"Speed only helps if you're going the right way; otherwise, you get lost further, faster."
“I feel the need. The need for speed. “
These are the words of John, one of my best friends growing up, right before he laughed himself down a hill on a sled.
Into the river.
Moments before he pulled himself out of the river, we stood side by side on top of one of the steepest hills I’d ever seen. It wasn’t the tallest. It wasn’t the “scariest”. But it still qualifies as one of the steepest hills I’ve ever stared down.
We briefly discussed how fast you would go down that hill. We figured it would be MUCH faster than the other hills we would typically sled at. We reasoned it would be so fast, in fact, that it explained why NOBODY else was there sledding. As far as we could tell, no one had gone down the hill at all. They must not be brave enough to handle the speed.
We hadn’t discussed the fact that the “flat part” at the bottom of the hill was only 10-15 ft from the river. We also did not discuss whether that would be enough space to slow down and stop before falling into the water.
It wasn’t.
While I stood at the edge of the hill staring down, John had backed up. Before I knew what was happening, he ran past me, jumped in the air, and yelled the now-infamous words, “I feel the need, the need for speed!”
His leap landed him about a quarter of the way down the hill and he immediately realized he had made a mistake. He stuck his hands and legs out, trying to dig them into the snow to stop.
It didn’t work.
He got wet. And cold.
What does any of this have to do with leadership?
I think sometimes in an effort to not get stuck in the “paralysis of analysis,” we go too far in the other direction. We take off and move fast without ever stopping to think if the way we are going is the right way!
Speed is good. Momentum is one of the greatest tools leaders have if we can create it for the teams or organizations we lead. But…
Remember, speed only helps if you’re going the right way; otherwise, you get lost further, faster.
Imagine you are driving home from a weekend away and you just want to get home. We’ve all been there. You’ve enjoyed the time away and now the drive home is what stands between you and settling back in at home. You just want to get home. The fun has already been had. There’s nothing to look forward to. The excitement is gone.
You just want to be home.
Imagine that, in your desire to be home, you drive a little faster than the posted speed limit (ok…maybe a lot), but what if you weren’t paying attention to where you were going and turned left when you should have turned right?
Will your speed help you get home or take you farther away faster?
The same is true of the people and teams we lead. If the direction we are leading isn’t aligned with our mission and vision, we may be going fast but it’s the wrong direction.
You can probably think of a company or a brand that was very successful but made a wrong step or two and ran full speed ahead in the wrong direction. (Does “New Coke” ring a bell? Google it if you’re under 40.)
If we recognize the wrong turn soon enough, we can course correct, but it will cost us time, money, people, and the trust of the people we are leading. If you don’t catch it quickly enough, it could be catastrophic.
I don’t say this to scare you into indecision. Actually, it’s the opposite. I want you to lead 100 mph in the RIGHT direction!
As we close out the year and think about where we are going in 2025, it’s a great time to lay out the road map for our organization, team, family, etc. and make sure we are heading in the right direction to get us where we want to be.
Maybe you’ve gotten a little off track in this last quarter. Maybe the route has changed a little bit and you haven’t communicated that to those you lead. Take the last few weeks of 2024 to get the team pointed in the right direction so you can stomp on the gas pedal with confidence in the direction you’re heading and the confidence of the people you lead.
I hope you feel the need for speed…just look and see if there is a river at the bottom of the hill before you jump!
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