Boy, it felt good! It didn’t last long; good things often don’t. But having had it once I knew I had to have it again. At least now I knew what I was aiming for – or so I thought. I was wrong. It took me over ten years to understand what I’d done. But now that I do, perhaps it might give you the chance to get the feeling too.
I was working as a production manager. I had a small group of people working for me and we were turning out packaged gourmet cheese for the supermarkets. Fresh food, fast moving. The pressure was always on. Keeping my people focused, keeping the sales mob sated, keeping the boss at bay.
I would finish most weeks feeling wrung out. Drained. Flat as a brand new torch battery after someone leaves it on all night (“I didn’t mean to, Daddy”). It took me Saturday to discharge and Sunday to recharge before starting all over again.
And then, suddenly, it stopped. I started to feel on top of it. In control. In the zone. Yes, “in the zone” is the best way to describe the feeling.
I was coming home from work with a feeling of accomplishment. I was running the job, rather than it running me. I had become a conductor, rather than a fire fighter. A manager, rather than a managee.
So what was the secret? What did I do to get into “the zone”?
Although it didn’t feel like it at the time, it was pretty simple. Slowly but surely, my team and I got on top of three things:
– knowing what we needed to do (clarity), – having the ability to do it (capability), and – being able to do it over and over again (consistency)
It was nothing more than that. As hard as it was to get there, bringing these three things into alignment was what gave me the feeling of being “in the zone”. When any one of them fell out of place, it was back to stress and reactivity.
Now this is a relatively small-scale example. However, in the last few years I’ve worked with lots of managers at various levels and in all sorts of companies. And the essence of their challenges always seems to come back to this: When clarity, capability and consistency are in place, all at once, life feels controlled – even simple. Lose any one of them and the feeling is gone.
Understanding the “Manager’s Mission”, as I now call this trilogy, can help you too.
I’ve run out of space to give you some examples. Please take some time to read the free accompanying report freshly posted on our website (http://www.businesssimplification.com.au/for_free/papers). Then think about how you can achieve the “Manager’s Mission” and get yourself “into the zone”. The feeling is worth it.
David Brewster is a Simplicity expert. He helps managers and
business owners succeed by finding ways to simplify the way they
work, the products they create and the way they communicate. His
client’s work more effectively and have more, happier customers.
David regularly writes and speaks on simplifying work. More
articles, downloads and resources are available at his website:
http://www.businesssimplification.com.au
