‘Never give up’ is the fifth of Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s six keys to success and for me it is one of the most helpful. It’s easy to be positive when everything’s going well. It’s another story when we get stuck or when we hit an obstacle.
What I find helpful is Moss Kanter’s observation that nothing feels like success when we’re in the middle of a piece of work, or a long project. And this is particularly the case when the going gets tough, when we can’t see the wood for the trees and when we’re feeling overwhelmed.
One way to overcome this is to pause and take stock. We all need a breather, particularly when we can’t see our way through. And during a pause, we can think back to the times when we’ve faced a similar obstacle, not necessarily in terms of the exact same problem, but in terms of when we’ve been unsure about what to do next.
Tapping into the notion that we eventually found a way through can provide us with the inner resilience to keep going.
The process is made easier when we hit an obstacle, if we’ve convinced that what we’re working on is worthwhile and that it’s going to make a difference. If we don’t feel that, then it’s probably a cue that it’s either the wrong work, wrong project or the wrong approach. In which case, these are useful insights to help us decide what to do next.
In my work in schools, I encourage leaders to take the ‘long view’ backwards and to consider the headlines of what has been achieved in the last year or the last term: doing this can power us up both as individuals and as groups to say ‘look how far we’ve come!’
And of course, it needn’t take long – ten minutes at certain points throught the year, either in a staff meeting, a phase meeting or a department meeting can inject a level of energy into pushing through when we hit the inevitable obstacles.
‘Never give up’ is known as Kanter’s Law – if we stop, we’re going to fail. This means we need to be ready to dig deep as individuals and teams so that we can find our way through what Kanter calls ‘the messy middle’!
I’ll be reflecting on the final key in the next post.
And the Leadership Lobby is now live! It’s a paced leadership course blended with live sessions over 4 terms with Andrew Morrish. If you’d like to know more, here’s a link to our recent webinar.
I hope this is helpful, feedback welcome!
Until next time
Mary