Bias for action. Gets things done. Go-getter. Traits companies big and small look for. And for good reason, you're being hired to do things! However, action is a secondary step that often overshadows the primary step, direction. Clear direction is the foundation that enables our actions to takeoff. Without it, we're stuck in the mud. Striving for clarity is an underrated skill. Having the courage to ask ( seemingly ) obvious questions, and to check in, making sure we're all on the same page. "O bvious " questions are a low risk, high reward way to add value. At worst, you'll add confidence to our actions. At best, you discover a misalignment that saves us from a dead-end. The more people, the more clear we need to be. The bigger the initiative, the bigger the risk of reaching the finish line, only to realize expectations were off. Success is always uncertain. But we can be certain about what we want and what everyone's job is. Things that can be clea
Focusing too much on how much. Many companies measure success based on how many things they can build. For tech companies, it's features, for factories, it's widgets.
Outputs matter, but only as the means to an end. The outcome of our outputs is the point, not the outputs themselves.
Happy customers, profitability, growth - these are the things we care about. Delivering your quota and delivering it on time is great...but was any value delivered? Did we actually move forward? Work for work's sake doesn't help anyone.
When we fixate on outputs, we trick ourselves into feeling good. In the short-term, we feel progress being able to check off our to-do list, but over time we fall behind. We lose sight of our goals.
This happens in our personal lives too. If we want to learn more, the number of books we read don't matter. Our understanding of the content does.
Measure yourself against things that matter. Outcomes, not outputs.
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