Issue #4: The Wednesday-Monday Belief Fade

Appetizer
Middle management means taking responsibility for a strategy you disagree with and having others execute it.

Main Course
I want to talk about the brittle nature of human conviction. Belief. Genuine belief. In your ability, in your purpose, or whatever moves you from within. It is both powerful and vulnerable at the same time. It inspires us, fills our lungs with childlike optimism, only to deflate as we return to our 'regular' work.

Conviction is contagious, but dissipates so quickly.

How can we sustain conviction?

How do we make Wednesday's keynote still matter by next Monday? Or take inspiration from a donor meeting into a performance review?

Apathy and inaction are the enemies of conviction. They eat away at your belief: when you return to your desk and see the same emails, or have promises of promotions and pay raises accompanied by 'be patient'.

'It'll never change' comes from the complete lack of conviction.

On the other hand: action feeds conviction.

Simply taking action, of any size, in the direction of your belief produces the evidence that validates it. Our behavior is always a model, first and foremost, to ourselves.

Wednesday's belief needs to be modeled by Thursday's actions. It's either reinforcing a belief or breaking a belief, and that's why managing people is so difficult.

You're modeling that belief for yourself and your teams, so when that motivation hits, ask yourself: 'What are all the things I need to do to make this happen?'

And then start tackling your list.

Dessert:
The next time you're in a meeting where you didn't set the strategy, control the meeting, not the content. Use these four steps to establish yourself in the room: Ask questions, collect responses, synthesize the insights, then present them back.