Want More Impact? Begin with Your Greatest Source of Power
Why do we immediately check email when we get up? Or dig our heels into an opinion before sincerely trying to understand another’s point of view? Or set our alarm with just enough time to do what needs to be done before our day begins?
Because we rush our swing.
I’ve recently discovered that after I swing a golf club back, I initiate my forward swing with my hands rather than my hips. This lessens my power and makes it much harder to meet the ball with a square club at impact. People have always told me I swing too fast, and I never quite understood why that would be a bad thing. Now I get it: Fast hands make it tough to lead with your hips. Every good golfer, batter, bowler, puck-slapper, rower and tennis player knows this to be fundamental.
I’m not the first to make golf a metaphor for life, but here’s another one: Initiate your source of greatest power before doing the activity at hand.
Instead of rushing the swing, we can get more precise direction and land with impact if we:
1. Engage our mind before our body. When our dog was a puppy, she would begin whining from her crate by 6:00 every morning. It was my job to make sure the whining never started. So for seven months, I woke up every morning and sat at the kitchen table for 20 minutes, without anything to do or read, while the dog went outside.
What did I do during that time? I prayed, reflected, considered, ideated and clarified my thinking—and my discernment and peace about life and work improved significantly. Now I realize: I don’t need a dog to get me to engage my mind before the day begins.
2. Do the most important things first. Our company has ambitious growth objectives that will require us to do the hard work of prospecting. We’ve invested in capacity, and now we need to leverage our capacity by getting more work.
I’m convinced that sales-focused conversations with people in our market are the critical path to getting more work—but this is not the path of least resistance. It’s tempting to do busy work and operational tasks instead because they face less resistance and feel more productive. I need to keep remembering Rick Warren’s quote: “Don’t confuse activity with productivity.”
3. Make sure people know that you care so they will care about what you know. This is common sense but rarely common practice because our egos are so big. We want to be heard, affirmed and validated, and we want to win. But the irony is, when we prioritize listening to sincerely understand over trying to be understood, we have more influence and effect. One of Dale Carnegie’s principles of human relations is to “try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.”
So let’s think before we swing and do the most powerful thing first. What’s your source of greatest power and how do you make sure you initiate it first?
Comments are closed here.