Read Time: 3 minutes 17 seconds
I'm both inspired by goals and skeptical of them.
On the one hand, they are born of our imagination. We envision a world that does not yet exist and conspire to make it come true.
On the other hand, they are the product of compromise. We collaborate to find common ground and neutralize the inspiration.
We overestimate how much we can do and how clearly we see the future. And we underestimate our control over the outcome and how resilient our resolve will prove when adversity arrives.
As a result, we're better at missing goals than meeting them.
By contrast, promises are our word. They are a commitment to our best selves. They are contracts that we write with the expectation they'll hold up in the court of our self-worth.
When we talk about integrity, this is what we mean.
And yet most leaders I work with have donated years of their lives to set goals they won't hit, and never once a few minutes to write the promises they won't break.
Let's change that.
Inspiration
I'm not sure if this phenomenon has a name, but I love it when something I did intuitively is done better by someone else. It helps bring a new level of clarity to my thinking.
That's what happened when Matthew Rechs published this thread:
I saw it when it deservedly went viral and had two reflections:
This is a practice I had done loosely and privately, but he tightened it up and made it public. Smart!
These are not the promises that I would make.
That's no shade on Mr. Rechs. Taking a spiky point of view is precisely the point.
As we discussed in both the Magnetic Culture and Professional Competitive Advantage playbooks, if you try to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.
So instead of debating his promises, I wrote my own:
And even though I wasn't hiring, I got dozens of direct messages asking me if I was.
So if this practice can attract an anonymous army on Twitter, imagine how it could energize the troops who've already signed up for your mission.
What unbreakable promises would you make to your team?
Your Promises and Mine
Let's make this practical with a few guidelines:
Keep your promises to 11 or fewer. Part of the power comes from prioritizing.
Write them in tweet length. Constraints breed creativity.
Start with one. It's always the hardest to write.
Trust me. These promises have power.
They hone your thinking in advance of management moments that will test you.
They clarify to your team what you value and how they can rely on you.
They glue together the pieces of your operating system.
And those three ingredients are precisely what make impossible goals possible.
Take NBA Coach Phil Jackson. He put all 3 components together and won 11 Championships with two different teams: 6 with the Chicago Bulls and 5 With the Los Angles Lakers.
Much has been written about the clarity of his philosophy. Yes, he had transcendent talents in Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. But he also elevated their games by surrounding them with legendary teammates. And his system was clear both on the floor (the triangle) and off (where he deftly navigated ownership, media and the locker room).
In his words, "What attracted me to the triangle was the way it empowers the players, offering each one a vital role to play as well as a high level of creativity within a clear, well-defined structure."
Magical leadership is produced through the alchemy of art and science.
Now here's my promise to you:
If you write even one promise and post it on LinkedIn or Twitter, I'll amplify it to my community of 120,000+ leaders.
Make sure to tag me or shoot me a DM so I don't miss it.
Management Accelerated
The second quarter of the year is what separates managers and leaders.
Managers are getting by. The strategy is set. The budget is locked. The plan is underway. But they still have too much to do. They're frantic, reacting to one fire drill after the next.
Leaders are speeding up. Expectations are clear. Goals delegated. Progress underway. They've created space for the strategic. They have command of their area.
Two things separate them:
They've assembled A+ talent. They amplify their impact with proven systems.
I have no doubt that with enough trial and error, you'll figure out how to do the same.
But what if you could pull the future forward in just 12 hours? Would you make that investment in yourself?
On May 2nd, we kick off our 11th cohort of the MGMT Accelerator.
We go deep on 8 foundational leadership pillars
We tailor a component of your management system in each class
We devote 1:1 coaching time to unlock your single biggest challenge
Join us:
Make Your Voice Heard
We want the MGMT Playbook to help you win. So help us help you.
What topic should we cover in next week's MGMT Playbook?
Help Us Grow
Our mission is to impact 1,000,000 leaders positively. If this playbook would help someone on your team make better hiring decisions, please forward it to them.
And if someone forwarded this edition to you, please don't leave without hitting that Subscribe button now.
Thank you for reading. Appreciate you!
Dave
PS - I was recently on the Unleashed Podcast where we covered a lot of leadership ground. Check it out and let me know what you think: Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
