Success hardly ever comes overnight; it comes with preparation and many, many, small steps. It’s the small steps that lead to success.
I was never one for taking small steps; I always did things in jumps and giant leaps, only to have someone tell me as I was barreling along towards meeting my goal that if I had but taken only taken a few teeny weensy steps, and embraced a well thought out plan, I would have gotten better results. “What? Take teeny steps; they take too much time!” And as for a well thought out plan, no worries, I had ‘the bones’ in place, albeit somewhat scattered most the time…
Slowly, and with aging maturity, I’ve come to realize that indeed, it is the small steps that lead to success. The steps we implement along the way that make the difference in whatever we do. All too often, we pooh-pooh these little steps because invariably they take more time than we feel is necessary, and they require more effort than we are often willing to give.
Still human nature being what it is, when I find myself pressed for time, the desire to take a leap instead of a little step, is at times over whelming. My eyes are on the end result: the finish line. Every fibre of my being wants to be there not tomorrow, but today! It’s at that point when I give my head a shake, sometimes more than once, and remind myself of someone I once knew. She had floated into my life quite by accident, and then gently back out again. I knew her to be quiet, conservative and dedicated to the task at hand.
She had only been working for the firm for a short while, but she wasn’t happy. It’s not that she didn’t like her work, she did. She got along well with her co-workers and was seen by her manager as a responsible and a dependable employee. But, it was time for another performance review. She had been disappointed in last year’s performance appraisal, and while others might have been satisfied with the results, she was not. She was well educated, a professional in her field, and she felt that she deserved more compensation than she was getting.
This year would be different. She had it clearly planned in her head. The day arrived. She was called into the manager’s office. She sat down, primed for action, ready to support her case for a substantial salary increase and a possible promotion. As the performance review moved along, it was not moving according to her plan. The words, organized so neatly and clearly in her head, were not coming out of her mouth in the same way. It was as if her mouth and brain had suddenly departed company, and the little confidence she had, evaporated.
She walked back to her desk and expressed her frustration to a co-worker. He turned to her and said softly, “Remember our staff meeting last week? You had all this great information about the project we are working on, and I’m sorry to say this … but most of us had no clear idea of where you were going with it.” He gave a long pause, and then asked, “Did you know that HR is looking to sign up people for a public speaking seminar? Want to join me?”
Join him, she did. Little by little she realized that just giving information in and of itself wasn’t enough. She needed to be able to present her ideas so that people would easily understand them and ‘buy into’ what she had to say. She discovered if she organized her material in a certain way that she came across far more effectively.
The late John Wooden, America’s greatest Basketball coach once said, “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” She discovered what John Wooden already knew, small steps pave the way for big wins. And her small steps in public speaking were just the beginning. Indeed, small steps lead to success.
I heard that she had left her next performance review, very, very happy.