Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences:
You can be making meaningful progress without having anything impressive to show for it. The challenge is recognizing when the need to demonstrate success begins influencing the decisions we make about achieving it.
You can make progress without announcing it. You can experience success without displaying it. And you can know you’re moving forward without needing anyone else to confirm it. Yet, for many of us, knowing that we’re making progress isn’t always enough. We want something to show for it. Something tangible. Something that communicates to others that our efforts are paying off, that we’ve accomplished something, that we’re doing well.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting our achievements to be recognized.
Recognition can be encouraging, and sharing our successes can create opportunities, inspire others and acknowledge the people who contributed along the way.
But there’s a difference between celebrating an achievement and needing that achievement to prove something about ourselves, and that difference can influence far more of our decisions than we realize.
Think about the things we sometimes associate with success.
The house we own. The car we drive. The position we hold. The business we’ve established. The clients we’ve attracted. The places we’ve travelled. Each can represent a genuine accomplishment, the result of years of effort, sacrifice and determination, but each can also become a form of evidence we feel compelled to present to the world.
Evidence that we’re capable…that we’re successful…that we’ve arrived…that we’re not where we used to be. Often, the need to produce that evidence can become entangled with the decisions we make.
- We might purchase something before we’re financially ready because it communicates a level of success we want others to recognize.
- We might announce a new venture before we’ve properly established its viability.
- We might continue investing in something that no longer serves us because walking away would mean explaining why it didn’t work.
- We might even find ourselves pursuing goals that have more to do with how we want to be perceived than with what we genuinely want to achieve.
These decisions may not necessarily feel like attempts to prove anything. We can rationalize them as ambition, investment, confidence or the natural rewards of hard work. And sometimes they are.
Seeing the difference isn’t always apparent, particularly when the same decision can satisfy a genuine need while also serving our desire for recognition.
Understanding our underlying motivations is helpful
Being able to discern between the progress that improves our circumstances and progress that improves how our circumstances appear is important.
- A business can look successful while struggling to generate sufficient revenue.
- Someone can appear financially comfortable while carrying obligations that leave very little room to manoeuvre.
- A leader can accumulate titles and recognition without necessarily becoming more effective.
Equally, someone can be making significant progress without producing anything particularly impressive for others to see.
They might be reducing debt, strengthening their capabilities, developing relationships, reconsidering an unworkable business model or learning to make decisions differently. They might be doing the difficult work of changing a pattern that has influenced their choices for years.
None of these necessarily produces an announcement, a photograph, a certificate or a public acknowledgement, and the absence of visible evidence doesn’t diminish their significance. In fact, some of the most consequential progress we make involves changes that others may never recognize.
- A decision we no longer make.
- An obligation we no longer accept.
- A purchase we no longer need to justify.
- An opportunity we decline because it doesn’t align with where we’re going.
These changes may not look particularly impressive, but they can fundamentally alter the direction of our lives and businesses.
What about the pressure we place on ourselves to demonstrate that we’re moving forward?
When progress becomes something we feel obliged to display, we can lose the freedom to move at the pace our circumstances require.
We may become reluctant to acknowledge setbacks, reconsider decisions or change direction because doing so could contradict the image we’ve already presented. This can prove to be quite costly.
Not just financially, but in the opportunities we overlook, the adjustments we postpone and the energy we expend maintaining appearances.
Does this mean that we should stop sharing our achievements or become indifferent to recognition? Absolutely not! However it does mean becoming more discerning about what we’re measuring and why.
- Are we making this decision because it strengthens what we’re building, or because it gives us something to show?
- Would we still consider this an accomplishment if nobody knew about it?
- Would we make the same choice if there were no audience?
These aren’t always comfortable questions, particularly when we’ve spent years associating achievement with external evidence of success, but they can help us distinguish between the progress we’re making and the identity we’re trying to establish through it.
We don’t have to make our progress invisible. We simply need to ensure that being seen isn’t what gives it value.
The greater achievement, perhaps, is reaching a point where we can recognize our own progress without requiring it to prove anything about who we are.
Strategic Reflection Prompt
Where in your life or work might the need to demonstrate progress be influencing the decisions you make about how to achieve it?
I’m Giselle Hudson, The Pre-Fixer™.
For nearly three decades, I’ve worked with business owners and leaders across the Caribbean who carry important decisions largely on their own, often when problems keep returning, solutions fall short, or implementation stalls.
When I ask business owners what problem they can’t seem to solve, the answer is usually “people.” So I ask them to tell me more, because people and businesses are rarely as simple as they first appear.
I help them understand what’s really causing the problem before they spend more trying to fix it. And where needed, I help design the solution and guide their teams to put it into practice.
Get Clarity before the Fix.
What are you trying to make sense of right now?
