Great learnings from a legend of my life!
Taken from The Rocking Chair Test - Malcolm McDowell's advice and his testimonial.
The best advice I have ever been given came from a legendary leader in my life, my long-term boss, Malcolm McDowell.
Early in our time working together, Malcolm shared the following advice:
“Do the job you are doing today as if you will be doing it forever.”
His words were so simple and yet so powerful. Adopting this mentality allowed me to make all the right decisions for both the short- and long-term. It helped me avoid cutting corners in hopes of getting quick results. It allowed me to uncover the root cause of the issues I was experiencing. Instead of applying band-aid solutions, this piece of advice aided me in both finding and implementing the best solutions I could.
It reinforced the need to focus on high value actions as they are the ones that make a difference. It focused me on hiring the best people I could afford in every role and to work hard to develop a high performing team. I thought about my own development along with that of the team focusing on behavioural as well as technical skills.
This advice reinforced the need to Decide – Commit – Go as procrastination and hesitation does not help the person doing a job forever. Equally overcommitting and seeing initiatives fizzle out or being done poorly is counterproductive.
Crucially this piece of advice allows you to be guided by purpose, vision, and legacy.
Whenever you need to test your actions, test them against this advice. If you were doing what you are currently doing forever, would you take this course of action or would you lead and drive change?
One day, Malcolm had my business card on his desk. My official title at the time was sales co-ordinator. He picked up the card, looked at it, and then ripped it up, throwing the pieces over his shoulder.
He turned to me and said, “I don’t pay people to co-ordinate things. I pay people to manage things.”
From that day forward, I managed things. There was no time to be a spectator in Malcolm’s world—he expected decisiveness and action.
In the late 1990s, I wanted my company to sponsor the Sheffield Steelers ice-hockey team. At the time, the company didn’t engage in professional sport shirt deals. I passed the case to Malcolm, who told me not to hold out much hope, but he would put it up the line regardless. To my surprise, he came back to me a couple weeks later to say it was approved. I was ecstatic. A great partnership was formed with the Steelers. On a recent visit to Sheffield, over 20 years later, I saw Mike O’Connor, with whom I had done the deal with, and we both beamed with happiness when we talked about some of the things we achieved together through that partnership.
About the same time, Malcolm told me he hadn’t referred the deal to anyone. He had weighed up the opportunity and the potential risks. He felt it was the right thing to do. He didn’t co-ordinate things; he managed things. He made the decision to do it himself.
It was decide – commit – go in action.
Malcolm sent me a card at the start of the next financial year, which summed up this philosophy. It was hand-written, of course, and quoted Helen Keller: “Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
To achieve the life of our dreams and live true to our potential, we need to take risks. To achieve great results and make a big difference to need to back ourselves. We need to have a go. We need to stretch far from our cave. To climb a proverbial mountain, where the view from the top is amazing, we need a strong and powerful mindset. We are exposed to the criticism and ridicule of others, so we need to believe in who we are and what we are doing. It is the risk of winning.
Given the impact he has had on my life and the fact I wrote about him in The Rocking Chair Test, I sent Malcolm a copy of the book. Once he had read it, I received an email containing the above sentences. Every testimonial is treasured, this one means the world. All day I have been bouncing (& I am a really positive, optimistic, energised person). It shows the impact we ALL can have on others!!
👉Action: Do something today to ensure you create such an impact on someone in your world, so they head into the weekend feeling AMAZING. It’s #whatwinnersdo
👉Action: Rocking Chair Test landing page with access to all the action sheets:
https://gift631.mykajabi.com/the-rocking-chair-test