A few weeks ago I was punching out some work one morning when a manager approached me to ask a quick question. This isn’t just any manager. Of the 1,300+ employees who I have hired and led over the years, this leader is probably the #1 most talented person that I have had the pleasure of working with! She had thought of an idea that she felt would be in the best interest of her area of the business and of the other leaders who she oversees. On this particular morning, she came to me with her idea, asking for permission to put it into action. 

My immediate response was A), “DO IT immediately”! And B), “Monitor this moving forward, and if for some reason it’s not working out how you thought it would then be quick to make any necessary changes”. She acknowledged this, thanked me, and in under 60 seconds the entire interaction was over and the decision had been made. 

As this elite leader walked away, I felt a sense of pride and fulfillment. Why was that? Where were these feelings coming from?

Going FAST

I was a Junior in high school when the comedy Talladega Nights was released. At that time, Ricky Bobby’s line “I wanna go FAST!” would have me and my friends rolling in laughter as we repeated it while driving our own cars or playing video games. While this was all fun and games, this is the same essence that I felt a few weeks ago after the work interaction that I detailed above.

The reality is that far too many leaders and organizations move TOO SLOWLY. Things creep along at a snail’s pace. Everything must be run up and down the chain of command, which takes weeks or months. Even worse, perhaps everything is sent over to the LEGAL department, where ideas are bleached and chiseled down to the safest version possible that no longer resembles the unique, genius original version. 

In stark contrast, some organizations remain AGILE! Like Ricky Bobby, they go FAST. This is not an accident, even as it becomes more and more difficult to maintain with every bit of growth that occurs over time. These groups keep the need to remain agile a priority, and therefore it remains a reality year after year.  

At first glance, the cost of moving slowly might seem insignificant. And over just a day or a week, the difference is almost unrecognizable. But multiply this out over hundreds and then thousands of decisions made over increasingly longer periods of time, and the gap between the slow and the agile becomes a grand chasm! 

Listen to how Jeff Bezos puts it:

You can drive great people away by making the speed of decision making slow. Why would great people stay in an organization where they can’t get things done?

The mantra “Slow and steady wins the race” focuses on consistency. The pace of the turtle who never stops walking defeats the hare who stops for a nap. But in reality, it’s not first and foremost the slow and steady that win…FAST and steady wins the race!

In Closing

Are you an agile leader? Do you make calls decisively so that things can move along swiftly? Or are you a bottleneck in your own organization? Are you creating or removing barriers for those who follow you? Is your organization swift, agile? Or do things tend to get unnecessarily bogged down in the muck and mire of complex processes?