Leave me alone - I know what I'm doing!

Kimi Raikkonen pulled no punches on Lotus team radio in Abu Dhabi F1 when he said “.. Just leave me alone I know what I'm doing ..”  http://bit.ly/RCadOu

How often are you focussed (or possibly expert)  in what you are doing and yet you get suggestions and distractions which take you from your path? The problem is that sometimes success is not about what you do, but how you do it. Allowing yourself to take time to talk and listen to people may be as important to your success as staying detached and focussed on the outcome.

In Kimi Raikkonen’s case he clearly felt that banter on the team radio was likely to impact rather than help the outcome, and for sure Lotus’ priority is to win races.

So how do you strike the balance between action and talk, thinking and communicating, delivering and sharing? Here are some ideas from my own experience.

Step 1 -Spend some quiet time alone thinking about the factors, outcome and key people to be involved. Be clear about your SMART Objective.

Step 2 - Prepare your own thoughts and invite relevant people to contribute their ideas. Having done Step1 you’ll already have some criteria against which to evaluate other people’s suggestions.

Step 3 -Share your proposals, combining your original thoughts and those contributions from others which have added value, and then invite people to final comment and/or sign-off

Step 4 –Finalise your proposal/project. Hopefully with consensus, but failing that note any dissent or follow-on actions or further work required. Don’t ride roughshod over difference, but don’t fail to complete your task because you are looking for unanimity.

I would be very interested in other people’s experiences and ideas.

Tim

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