Success and Victory: a small guide for all
We are looking at succesful people, aren't we? In the quest to understand how to manage projects, people and how to be a better manager I am asking always what is the best model to adopt then I have realized that a common mechanism to learn is by imitation.
We work looking for two elements:
- Victories
- Successes
Normally we are pushed to identify one with the others, however we have to deep more in the topic. Let's start with definition
A victory is always a success, is it true also the contrary? Well the answer is "No"
How this is impacting the managerial style?
We have to pursue successes not victory and how can we do it? One of the most effective way is based on two pillars:
- Establishing contracts within all stackeholders
- Leading by examples
This requires however a huge amount of effort. We need to influence others and we need to stay focused on targets.
As famed philosopher and physician Albert Schweitzer once put it,
"Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing."
We need as well to build consensus and within this consensus we have to be successful, buy in is essential.
What should we avoid? We should avoid the firefighitng style because by winning all these battles we can loose the focus on targets and also our team members will be under continous storming.
Conclusion
To be effective we need to work and work hard on our successes not to pursue victories because as history teachs us you can win all battles but you can loose yourself in the meantime.
To be effective is to be successful not to be victorious