“The Hard Part Is Where You Grow”

Yes, I’m a more than a little obsessed about our propensity to avoid the hard work, constantly hitting the “Easy Button,” but this is probably one of the most critical issues we face as individuals and within our organizations. I’ve written about one aspect of this–hitting the easy button is really about avoidance.

Let me invert my thinking to look at “Why should we be looking at the hard parts?”

The hard part isn’t some exercise in masochism or self flagellation. The hard part is where we learn, it’s where we start thinking differently. It’s where we start asking ourselves, our teammates, our customers different questions. It’s where we start imagining new possibilities, ways to innovate, ways to progress and move forward. It’s where we learn.

The hard part is actually the only thing that drives change!

How will we innovate? How will we come up with new ideas? How will we compete, if we avoid all the tough things. While I hate this as an example, I’m certain no founder decided to start a new company, to bring something new to the market because that was the easiest thing they could do. Likewise, in larger organizations, the higher performers don’t coast, they don’t rest on their laurels, happy with what they have done. They know to grow, outperforming their competition, avoiding becoming irrelevant, they have to constantly change and improve–and it’s difficult to do this with 1000s of employees and 1000s of customers.

But if these start ups or large companies don’t confront those challenges, they don’t grow…… And eventually, they become irrelevant.

We know when we face tough things, we are likely to fail. We will get our teeth kicked in. We may be embarrassed by these failures. We begin to doubt ourselves, questioning what we are doing and whether it’s worth the effort. We are tempted to give up.

But if we do, we guarantee stagnation. And, ultimately, we risk irrelevance–because someone else has had the courage to do the hard parts.

High performers aren’t high performers because they avoid the hard work. High performers recognize it is hard, they recognize they may fail. But what makes them different is they aren’t afraid to do this. They learn from those failure, they try new ideas, they focus on figuring things out—they are driven to grow, and they know the only way they grow is by doing the hard stuff.

How do we start making this shift? How do we start facing the uncomfortable and leveraging it to grow? A few thoughts:

1. Spot your avoidance patterns. Reflect on the last 3 months. Are there patterns of things you consistently avoid? They don’t have to be big things, but things we know we should be doing, but avoid. Choose one, figure out how you confront it and stop avoiding it. Then do it. When you get your teeth kicked in, figure out what you might change. Keep going. After a month, as you start becoming less uncomfortable with that one thing, choose another, go through the same cycle again.
2. Redefine failure. It’s not the opposite of success, rather the starting point in learning how to succeed and grow. Look at areas where you or the team may have failed, don’t focus on the excuses or blame, but look at, “What do we need to do differently?”
3. Build a support infrastructure around you. Not one that commiserates with you, but one that can help you think differently, to help you understand what’s happened and to brainstorm what you might change. Find a group that celebrates the fact that you tried and actively encourages you to keep growing. Managers must play a critical role in this, but seek out colleagues or other friends who can help you and who you can help.

Growth is, sometimes, painful. Irrelevance is worse.

Afterword:  Here is the AI generated discussion of this article.  Enjoy!