Future Work/Life is a regular newsletter in which I share ideas, bring you interesting stories and articles, analyse industry trends and offer tips on designing a better work/life. If you enjoy reading it, please share it!
Do you ever find yourself compromising on your values? If so, how would things change if you considered them as non-negotiable standards from which you'll never deviate?
As I discussed with Damian Hughes on the podcast this week, framing your values as non-negotiables removes ambiguity from your decision-making process. By stipulating the standards you'll stick to without fail, you're making your priorities clear to yourself, your family and friends, and the people you work with.
In some extreme cases, like Stephen Hendry, one of snooker's most decorated players, his non-negotiable objective to be the most dominant individual in the sport's history meant sacrificing everything else, including his family. He was unrelenting in his pursuit of what he perceived as greatness, acknowledging that he couldn't and wouldn't change who he was.
While I wouldn’t make the same choices as Stephen Hendry, I can understand how such a singular and relentless focus on winning contributed to his achievements. Commitment to anything in life requires making a choice, not just to pursue that goal, but to not do some of the millions of things that could take up the finite time we have available to us.
Discussing this idea can be valuable in itself, as it helps you find alignment with those around you, even when the non-negotiables are more benign than those of Stephen Hendry. For instance, our mutual desire for kindness and fun in our lives lead to a shared understanding and sense of connection between myself and Damian.
Likewise, suppose you have a passion for caring for animals, exploring the possibilities of science, or pushing the limits of physical performance. In each case, by expressing their significance, you’ll easily find a tribe of others that can relate, the backing of which can both inspire and motivate you during those inevitable periods in work and life when progress seems to stall.
Kanters Law, a theory based on Rosabeth Moss Kanter's work, describes how in the middle of any period of change – whether a work project, a career transition or becoming a parent - you'll experience a sense that everything is failing. It's precisely at this point that non-negotiables and a crystal clear focus on the outcomes we're aiming for can help push us through.
[Anuradha Gajanaraka]
Take the idea of a 'north star' – an overarching goal that you continually use to orientate yourself in the right direction. During what Brene Brown calls the 'messy middle' - when you're ready to pack it in and give up - a reminder and reassessment of your original purpose gives you fresh impetus. In this scenario, ask yourself these questions:
Are you still inspired by your vision for the future, and are those around you still willing to support you in achieving it?
Can you identify progress you've already made, including tangible milestones and indicators that you're on the right track to succeed?
Is there anything else you're doing that can help reignite your energy and reinvigorate your motivation?
During our conversation, Damian reminded me of a quote from Stephen Covey's classic, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which emphasises another reason for regularly reflecting on your vision for the future. As Covey puts it, 'beginning with the end in mind' requires you:
"(knowing) where you're going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction. It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall."
In other words, during those inevitably tricky times we all experience in life, it helps to reaffirm that our destination is worth the struggle and the many small steps to get there. You certainly don’t want to look back and wonder “what was the point of it all?”
You can approach this in three distinct phases – the outcome (your north star), measurable performance targets that will indicate you're on the right track, and the everyday process to achieve these goals.
Consider Dina Asher-Smith, for example, currently Britain's fastest female athlete. Her mission in life is based entirely on the person she wants to be and the difference she wants to make - specifically, being a role model for young girls and proving that anyone can break the glass ceiling and achieve greatness.
Since reaching this milestone is challenging to quantify, her performance targets are specific and tangible – winning world and Olympic medals. To fulfil this ambition requires dedication and hard work, which, in her case, equates to five tracks sessions and three visits to the physio every week while constantly maintaining a disciplined approach to nutrition and diet.
Critically, she also schedules time to take a step back, recover, and reflect on her progress, which is a vital element of her trusting the process.
There's an expression I've heard Damian use on The High Performance Podcast - his chart-topping show with Jake Humphrey - that neatly sums up the philosophy you need to balance long-term vision with short-term endeavour.
"Be clear about where you're going but flexible about how you get there."
If you want to learn more about these ideas, you can listen to our conversation here. Also, make sure you check out previous episodes of the podcasts to hear conversations about high performance in sport and business with guests including Cath Bishop, Shaun Tomson, Alex Hutchinson, Bob Glazer, and Marc Effron.
You can read more stories about some of the fantastic guests that have appeared on The High Performance Podcast in Damian and Jake's book, which came out this week. - these include the likes of Dame Kelly Holmes, Jo Malone, Sir Chris Hoy, Matthew McConaughey, Chris Voss, and Tim Peake.
Have a great weekend.
Ollie
Any Other Business:
It’s the time of year when we review the previous twelve months and make predictions about the future. As Benedict Evans pointed out in this 2017 article, though, even with the best intentions and insights “we don't so much get our predictions wrong as make predictions about the wrong things.” This is a good lens through which to view his annual presentation of tech trends - he won’t cover everything of significance over the year ahead, but he tends to be right about most of the stuff he does include.
I’m currently part of the first cohort on Dror Poleg’s excellent Hype-Free Crypto course. Apart from the great content, I’ve met a wonderfully engaged community of people and can recommend it to anyone interested in how the underlying technology of web3 will unlock opportunities in new and existing businesses. In Dror’s latest article, he writes how in 2021, “the internet figured out how to generate its own goods, enforce its own rules, and take what it needs from the outside world.”
Hybrid and remote working continues to present many new challenges, including as The Economist writes, “policing when people work.’ However, one of the most significant issues over the coming years will be how leaders assess skills and manage ongoing learning and development. In this article from People Management, the author explores this challenge against the backdrop of a recent report by the Learning and Work Institute that found, 70 per cent of new employees expect their company to offer digital skills training on the job, but only half of employers have the capabilities to do so.”
As more and more data comes in about ‘The Great Resignation’, one question is whether the numbers are significant enough to even warrant attention. Assuming there is something going on, though, Derek Thompson writes in The Atlantic, that it “isn’t really about burnout. And it’s not really about what most people think of as resignations. To put it as concisely as possible: The Great Resignation is mostly a dynamic “free agency” period for low-income workers switching jobs to make more money, plus a moderate surge of early retirements in a pandemic.”
And finally, feedback is important, right? Well, yes, but only if you do it right. How do you do it? Read the full article in Harvard Business Review for details, but I’ll summarise for you:
Shift from critical to ally - empathise, express confidence, ask permission.
Identify an energising outcome - aim for something bigger than a short-term problem and remember to make it measurable!
Discover a hidden opportunity - use people untapped skills to approach the problem from another angle.
Create a level 10 plan - “On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that you will execute this plan?”