Team, I heard something yesterday that I have not been able to stop thinking about and absolutely LOVED.

Good things are worth doing badly.

Why do I think this is important for this group of leaders?

There is a person on a team somewhere in this company who has been meaning to have a hard conversation with a direct report for 6 weeks. They have replayed it in their head 18330x and maybe even have a draft written in their phone notes, but every time they sit down to do it, something feels off about the timing, or the framing, or their own confidence and how the conversation will go - so they wait.

While they wait, the problem compounds, the team member gets no feedback, and the leader carries that low grade anxiety from knowing you could be doing better and are not upholding your values.

There is another person who was asked to present something to a group they never have before. They have been working on the deck for two weeks, and yet it only has 4 slides - they keep reworking slide four because they are not sure it’s PERFECT.

The presentation is in four days and they have not rehearsed it once, because rehearsing it would showcase their inadequacies and they don't want to 'feel bad'.

There is third person sitting on an idea that could genuinely REALLY improve how their department functions. They have not brought it up because they want to think it through more first and make sure it's not a dumb idea.

They have been thinking it through for four months.

I have been all 3 of those people at some point in my life and I’m sure you have too.

Where this actually comes from

For almost four years, I did not make content. Not a video, not a post, not a podcast episode with my name on it. Alex was building his audience during that time and I watched what that did for the business, for his ability to reach people and all the opportunities it brought for us. I knew I could do it too, but I continued to avoid it.

I told myself I was not ready. I did not have the right setup. I needed to figure out my angle first, my positioning, I redid my podcast cover art and YT banner 100x with our designer. Every time I got close to starting, I found a reason why the moment was not quite right and didn't make sense.

What I was actually doing was protecting myself from a bad first video. I had watched enough good content that I had a very clear picture of the gap between where I was and where I wanted to be, and I was not WILLING to feel bad at it.

When I finally did, the first videos I made, sucked!

The framing was off, I was awkward on camera, I had not yet figured out how to say simply what I was trying to say. I knew it while I was making them and I posted them anyway.

The next ones were better. Not because I had finally figured it out in theory, but because I had done it badly enough times to know specifically what to fix.

The four years I spent waiting DID NOT MAKE THE FIRST VIDEO BETTER. They just DELAYED by four years the point at which I started getting good.

You are never ready until the second time you do something.

What this costs your team

When someone on your team hesitates to try something for the first time, they are usually not hesitating because they do not CARE. They are hesitating because they care too much about how it will go, and they have confused caring about the outcome with needing to guarantee it before they begin.

!!!!Your job as a leader is not to protect them from a bad first attempt. Your job is to make it OKAY and NORMAL to have one!!!!

The leader who says "take your time, make sure you are ready" is NOT being kind. They are teaching their team that the standard for beginning is the same as the standard for finishing, which means most things worth doing will never get started….

The most useful thing you can do for someone on your team right now is to point out a thing they have been hesitating on, tell them to do it this week regardless of how ready they feel, and then debrief with them afterward on what they actually learned.

Not what they did wrong but what they LEARNED.

What I want from you

Think about the last time you watched someone on your team delay something because they did not feel ready. Think about the last time you did it yourself too😛

Pick that one thing - a conversation, a presentation, a project, a new way of doing something.

Do it this week BEFORE you feel ready, remembering that GOOD THINGS ARE WORTH DOING BADLY!

The first time is supposed to be bad. That is how life works. 

- Leila

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