“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth…”
An excerpt from President Kennedy’s famous, Man on the Moon speech, as he addressed the Congress and the people of United States, on May 25, 1961.
What followed doesn’t need an introduction.
What it entails—definitely does!
This is an unprecedented precedent that was set by a leader, convincing his nation and the people around him, that yes, it’s possible to achieve the unknown even if it hasn’t been tried previously.
And the reason I decided to cite this historic speech is, it closely ties in with the subject of this blog:
How to ride with your team into the unknown?
For whether you are an entrepreneur or an established business professional, quite often you come across challenges in the form of a project or starting a venture, where you don’t really know how it’s going to end.
You don’t really know how the journey would look like and what difficulties you will have to face—simply because you haven’t tried it previously. It’s the journey into the unknown.
As such, where you are unsure yourself, it becomes even harder to convince a group of people to believe in your vision, in your goal.
Entrepreneurs – Can You Relate With That?
You have a great startup idea, and like every great idea you know you will need a team to turn it into a functional idea. That team comprises of your friends, colleagues, relatives or someone who you know.
But ask yourself: How difficult it was/is for you to convince them to be part of your team?
Because just like you, they too haven’t travelled down the unknown.
Business Professionals – Can You Relate With That?
You can see there is potential if you digitize your operations. Your company can benefit by saving on operational expenses. Your subordinates, coordinates and superiors—they can all become more productive and efficient at their work.
Bust ask yourself: How difficult it was/is to overcome that inertia, exhibited by your team members?
Because just like you, even they haven’t travelled down the path to unknown.
So, What You Do?
You create a “clear” goal and then “unify” everyone under it. President Kennedy could have set the goal to be something like, “Let’s work towards beefing up our space program”, but would have any such goal resulted in Neil Armstrong waving from the moon and proudly uttering the words:
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
…?
Surely not!
And if President Kennedy hadn’t told everyone involved on how valuable they can be individually and collectively to accomplishing that dream—would this have happened?
He set a goal and then unified everyone under it.
That’s what you need to do when you have to convince your team to ride with you down the unknown path. You need to establish a clear goal, identify how everyone—individually and collectively—can contribute to achieving that goal and then communicating that which you have established and identified.
But that’s not where it should end.
Monitor the Progress
Once you have everyone on board, you then need to constantly monitor everyone’s progress as you head down the unknown path, making sure everyone is in line and in accordance. If someone loses sight, another could as well. Then the next one, and so on and so forth.
You will no longer be left with a team—you will be left with a group of disillusioned members.
And when you are able to do all this that is when you grow from being an entrepreneur or a business professional to a leader.
Looking for more such insightful pieces and tips for leadership development?
My blog resources can help you. I, Manal Haddad, have an experience of more than 25 years in business consultancy and development, having worked with some of the top business organizations around the world. Whatever I’ve learnt, I try to word it into informational blog for entrepreneurs and business professionals like you.
Read, learn, enjoy and share the knowledge!
