Measuring What Counts
1Q2021 went by quickly for me. In many ways I feel like my year is only just beginning which is uncommon for me. Typically I approach January fully loaded to tackle whatever is on my annual agenda. Perhaps I shouldn’t be too surprised by that given much about my current reality is uncharted territory and has been shaped by significant changes. Nonetheless, these are happy times! As CEO of ‘Me Incorporated’, the beginning of a new quarter gets me thinking about how efficiently I’m deploying my personal capital - my talents, strengths, time, creativity, networks, effort, etc - to design my life. In planning the right course for the year ahead, I try to stay mindful that not everything that counts can be measured, and not everything that can be measured counts.
Sitting down in March to write my 2021 goals when I was ready and receptive to the process was really uplifting for me. I’m well into that stage of life where I’m attuned to setting goals and priorities that I’m excited about based on what I genuinely want rather than what I should want. I use this great resource - click here to access the planning booklet - which is worth a try if you find yourself looking at your current 2021 resolutions without much enthusiasm. The year is young, and there is still plenty time to dial up the volume on any new rhythm you wish to dance to!
It’s sometimes a funny experience to have my monthly self-reviews where I have an honest check-in about what’s working (or not) in pursuit of my annual agenda, and what needs to happen to stay on track. There is nowhere to hide in the stand-off between ‘me’ versus ‘me’, and that’s what makes writing down my agenda in detail so powerful. I love all the great apps and voice recording tools out there but my hand-written words always resonate deepest when it’s time for accountability. Taking best practice from the corporate world, I’ve tailored my approach to setting motivational goals and accomplishing them joyfully to include a healthy dose of structure, encouragement, honest reflection, discipline and a splash of serendipity.
If we were to read all the new year resolutions written by everyone on this planet, I expect to find that almost everyone intends to have fulfilling lives that reflect a vibrant display of all their human potential. However, many of us don’t get what we intend. One of the books that has been very influential to me in regularly interrogating which way my life compass is pointing is Clayton Christensen’s “How Will You Measure Your Life?”. Clayton was a highly respected academic and business consultant who had an amazing way of distilling his thoughts into such clear, well-reasoned and relatable points that I’ve read the book a few times. My 3 favourite takeaways from the book always help me to sanity-check what I need to focus on as CEO of my life. As I share them, I'll also mention how I apply them.
Resource Allocation
“Watch where your resources flow. If they’re not supporting the strategy you’ve decided upon, then you’re not implementing that strategy at all.”
“If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find this predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification. If you look at personal lives through that lens, you’ll see the same stunning and sobering pattern: people allocating fewer and fewer resources to the things they would have once said mattered most.”
Bigger than my annual agenda is the ultimate desire to be “the highest, truest expression of myself”. I now believe that the best way for me to be able to fully exploit my personal capital - as far as the working world is concerned - is to have a portfolio career where I concurrently concentrate on being a professional, a philanthropist and an investor. While some are fortunate to express themselves fully through their professional careers, I’m not convinced that this is a realistic expectation for everybody. Creating meaningful channels of full self-expression, which could extend to further education or hobbies, all serve to create unique learnings that overlap to make us better in everything we do. Similarly, employers should want employees who demonstrate meaningful range even if those skills are acquired outside the workplace. Outside interests are complementary, not obstructive, to employee productivity.
Now that it's time to move from conceptualisation to implementation of this portfolio career, I'm adding structure, prioritisation and meaningful stretch targets to guide appropriate resource allocation. In defining what my career means more broadly, it defuses unrealistic expectations on the meaning of work as a major path to self-actualisation. Overall career satisfaction and masterful personal resource allocation go hand in glove.
Marginal Thinking
“Because failure is often at the end of a path of marginal thinking, we end up paying for the full cost of our decisions, not the marginal costs, whether we like it or not.”
Marginal thinking is an extension of the marginal cost theory from economics. It speaks to how a series of decisions that individually seem to have a low marginal cost in the short term can accumulate to impose a heavy toll in the long term. It explains so much human behaviour, for example, why working late this ‘just this once’ opens the door to many more late working nights. I’ve definitely been guilty of that one! As I explored this concept, I could see how it also leads to nefarious behaviour such as fraud or corruption from people I wouldn’t expect to behave that way.
More than in my career, I’m most prone to marginal thinking regarding my health with decisions such as when I sleep (it’s not always Netflix’s fault 😅), how much I exercise and what I eat. While I have been fortunate to avoid any major ramifications, it’s something I remain vigilant about. Great health sets the foundation for all the success I work for, and very much want to enjoy! What’s been said of bankruptcy can easily be applied to how ill health comes to pass - it happens “gradually then suddenly.”
Jobs to be done
“People don’t simply buy products or services; they pull them into their lives to make progress. We call this progress the “job” they are trying to get done, and understanding this opens a world of innovation possibilities.”
When I’m making decisions about a product, person or activity, I try to differentiate its real ‘job to be done’ from the function it is typically known for. Using this type of framing helps to keep my expectations in check, and to understand my own responsibilities in the ‘jobs’ I perform for others. For example, the real job of my dishwashing machine is to help keep my kitchen looking tidy with the least amount of effort possible. When it comes to people, while I am a friend to several folks, each person ‘hires’ me to do a different job in their life. I could display many great qualities that friendship generally entails but if I don’t support them in line with the main job they have ‘hired’ me for then something will feel sorely amiss. In the workplace, career success can often be linked to perceptively and proactively doing the real ‘job to be done’, even if it’s not included in the job description. That could be anything like being the person who is a trusted confidant, is willing to give objective feedback even when it's difficult or covers blindspots without needing to be asked.
Being vocal about - and alert to - the real utility I am expecting to receive and that I am expected to offer continues to make a huge difference to how I go about pursuing my goals and addressing challenges that arise. I’ve learnt that neglecting to do so leads to disappointment filling in the gaps left behind by unmet expectations.
Wrapping Up
In the pursuit of giving my best to what matters most, accountability, discernment and flexibility help to manage the types of issues I have touched on. I’m sure many others can get through life with a less deliberate approach but that’s not me! I have accepted that certain factory settings are here to stay. Clayton Christensen’s book is a handy companion in this quest for useful theories that span professional and personal realms. The three areas I have highlighted regarding resource allocation, marginal thinking and understanding jobs to be done came up today as I assess how the year started versus how it’s going during these unusual times. If you ever get around to reading it, or watching the TED talks about this book, let me know what stood out for you?
