways to fine work. One approach is to focus on potentially decisive moments. It is then to make good decisions and do your best to deliver the goods at those decisive moments.
Let’s return to your own life and work. Looking ahead, can you think of a situation where you may want to follow elements of this approach? How could you do this in your own way?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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