Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE ~Darren Hardy

Darren Hardy also said, “Your biggest challenge isn’t that you’ve intentionally been making bad choices. Heck, that would be easy to fix. Your biggest challenge is that you’ve been sleepwalking through your choices.”

I’m currently participating in a 10-day online Peak Work Performance Summit and one of the speakers yesterday was Darren Hardy. I was really intrigued by the title of his book, The Compound Effect, and how he used that analogy to illustrate the immense (i.e., compound) impact of our small, daily choices.

He started with this example. If you were offered the choice of receiving three million dollars today, or one penny that is doubled every day for 31 days, which would you choose? Because we focus so much of our attention on the big choices, we overlook the significance of the smaller choices we make every day. Consequently, many of us would choose the three million dollars. In this example, if you were to do the math, that one penny in 31 days would compound to well over 10 million dollars!

What are some of those small, smart choices? It can be everything from choosing to make that one extra sales call at the end of every day, staying just 15 minutes longer at work to plan the next day, substituting sparkling water for soda every afternoon, stopping to greet employees on your way into your office every morning, etc. No one dies from lung cancer because they chose to smoke one cigarette. But the choice to smoke consistently over time will have a compound effect.

While thinking about the idea of the compound effect, Jim Collins’ work of identifying companies that went from good to great, came to mind. Here’s a quote from Jim Collins to describe what I mean. “In each of these dramatic, remarkable, good-to-great corporate transformations, we found the same thing: There was no miracle moment. Instead, a down-to-earth, pragmatic, committed-to-excellence process—a framework—kept each company, its leaders, and its people on track for the long haul.”

I’ve been remembering leaders I’ve worked with who both benefited, and suffered, from the compound effect. I recall one leader, a new college president, who was doubted by many faculty members. The college was in desperate need of a turnaround, and people were looking for someone who could magically create a “miracle moment.” Instead, this president very steadily and consistently made small choices—a framework—that transformed the college to not only a stable, but a thriving institution today.

On the flip side, I can also think of a leader who assumed his role as president ready to transform a large organization (I’ll be less specific here to keep the identity confidential). This leader was less concerned about the small choices. The compound effect: this organization has the highest staff turnover of any organization I’ve work with, and I’ve worked with well over 100.

As Darren Hardy said, “your biggest challenge is that you’ve been sleepwalking through your choices.” What choices might you be sleepwalking through? Are you aware of the compound effect of your small choices?