Have you ever wondered why projects take so long to complete?
This thought has been on my mind for a few weeks now because I’m working on a manifesto for How to Unlock Your Superpowers. When I first started it, I thought it would take a few weeks. Now that I look back on my naiveté, I have to laugh.
I’ve been at the ebook and project creation game long enough to know better, but I guess I still have to fool myself. Because if I knew up front how long it would actually take to create the concept, write it, edit it, lay it out, design it, launch it, and follow up with people who like it, I would never even start it.
You have probably had projects that seemed to take forever, or even worse, ones that were never finished.
This got me thinking about what it takes to work on a project from start to finish. Why are some people so good at finishing, while others don’t follow all the way through?
What I realized is that the only way this manifesto is even close to finishing is due to my finding people who have superpowers that I don’t have. I’m not a good editor, so I sought one out. I’m not a good designer, so I sought one out for that part of the project too.
A Superhero Team
I realized that I'm not a superhero taking this book from start to finish all on my own. I’ve been putting my team of superheroes together so that the end product benefits from the combination of our superpowers.
I've written about this before, but never really showed people step-by-step how they can create their own superhero team. So, that’s what I’m going to do with my next post.
I’m going to walk you step-by-step through how to find the right people to create your own team, how to grow your network, and how to boost your career to the next level.
Before I do that, I would like to ask you to think about the following question:
What have you struggled with as you try to build a strong superhero team (network) around you?
And if you're willing to share, please do and I will do my best to address it in future postings. More to come soon, so stay tuned!
Karl
Getting colleagues to follow through to produce the intended outcome of the work. We meet, they are excited and engaged and then they leave and don't complete the work.
I have tried follow-ups to motivate but not getting very far. Suggestions?
Hi Liz! A lot of my coaching clients ask me this question. They truly do want to make their people happier and help them be more productive, but fear is a strong emotion. We are taught to avoid pain, which can mean not taking risks. The key is ownership. This is what separates A players vs B players. They own the project. If the goal is missed they feel pain. This pain is greater than failure. They so badly want to follow through and will do everything that they can to make the project succeed.
You have to figure out how you can get them to take ownership of the projects that they work on. If you would like to talk about this concept just email me and we'll set up a time to chat.