It's The Runway

Do you know the most important part of a plane ride? I can tell you what it's not! It's not the size of the plane. It's not the quality of the crew. It's not even the skill of the pilot though that is MASSIVELY IMPORTANT. It's not what you're going to eat on the plane, if the bar is open on the plane, how cool the Sky Mall magazine is (I LOVE those things). It's not the movies they show on the plane, the cleanliness of the bathroom or even the size of the seat. Give up? I'll tell you:

It's the length of the runway.

You see, very simply put, the runway allows the plane to generate enough speed to get the plane up into the air so it (and you) can get to where you're going. Therefore the opposite is exactly true too: if the plane can't generate enough speed because the runway is too short, you cannot fly. You can taxi but you can't fly and even then, you're run out of real estate. One of the reasons why I started VIP Consulting is because I want to equip others on how to fly by building a runway. Sometimes you may have the absolute best and right decision for your team but, because you haven't done enough ground work, your idea fails. Or sometimes you respond to conflict emotionally and fire everyone without understanding you will eventually hire a new person to make the same old mistakes because you haven't built a standard.

We can be so focused on the objective - getting the degree, having a great praise team, getting your team to move forward, etc - we forget about our job as leaders which is to BUILD THE RUNWAY FOR TAKEOFF.

Have you told your team change is coming?

Have you told them over and over and over and over and over and over again that change is coming?

Have to talked about it, written it down and distributed it to them, emailed them and have meetings about change coming?

Have you shown them the benefits of impending change?

Have you brought in people just like them who hated change at first but then engaged in the same process you are suggesting, only to find out they were better off for doing so?

Check out the Attention to Detail with Eric Byrd Podcast on this subject. www.ericbyrd.com