Effective leaders know how to create, manage, and maintain momentum. ~Kathryn Scanland
Momentum: drive, thrust, energy. Momentum is a key attribute of execution. If leaders aren’t executing then their organizations likely aren’t moving forward; their organizations may even be stuck in neutral or spinning its wheels. Author John Maxwell said, “It is never the size of your problem that is the problem. It’s the lack of momentum.”
Momentum isn’t always easy to create, manage, or maintain. But, as a leader, if you’re not thinking about it, tuned-in to managing it, it’s probably not going to happen. Here are a few suggestions; maybe you’ll resonate with one of these approaches.
Authors of The Work of Leaders suggest these six tips to manage momentum.
- Lead by example—never ask people for more momentum than you are willing to take on yourself.
- Commit your team to deadlines related to external events.
- Reduce the time between meetings on projects.
- Challenge your priorities to make time for initiating action.
- Focus on choosing the single most important new initiative every day.
- Recognize proactivity and help people see new initiatives as part of their jobs.
Fellow leadership blogger, Dan Rockwell, identified these momentum busters:
- Devaluing small contributions
- Talking about problems more than progress
- Separating deliverables from people (people, not processes, get things done)
- Focusing on weakness rather than strength
- Controlling rather than releasing (when people ask permission they lose momentum)
How about this idea from Lisa M. Dietlin, author of The Power of Three? Dietlin says, “The Power of Three is doing three things a day to achieve your goal.” Imagine if you led by example and every day others watched you intentionally do three things to achieve your goal. That’s living momentum on a daily basis.
Whatever your strategy or approach to create, manage, and maintain momentum, make it a priority, not annually, but daily.