That Went Fast: 4 Fridays to Christmas
DATELINE: My Daughter’s Nativity Play, Brisbane Australia
The recent article on the importance of Founder Mode in SMEs struck a chord with many of you. So much so that I have since spoken at two conferences on the topic, to much acclaim (though people kinda have to clap at those things).
I will share a video with you when it becomes available, and also write up my notes in more detail for those who prefer to read. In those presentations I went deeper into the 3 Priorities for Founder Mode:
- Set the Context
- Manage the Energy
- Coach, Don’t Play
This week I want to focus on a key aspect of Managing the Energy – which is understanding the natural pace of your team, your leaders … and yourself.
If you hire a “slow and steady” genius (I’m talking about myself here) to do a fast paced sales job, they will crash and burn. Similarly if you take naturally fast-paced individuals and force them to follow procedures built by methodical individuals … you will crash the energy of your team.
So take a read (or click to watch the video) and learn more about Manager v Maker time, and how “Fast and Slow” even led to one of my company values.
Blackboard Fridays Episode #92 – Are You a Maker or a Manager? Fast or Slow Paced?
The fastest man in history Usain Bolt ran a hundred meters in 9.54 seconds. When Eliud Kipchoge became the first person to run a sub-2 hour marathon (in non race conditions, but still!) he averaged 17 seconds per 100metres – almost twice the time, but he ran that four hundred and twenty two times in a row!
On a physical level, we can see that some people are faster paced – they’ve got fast twitch fibers, and that’s why Usain Bolt has those incredible legs to get up off the blocks and go go go! But don’t expect him to run more than 200 meters before he crashes with exhaustion. A marathon runner has slow twitch fibres – they can’t run as fast, they don’t have as much impulsive power, but they can go and go and go and go!
Guess what! There’s a business application for that concept.
Sometimes we call that “Fast and Slow”. It’s also been characterized out of Silicon Valley as “Managers versus Makers“, and let’s have a talk about this because knowing whether you are naturally a manager or a maker and knowing the makeup of your team gives you an idea of how to better manage and lead your business.
Fast and Slow are not judgmental terms. Being Fast is not always best, as we’re often told slow and steady wins the race. It’s about achieving the right balance for your business and managing your time and your energy to be at peak performance – whether that’s 9.54 seconds or over 42.2 kilometers.
I will caveat this by saying that most of us sit somewhere in the middle. We’re not in the top 20% of fast paced people like Usain Bolt, and we’re not in the bottom 20% of slow paced people like a Eliud Kipchoge, but we will still have tendencies and preferences.
How do these show up in business
Let’s talk about a fast-paced person.
A fast-paced person when given a to-do list will often jump straight in. They will start a whole lot of different tasks, and go back and forth over the course of the day in order to get them completed. They are represented in the red shade, in the To Do List and Schedule diagram below.
A slow paced person with the same to-do list will often triage, and work out which of those is the number-one priority. They will start and finish that task to completion before they move on to the next one. They will get the same tasks done usually in the same amount of time – being slow doesn’t mean being tardy, it’s just a much more methodical process.
The Slow pace is represented in Green in that diagram.
If you interrupt a slow person, if you try and get them to bounce between tasks, they will be far less efficient. Similarly if you’ve got a fast-paced person and told them that they were only allowed to do this one thing for the next four hours THEY would be less efficient.
When a fast pace or a slow paced person thinks of their time and their day at work, they will view it in different chunks based on their different pace. A fast-paced person will often see their day split up into half-hour or one hour blocks – this is where Paul Graham’s analysis of these as “managers” comes into play because a manager will often go from meeting to meeting, from a one-on-one or sales meeting, and they will do it effortlessly. Indeed, they often prefer to bounce from one to the other to the other, crossing off little bits of tasks along the way.
The slower paced person (like me! I am one of the rare “bottom 20% for slow” people, and I definitely empathise with the maker time) sees their day in half day blocks. Speaking from my experience, I have “a morning” and I have “an afternoon”. Most of my coaching sessions with clients run for half a day – I get half a day of dedicated focus on them and their business. And many of my entrepreneurial clients need to have teams involved with those because they can’t personally sit still and focus for that period of time!
One thing that ruins a slow-paced person’s day more than anything is a short meeting in the afternoon. We will spend the entire day with the back of our mind saying “don’t forget that meeting, don’t forget that meeting”. If you’re nodding along right now thinking “that’s my reality”, then congratulations – you’re a slow-paced person, welcome to the club.
If you are laughing at how ridiculous I sound where one short meeting can ruin a whole day’s productivity, then congratulations – you’re a fast-paced person!
Which is better – Fast or Slow Paced employees?
Like all of these Behavioural Indicators that I’ve talked about and run with teams over the years, there’s no right or wrong and there’s no better or worse.
The key principle is understanding your natural preference and the natural preference of your team.
One more element around the Pace indicator: if you do go online and do a quiz, which I recommend, you will get a breakdown across different areas. You can have a look at your pace at Work and your pace in Leisure time, and compare those to your Natural pace.
If they are all out of whack you are going to be stressed, exhausted, and you are not going to be productive at work or be a happy spouse or parent at home.
Some people get a balance – they’re super fast at work go go go go go all day, and they spend their weekend lounging on the couch watching Netflix. Or vice versa – they’ve got a pretty boring mundane job, but on the weekends they go skydiving!
For most of us it’s about trying to cluster those three – Work, Leisure, and Natural – so that we’re never being pulled too far. We’re never being pushed to be too fast, or to be too slow, forced to be out of tune with our energy.
So what’s your pace? What’s the pace of the team you work with? And across your team, across your business, are you set up to support both Fast AND Slow, both Managers AND Makers?
Or are you constantly shaking the energy of your entire team, and reducing productivity as a result?
With Love,
Jacob Aldridge
International Business Advisor
WhatsApp +61 427 151 181
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