The Friction Challenge
Lead for less friction and hit 2021 with renewed momentum
Steven Pressfield says in his book The War of Art:
"it's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is the sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is resistance"
In commercial business, we have our own version of this. If you are leading a sales team, the resistance, or friction points as I like to call them may look like this:
Why aren't they filling in their reports properly!!!???!!!
Why haven't those clients got back to us as they said they would?
I spent all night getting today's meeting together and half the team are unable to join for all sorts of bullshit reasons [insert frown and general grumpiness]
Or, your friction points may be more individual. Things such as:
I don't want to have to call that client to try and get them over the line on this deal.
Why do I have to have the tough conversations with difficult clients all the time?
I'm sick of correcting my team. Do I have to have another meeting and repeat myself again!?!
If you lead a functional team or a project team, you will have your version.
So let's circuit break these mother's-of-friction. Its time to stop reading and consuming, and start prepping for a free-flowing entry into 2021. This week I challenge you to the following:
By the end of this weekend, have a list of friction points written down. Simply reflect on friction points happening in your mind (self-management), in your interactions (relationship-management), in your team's systems, tools, and processes.
List one action you can take for each friction point to reduce the friction felt by you, your team, and/or your clients.
Prioritise 3x actions you can commit to taking in the coming week. I suggest you go for the easiest ones. This creates momentum.
Get them done
Keep doing them over the coming weeks
Adjust where required to get the result you want - less friction.
Complete these 3x actions by the end of 2020
Re-evaluate and move onto your next 3x actions
Hit 2021 with pace, optimism, and better overall rhythm
Turn this mini-process into an ongoing practice throughout 2021 (imagine what 2022 could look like if you kept this up for 12 months!!!)
Before we get carried away, lets get back to the coming week. Execute the Friction Challenge (steps 1-4). Then message me next weekend. On email, by text, or by LI Message - whichever is most convenient for you. Share the actions you took and what you learnt. For every single person that does this, you will get a signed copy of The Rhythm Effect. Gift wrapped with a note inside*. If you already have a copy you can gift this to someone else. If you have brought the book already as a gift for someone else, then give this copy to another person!
Gift wrapped signed copies with a personalise note only available for people in AUS. International people will get a fresh copy.
More importantly, I want as many leaders as possible to begin the process of a reduced-friction 2021. We've all experienced years worth of friction during 2020. We owe it to ourselves to get organised, get active, and get onto the friction points causing our collective Return On Effort to diminish.
Over to you. Enjoy the Friction Challenge and a great weekend.
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