Sweat the Small Stuff - Seriously!

Take care of the small stuff and the big stuff takes care of itself - or so it seems.

Because when you think about it big stuff is just huge amounts of small stuff.

I had a meeting scheduled with a senior executive this week - guess what, because of a lot of small stuff was dropped, or mismanaged, the meeting did not happen.

How come so many executives let the small screw ups, or seemingly small moments of carelessness go by without comment? Here are some of the responses I have had over the years:

• I don't want to be overly picky
• If I paid attention to every small thing that is screwed up that's all I be doing
• I feel like I am being petty or pedantic when I focus on small stuff.

Well my coaching is get over your concerns and intervene - sweat the small stuff. Lower your tolerance for putting up with, settling for, making do with, and compromising - that behavior sabotages your intentions and undermines anything you say about what your values are.

The frustrating thing about the small stuff is that everyone knows what it is. So do we think it is inconsequential just because it small? Or is it that we just have a high tolerance for carelessness and forgive it as just being human. Whatever the explanation, failing to pay attention to the small stuff is costly. Here are a few examples of small stuff that everyone knows about yet all to frequently carelessly, or unconsciously, drop:

• Being late is late, period. Whether its late for a meeting, a call, with a promised report, .... the list can go on and on. And remember, a good reason, explanation or excuse for being late does not equal being on time - even though most executives except one as a substitute for the other. How nuts is that? And, BTW, being late, its not so small stuff. If you were to calculate the cost of all the wasted time, opportunity and money caused by giving a pass to being late, it would be huge
• Convening a meeting and/or letting it start without a clear intended outcome, and the right people in the room
• Leaving a meeting without clarifying the who, what, by when, to ensure decision are executed on. Or worse still, leaving a meeting with no decisions or discernable outcome
• Letting people off the hook when they fail to keep a promise or act consistently with some agreed on practice or value.

Why it's important to sweat the small stuff? Because our unconciousness, or carelessness, is the moment-by-moment, day-by-day opportunities we get to learn, improve and correct. To fail to take advantage of these correctable moments is to implicitly commit to undermining our espoused purpose and values.

So, as I said, sweat the small stuff - seriously!