About Momentum
A picture showed up my feed one day and it caught my attention immediately. It showed a pack of wolves travelling. Of all the things that were said of the pack of wolves travelling, the one thing that stood out was the lone Alpha.
The position of the Alpha is at the back of the pack. From his vantage point, he decides the direction, the next steps, the next resting spot. The Alpha and the Alpha alone decides where to head, where to rest, when to keep going. He will, of course, take many things into consideration when he decides, but he alone influences the momentum of his pack.
I thought that is an excellent analogy for business leadership. To me, the single most important job of a leader is to keep the momentum of her organization. They are their business’s Chief Momentum Drivers, if you will. Momentum, I have to clarify now, is different from pace. An organization can have a fast and strong pace – things are moving fast, decisions are made fast and decisively, leadership team reinforces an air of urgency. Yet, this fast and strong pace may not amount to much momentum – which is a measure of the quality of progress made – if it is not aligned to the direction and ambition of the organization. In a sense, the right momentum forces the organization to move with a certain pace, yet just moving with the right pace may not guarantee the results if it is not inspired by the right momentum.
How do we set the right momentum? I would imagine that having the right focus is a first step. Does a business want to be the top in its industry, does it want to conquer a niche, or does it want to break into a new market? This focus gives direction to the momentum. The second element to this will be ambition. Do you want to achieve your goal in 5 years, 3 years, a year? Your ambition as a leader defines how swiftly you need your team to move. And a final element to setting the right momentum is articulation. You have to express what your business focus is, and how eager you are to achieve it (your ambition). Your articulation has to be clear, constant, and unequivocal. No one, or nothing else can do this for you – not your second in command, not a robust process. Because you are the person your team is looking up to drive your business. You provide the context to their pace, the measure for their success.
If there is one thing you have to make sure you do everyday in your roles as leaders, remember your role as Chief Momentum Driver. Relish it, don't ever delegate it or shy away from it. Because this is the one privilege you enjoy as a leader.