Early this year in this newsletter I wrote about the four common pitfalls we face when trying to get things done:

1. We get stuck in the status quo.
2. We try to do too many things at once.
3. We may not be systematic about our goals.
4. We fail to achieve our goals because we aren’t realistic.

In today’s newsletter I want to give you more context about the first pitfall and provide you with strategies and tools to practice to avoid it.

The status quo is powerful. People feel comfortable in it. People are benefiting from it. People are invested in it. 

It is much easier to keep doing things the way they have always been done than to change. But you have to do things differently if you want to get things done. You have to change the order of things for the better if you want to lead.

So how do you overcome the power of the status quo? 

I was recently asked this question by a coaching client of mine. Like so many of us, she had a boss, and that boss needed her leadership.

Although this may seem like a contradiction at first, it’s actually a very common situation. Remember that leadership is not actually about your title or your boss’s and it’s not about your relative position on the organizational chart. Leadership is about solving problems and changing the order of things for the better and isn’t defined by either title or position.

Her question reminded me of a similar situation in my career. I had just achieved the lowest rung of middle management. I was responsible for a group of sales and services teams that worked with a particular customer. Very soon after I arrived, the customer announced they were putting all of their communications services out for bid. The contract would be worth $25 Billion. It was a very, very big deal and way over my head. I needed help and lots of it.

In these newsletters, I’ve focused on principles that can guide leaders, tools they can use, and behaviors they exhibit. I’ve stressed that a leaders’ purpose is to change the order of things for the better – which means change must be real and sustainable. Having operated in business, government/politics and the not-for-profit world, I know that while the context is different, the challenges, principles and purpose of leadership are always the same.

In the halls of Congress, the debate over massive change has begun as the Biden Administration rolls out its plans to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, address climate change and invest in human capital by addressing education, healthcare and support for working families. I support these goals and polls show a majority of Americans do as well.

Realistically, we’ve been talking about these goals for decades and yet we haven’t made much progress or achieved lasting results. Johnson had the War on Poverty. Bush had No Child Left Behind. Obama had “shovel-ready projects.” There are too many examples of initiatives launched with inspiring words and great fanfare, legislation passed, and lots of money spent. Still, the festering problems remain and the partisan bickering continues.