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The Kennedy Aspect

4 February 2018

“…And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

John F Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 20th January 1961.

JFK, iconic US President and an oft quoted orator, who sought to galvanise US citizens and who used the space programme as a spur to increase national prestige.

We don’t have to agree or disagree with his politics. We can, though, use his words to spur our own thoughts and behaviours.

We can decide to look to ourselves, take responsibility for our issues and then take action accordingly.

If we are too busy to think, and let’s face it, that’s a common cry of complaint in business, we can choose to make time for thinking.

If we are weighed down with an onerous task list we can prune it, delegate it, re-order it, or dispense with non-value adding tasks.

We don’t have to stay stuck, or be blameful of others.

We can, to mis-quote Kennedy, own it.

Own it.

A great phrase.

I know there are times when we wish the world would deliver the answer to our desk and maybe in a few years time Amazon will have perfected a product to do just that. For now though we are stuck in our world and it’s up to us to use all of our resources to problem solve.

Often in business we are faced with new challenges that we are not prepared for and have had no training in. That’s normal and part of the ‘fun’ of being in business.

We get to reap the rewards and in turn it’s up to us to face issues head on.

We can get help.

We can ask a colleague to support us.

We can go for a walk and give ourselves space and time to think.

Maybe we can make notes, or write down exactly what the problem is and what we’d really like to do about it.

We can generate options, which is always a good method of enhancing our creativity.

We can do, think and feel and be honest with ourselves.

As soon as we choose to own it we have taken the biggest step we can to finding a solution. It might take time and effort to reach the desired end point, and as long as we keep owning it then we will get somewhere.

Or we can choose to ignore the problem, whinge and moan and put energy into pretending it doesn’t exist. Maybe we can do that for a day, so that we can have a jolly good sulk and get it out of our system.

And then we can own it and begin to make steady progress.

So this week, what issue do you need to own? Which colleague is ducking a problem and needs you to encourage them to ‘own it’?

Have fun!

Next week: Coffee Cup Selling