Here’s a lesson about “power moves” that changed everything for me.
It was approx 1999. I was up for a promotion, and what I really needed was to be seen as a reliable project manager at the consulting firm I was at.
I was nominated as project manager in three exciting, important proposals. There were various delays in the sales process – and then all three got signed the same week!
I jumped at the chance to manage all three, as they were all prestigious and interesting. True, I needed about 9 days per week to do them justice, but I figured I could work hard and work smart for a few weeks and end up with three great projects on my CV.
Bad move! I ended up doing an “OK” job on all of them, but not an extraordinary job on any of them.
My promotion was pushed back 6 months as a result.
A few years later, at Cisco, I took the other tactic. Spend several days on the back of a project creating some thought leadership that nobody was asking for.
I refined it, crafted it, nailed it.
It went viral, got me in front of Fortune 100 customers, and put me on the Cisco map.
The lesson:
- Resist your temptation to solve all the problems or jump on all the opportunities.
- Make fewer moves but nail them.
What are YOUR Power Moves for the next 6 months?
