In Steve Covey’s seminal book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” there is a chapter that refers to “sharpening your saw.” It tells of a lumberjack who is trying to cut a large tree, and not making much progress because the dull saw is not very effective. Someone tells him he should stop and sharpen the blade to expedite his task, but he believes the time lost stopping to sharpen the blade will prevent him from completing the task in a timely manner.
Unfortunately, a lot of leaders in business reflect the beliefs of the short-sighted lumberjack.
They spend too little time in their own professional development: learning new skills, new approaches, new technologies or analyzing the changing trends in their respective industry. They immerse themselves in their day-to-day operations, dealing with the same problems and challenges without ever stopping and evaluating the situation to investigate a possible improved process or procedure.
Remember the definition of insanity: utilizing the same failed process or procedure over and over, but expecting a different result!
As a leader of your enterprise or organization, how much personal improvement time (as in hours) do you budget for yourself and your top managers each year? How many dollars did you allocate to improve your personal skills or for your management team to attend outside educational resources?
As Indiana CPAs, we are required to attend a minimum of 120 hours of continuing professional education every three years in order to maintain our licenses. What do you require of yourself and staff to maintain their competence? Their skills? Their value to your business?
Our business environments exist in a sea of constant change, and that condition will only grow more turbulent in the future. We must endeavor to commit our organization to a strategy of continued learning and improvement, and imbed the concept of adapting to our changing industries as a critical requisite component to the success of our operations.
There is a cliché that states: If you are not growing … you are dying! As leaders, we must commit ourselves and our organizations to self-improvement, adapting to changing environments and, most importantly, enhancing our human capital – our most critical asset.
I would challenge you that if you look back over the past 12 months and you cannot list at least five actions where you attempted a new approach, attended a class or broadened your insights into your company – are you any different than the short-sighted lumberjack?
Growth is not always measured in revenue dollars, but rather growth in capabilities, growth in talent, growth in the frequency of trying new approaches, products or services. If you do those effectively, the growth in revenue dollars and growth in net income will result.
So, as a leader, whether that be your company, your department or your personal efforts – commit yourself to continue learning by budgeting for it and planning to make it happen. Do it now! Do not procrastinate.
As a leader, challenge yourself to set a higher standard. If you are successful in demonstrating a commitment to continuous improvement, you will find your leadership infectious; and that is a positive attribute.
If you need advice on how to sharpen your company’s saw, call Lisa Purichia at (317) 608-6693 or email [email protected].