However, new research reported in Harvard Business Review, suggests that “slow and steady” may be best.  Leadership is more like a Marathon, than a Sprint.

Why is this?  Because it takes time to build the trust and support of key stakeholders.  And only with this support, can your leadership truly succeed.

Here are suggestions from the HBR article on how you can build a virtuous cycle of success as a new leader.

*Align Your Team.  Rather than launching a new eye-catching initiative early on, assemble a team that is committed to one another and a common vision for the future.  Take time to build relationships and trust with the team.

*Engage Stakeholders.  Identify the stakeholders whose support will be key to the success of your mission and vision.  Ask for their input and ideas.  Stay in frequent contact with them.

*Build Momentum Deliberately.  Once you have built support and trust with your team and stakeholders, pick some small wins you can initiate to build momentum.  Schedule these out and add larger projects as success builds.

*Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.  Continually remind your team, the stakeholders, and everyone in the entire organization of the mission, vision, and path forward.  It is sometimes remarkable how quickly people forget.

*Continuous Learning.  Don’t ignore your own learning.  Your development is a key part of continuous improvement for the entire organization, and you set the pace for this.  Serve as a role model by attending educational programs and/or using an executive coach for your improvement.

Many leaders want to “announce their presence with authority” in the first few days on the job.  While you may be able to push through some new ideas during your honeymoon with the force of your personality, long term success takes a more methodical path.  Follow this path for sustained Mission Impact.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Hildebrand, C. A., Baumgarten, J, and Madhavan, M.  “How CEOs Build Confidence in Their Leadership,” Harvard Business Review, July – August 2024, pp. 52-56.

This past weekend was my final time presiding over our University of Maryland Executive MBA Commencement, before moving on to my next career adventure.

It was a great day!  The faculty and student speakers that the cohort selected reminisced, encouraged, and challenged the group as they enter the next phases of their careers.

For my part, I simply reminded them of the first thing I said to them at their Orientation seventeen months ago:

At the Robert H. Smith of Business, we believe that business – done right and done well, is a noble venture with the possibility of transforming the world.  Done right, business is conducted by ethical, trustworthy people who provide products and services of value to others.  Done well, business creates quality jobs and wealth for a wide spectrum of people.  In a complex global environment, this is all easier said than done.  It takes knowledgeable and inspired leaders of integrity to make it all happen.  It takes YOU – and we are counting on you to lead our world forward.

We want these graduates to Commence with that charge and opportunity.  Let’s go!

If you think about it, every day brings a new opportunity for each of us to reflect on our life purpose and mission.

Let’s Commence with every new day we wake up to.  Let’s focus on our mission and the opportunities a new day will bring for us to make a difference in the world.  Let’s Go!

Setting SMART Goals can support you in performing at the highest levels in every part of your life.  Check out my free series of brief videos on the three different types of SMART Goals.

Regardless of the type of SMART Goals you set, it is easy to fall into the trap of defining how you feel about yourself by the outcomes of your work on the goals.  We can become “attached” to the importance of success, and let our worries about success or failure stress us out.  That is not fun or healthy.

Instead, consider paying more attention to your commitments, to your vision for the future, and to the journey you are on.  For example, if you have a noble mission to make a difference and have big goals that will take you there – then take pride in the pursuit of them.

Of course, we all absolutely want the results and outcomes.  But at the end of the day – once you have given full effort – you can be proud that you cared enough to go for it.  You can recommit yourself to new goals the next day; now wiser for the experience.

Paying more attention to the long term – to your mission and vision – gives you more freedom to pursue your goals without stress.

You can focus on the difference you are making and how you are contributing to building a better world.

You can have joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction with the pursuit of your noble adventure – and give it your all!

The issue she is getting at is that so many people see a problem in the world and then come up with a solution to that problem that they fall in love with.  Many people come to me with a solution to a problem they have observed and they want to start a new nonprofit that is built around this solution.

However, they are so IN LOVE with their SOLUTION that they have not even tested it to see if it WORKS!  This happens with products in the business world and programs in the nonprofit world.

And they often put on blinders that preclude them from “seeing” evidence that maybe this is not such a great solution.

Once we set our Mission, the next thing we want to do is to establish our Theory of Change – how we want to address the mission issue.  This is where we articulate our solution to the problem that our mission is focused on.  It is a theory that needs to be tested.

If we focus on the problem and on collecting data on how well our proposed theory/solution does that, then we are on track to make a real difference.  We should never be satisfied with the results of our tests until we are solving the problem 100%.  That will give us mindset of continuous improvement.

Are you in love with a solution – a program or product?  Change your focus to the problem.  Fall in love with the idea of solving that problem instead.  Then you can start making continuous progress toward fully solving it.

Mission

This is a formula used by David La Piana in his book, Nonprofit Strategy Revolution.

Even though the book is about strategy for nonprofits, the concepts apply to the business world as well.

Mission is about your purpose and the impact you want to make with your organization’s services/products/programs.  That is the same in all sectors.

Similarly, all organizations need to understand their Competitive Advantage – from a variety of perspectives.  Conducting a Competitor Analysis – and updating it regularly – is a good way to evaluate your Competitive Advantage, and then sharpen it.

Typically, organizations will only look at other “competitors” who provide the same services/products/programs as they do.  This is a good and important start.  You can learn a lot from studying competitors.  Perhaps you adopt some of their practices that you like or learn better how to differentiate yourselves.

But there are other aspects of “competition” to look at.  How about your employees – and that includes volunteers if you are a nonprofit?  How does your compensation (including benefits) compare to other possible employers?  What about your culture and expectations – including telework options?  If you are not competitive then you may lose people and fail at attracting the best talent.

For nonprofits, you also want to look at who is funding your competitors and other nonprofits, and when you consider individual donors – that can be a long list.  A lot of people in the DC area enjoy going to The Kennedy Center.  But nonprofit fundraisers have double the fun.  They enjoy the show and they enjoy collecting the list of donor names in the program.

Creating your Organization Identity by sharpening your Mission and specifying your Competitive Advantage can be an excellent way to focus your strategy and then communicate it succinctly to your stakeholders.

It’s a good idea to have a quick summary of your mission or new business idea ready to go at a moment’s notice.  But I am going to suggest that you have a longer version ready as well.

In reality, you often get to talk about the mission of your organization with others in various venues – such as a coffee break during a conference or the cocktail reception at a special event – for longer than it takes to go to ten floors on an elevator.  I suggest that you have a few soundbites ready to go for those situations.  I call these “Mission Conversation” soundbites.  They are not a recitation of your mission or vision statements.  They need to happen naturally in a conversation in your own words.

As you think about your “Mission Conversation,” keep the AIM of your organization in mind (for whom you intend to make a difference) and the IMPACT (the difference you intend to make).  For businesses, focus on the Noble Purpose of your company as per this blog.

Here is an example of a what a “Mission Conversation” looked like for me when I worked at LeaderShape.

The setting: a reception prior to a community event.

“It’s nice to meet you Rob, where do you work?”

“I work at LeaderShape.  We are a nonprofit that puts on ethics-based leadership programs for college students across the country.

“Wow. That sounds cool.”

“It is. In fact, I first got involved as a volunteer and was so inspired by the difference it makes in young people’s lives that I jumped at the chance to work there.”

“So, what exactly do you do?”

“Our main program is an intensive, six-day residential program. We run it at various campuses across the country for their students – and we have national sessions that any student can attend. We teach them to have a healthy disregard for the impossible while building a more just, equitable, thriving society.”

I’ll stop there as I think this gives you the idea.  Where do these conversations go next?  You have to go with the flow.  Maybe you have just met a potential new volunteer or donor or customer?  Maybe even a potential new Board member.

Those of us who are staff or volunteers or Board members for organizations are vital Ambassadors who need to tell our story whenever given the opportunity.  You never know where this can go!

Here is an activity for your next staff or Board meeting.  Have people practice the same scenario above – meeting someone new at a community event.  We all need to be ready to articulate our Mission Impact!