This Week’s Focus: Last Friday my wife and I went to see Bruce Springsteen in concert. Together with The E Street Band, Bruce played over 30 songs in a fantastic show that lasted over three hours. He is a force of nature; a phenomenon. He played nearly all the greatest hits, a great selection of less well-known songs and some recent tracks. I loved it and, at one point, even had a little tear in my eye!
There were 40,000 people in the stadium, all of them having a great time. Well, all but one. Sitting next to me was a woman who had come with her husband (I presume). They arrived late, but while he immediately started to dance and join in with the songs she simply sat down, sulked and simply checked her Facebook account for the rest of the evening. She didn’t look up once. Born To Run? Nothing. Born In The USA? Nothing. Bruce pulling a 10-year old boy from the crowd to sing one of the songs? Rien, nada, niente, nichts!
The fact is that whatever you do – and no matter how good your work – not everyone will be happy or supportive. I’ve seen too many leaders of teams and change projects bending over backwards to try and find ways to get everyone on-side and accommodate their issues. But the truth is that it can’t be done and you shouldn’t bother. As long as you have enough support for your ideas and plans, simply go round these opponents and spend your energy elsewhere. And usually, as it was with The Boss last Friday, it’s their loss.
Where are you spending too much time and effort trying to win over opponents to your ideas and plans when you should be putting that energy into making them succeed?
Off The Record: Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen
Oh, someday girl, I don’t know when
We’re gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go
And we’ll walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us
Baby we were born to run
© Stuart Cross 2016. All rights reserved.