The Sunday Mail
HAPPY Father’s Day to all fathers.
We appreciate you.
Wishing you a blessed day.
Changing Perspectives
Rutendo Gwatidzo
The year is almost halfway through and it will be good to take time to reflect on how far you are towards meeting your annual goals.
If you are not at least halfway through, then you need to begin to increase your pace.
Speed is a word that means different things to different people.
For instance, for some, speed is associated with motion. For others, it is associated with the mindset.
The common denominator, though, is that whichever way you view speed, it denotes moving forward.
Sarah Barrie, an Australian author and international award-winning business coach, said in one of her articles in 2021: “Leaders should increase agility, pace and connection for competitive advantage. The pandemic has pushed us forward and accelerated change beyond our wildest imaginations. If we have learned anything, agility and pace of change are key for success, and the most agile leaders continue to evolve their businesses.”
Embrace your own speed
We all have different speeds and different ways of running, hence what matters is not necessarily keeping pace with others but increasing your own pace.
Some are sprinters, others do marathons and yet others are good at walking and jogging. Once you find your own speed, use it to your advantage in order to achieve your goals in the most effective and efficient way.
As you increase your speed, be sure to combine it with other factors like flexibility, persistence, focus, resilience and tenacity.
Avoid unnecessary competition
There is a difference between increasing your pace in order to meet your deadlines and increasing your pace for the sake of competition.
Competition is a part of life but, take note, it can be good or bad depending on how it is done. Sadly, a significant number of us are found in the bracket of unhealthy competition, which can lead people astray or end up slowing progress.
It is often easy to get caught up in comparing yourself with others and then lose focus in the process.
Your worry should mainly be that of competing against yourself before you compete with others.
Always strive to be better than you were before.
Be your own competition before you compete with others.
Organisational status
The challenge in many organisations is that of having teams that compete without an agenda. In the course of my human resource work, I have come across teams from different departments who compete for similar resources yet their departmental needs are different.
For example, you may see field workers competing for laptops just because the software developers have made a request for the gadgets.
Another scenario is that of seeing the software developers making noise and competing for T-shirts just because the sales team has asked for the clothing items.
Inasmuch as it may be a good thing for everyone to have certain resources when the company can afford, it may not be necessarily everyone who will be in need of a particular resource.
Another scenario of unhealthy competition that I often witness is probably that of subordinates competing with managers.
These are two different groups at varying stages of work life.
Every organisation should have a grading system that is clearly communicated in order to guide employees accordingly.
Such knowledge will also help in eradicating unreasonable and unhealthy competition. When everything else is equal, companies usually offer a bonus to their teams towards the end of the year.
Other organisations hold performance awards and recognition ceremonies.
It is important to meet targets and deadlines for each month and for each quarter.
To those with mid-year targets, increase your pace because we are less than two weeks to half-year.
General facts
In 2020, when the pandemic hit, within weeks, we all changed things that, for many years, seemed impossible.
Problems were solved with rapid adaptation, incredible creativity and huge resilience. We are in a season or rather era of volatility where creativity, reinvention and agility are key factors for success.
Be challenged, be encouraged and be inspired to increase your pace in what you do so that you do not get left behind.
Rutendo Gwatidzo is managing consultant at The HUB HR Consultancy. She is a multi-award-winning consultant, speaker and mentor. She is also author of two books: “Born to Fight” and “Breaking the Silence”. Contacts: +263714575805/ [email protected]/ Facebook: Rutendo Gwatidzo_Official.
