One Degree
I have a friend who has experienced several difficult years in a row, in fact, it might be closer to a decade of struggles. During this season of life, she shifted into survival mode, but she is beginning to find herself again and is moving toward a healthier place. In a recent conversation she shared, “How did I get here? How in the world did I get here? It’s like a decade of my life passed, and I just don’t know how I ended up here – in the wrong place.”
In my work with leaders and teams I often experience moments when individuals and groups discover that they aren’t where they want to be. At some point they got off track, but here’s the reality: the problem isn’t that they got off track, it’s that they got off track and they stayed off track.
If you were to look at a protractor you would notice that one degree is a very, very small distance, but being off by one degree can seriously impact your final destination. For example, I once read that if you were off by one degree and you traveled one foot you would miss your mark by .2 inches. If you continued to move forward while being off by just one degree, the consequences would increase. If you traveled 100 yards you would now miss your mark by 5.2 feet. If you continued forward a mile you would find yourself off by 92.2 feet. And if you started at the equator and planned to fly around the Earth, being off by just one degree would cause you to miss your final destination by 500 miles! To put it in perspective, that is like landing in Buffalo, New York, when you thought you were headed to Chicago, Illinois. That’s a really big problem.
The challenge for leaders isn’t to be perfect but rather to assess where you are, where you want to be, and then to recalculate on a regular basis. Healthy leaders and healthy teams check-in frequently to see if they are moving toward their desired destination. If they discover they are off, even by just one degree, they recalculate quickly to get back on course. Being off by one degree is very correctable, but if you miss your mark by over 500 miles you’ve got some difficult and painful decisions to make.
Leaders also have a responsibly to hold everyone accountable to the “flight plan.” We must be aware of the factors that are potentially pushing us off course: individuals who aren’t committed to the team, the pressure to meet an unrealistic deadline, or a group that is functioning outside their core values. We cannot build a tolerance for being off course, which also means that we can’t lead on autopilot.
The people we are leading deserve to know that we will be proactive in making the adjustments that are necessary to lead us to our agreed destination. I don’t know very many people who would continue to trust a pilot who took them to Buffalo when they were told they were going to Chicago. The same concept applies to leadership. Good leaders are always adjusting to make sure the group is staying on course.
When leaders make adjustments early and often, they build trust and they help the group stay on track. Be the kind of leader who is willing to ask, “What adjustments do we need to make?” so you don’t have to be the one to ask, “How did we get here?”
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