You Can’t Be Serious

Battle Stations Everyone!
Battle Stations Everyone!

When I said, “Nobody is upping their game and working harder than they ever have in their  entire lives“, it dawned on me that further explanation may help.

Most people are working harder than they ever have, but that’s not what I meant by working harder.

Huh?

What we are talking about here is working harder to innovate, not harder to keep our jobs. Although, intuitively, more and better innovation should actually catapult people.

It doesn’t.

And this is why no one is doing it.

Except the linchpins.

No one is focused on innovation because innovation requires change and risk.

Change and risk make you stand out.  Change and risk in today’s climate can get you in trouble.

Who wants that?

Nobody.  Not even the Linchpins.

The Antidote?

LP
LP

Everybody’s doing it and nobody’s doing it.

Huh?

Everybody’s talking about how tough things are.

But nobody’s upping their game and working harder than they ever have in their entire lives.

Except a few.  (There’s always an exception to every rule)

You’ve read this past week about leaders and employees secretly whining and complaining.

It’s been going on for ages (almost as long as prostitution).

The reality, for me, is that I have never worked harder to do excellent work, and to do more of it.

Ever.

Why?

You can’t be serious.

I Feel Sorry

Poisonous Thinking
Poisonous Thinking

I feel sorry for all the leaders who are so busy trying to survive. Why? Because I’m one of them too.  And so are you. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You know the pain. The anxiety. The fear. The doubt.

It’s the odorless, colorless, invisible poison that sucks creativity, risk-taking and most importantly, innovation, right out of the room.

And what is the most frustrating, for nearly everyone, is that we all pretend that everything is fine.

It isn’t.

The antidote?

Ah, if I told you, you’d be happy in knowing it, but you wouldn’t do anything with it.

Would you?

PS. Like Tuesday’s post claimed, nothing is private anymore. Learn to live in this new atmosphere. It ain’t going away.