It never ceases to amaze me! Ordinary and average performances have become so common. People have become comfortable with so-so efforts and less than extraordinary feats. It is as if the bar for excellence has seemingly been lowered.
Complacency is nothing out of the ordinary. Most are not ready to turn over rocks to make next steps happen. Why? Probably because figuring out which rocks to turn over takes too much work. Then figuring out how to turn over rocks is another effort entirely! Who wants to do that much heavy lifting in this instant-everything era?
Then there are those who are not willing to hug or shake trees. That is not to say that everyone can and will be a “tree-hugger” on any given day. But, many people are not willing to do what necessary to shake the fruit from a tree. They do have the patience to determine the necessary steps to get an end result from a small investment of energy shaking a tree to result in a big gain.
Also, most people do not want to “go the extra mile” when they could just take the shortcut. Why put in extra time and energy when they could just take fewer paces? Some may wonder why go the distance when they could just get the “checkmark” for participation rather than the gold medal for outstanding achievement?
And this is why leaders must continue to sound the horn for the lethargic, alert the unmotivated, and challenge the masses. With a few good leaders managing to inspire the rest then hopefully there will be some restored hope for this average society.
Dawn McCoy, author of Leadership Building Blocks: An Insider’s Guide to Success
Tags: Dawn McCoy, Leadership Building Blocks: An Insider’s Guide to Success
