Be a Winner by Quitting

I’ve always thought if you start something, you should finish it. When my daughter was young, I wanted her to try several sports to see what she liked. My rule was if you signed up for a sport you had to play a season. No quitting mid-stream. In my mind, the old saying winners never quit and quitters never win was true. This mindset is prevalent in our culture. If you want confirmation on this theory, just Google leadership quotes on not quitting and you’ll see hundreds. Everyone from Confucius to Nelson Mandela has advice on not giving up. I get it and I am still on the keep trying and work harder until your knuckles bleed bandwagon for the most part, but I guess I have questions.

Ask Yourself

Question 1- How do leaders make room for new ideas and projects if we won’t quit on old ideas? Kodak had the technology for digital pictures but refused to act on it because they believed people would always want film developed. Well, we don’t. Kodak has spent much of the last decade trying to maneuver out of bankruptcy. The company would be in a different place today if they had been ‘quitters’ of film and embraced new technology.

Question 2 - How do we get out of the “we’ve always done it that way” mindset?  I think I mentioned in an earlier post that our speaker at our board training in March talked about how in today’s healthcare climate we need to try 10 new things and hope 2-3 of them work. How do you as a leader of a team launch 10 new ideas or projects and not adjust what you are currently doing? Knowing when to change and when to walk away can be the hardest thing of all to do. How do we have the wisdom to know we are making the right decision? We have to stop believing that the only way to succeed is to be the bloodied warrior that held on to the end. Maybe we win by trying something new!  We need to be able to rotate without feeling like we failed.

Things to Think About

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Find a champion that keeps it real. Find that person that can help you talk through decisions.
• Look at the numbers and data without emotion. I am sure there were many hints along the way for Kodak that the industry was changing but their hearts got in the way of their heads and the data.
• Look to your core values and strategic plan when you feel things are getting off target. This should help you make some of those big plans.

I don’t have a magic solution I am just giving you the grace to say, “I quit,” and walk away from an idea or solution that is no longer working. That’s the view from where I sit.