Welcome to another Ask Katrina. The question today is:
“Katrina, Is earning it really necessary?”
Where does the concept of “earning it” come from?
Number one, from the very beginning, we’ve always earned the right to be somewhere.
Earning It Got Us Where We Are Today
Grade school taught us that we had to get good grades because good grades got us into the advanced classes in high school.
Earning the right to be in those classes earned us the ability to go to the college we wanted to go to, and then earning the right to go to that college we wanted, helped us get the degree we wanted.
Then once we earned that degree, we had to earn the position to start our careers.
And so we’ve always had this “earning it” mindset because that’s what we have had to do the majority of our lives.
Now, I will also tell you that not only does it start in school from everything that I’ve observed, but it also comes from the family we were raised in.
if you grew up in a middle-class family, you also realize that the majority of the middle class “earn it” on a daily basis.
They go to work every single day to earn a paycheck.
That hard work earned the home they’re living in, the car they drive, etc. They have earned every aspect of their lives.
So if you grew up in the middle class, you watched your parents earn it, and they taught you to earn it.
And that worked when you were a mid-level leader.
But now you’re an executive.
Being an executive is not a middle-class role.
When you step into the executive ranks, you’re not middle class anymore, you’re typically in the top 1% of earners.
What does that top percent do?
Do they earn it?
Or, do they have a team of individuals around them that help accomplish and achieve results?
What I want you to realize is that the world you have lived in for the majority of your life has shifted; therefore, your thought process must shift too.
I want you to look at every individual you admire that is super successful and I want you to realize that maybe they started off by earning it. Most people do.
But when they reached a certain tier, no longer did they have to earn something, what they had to do was figure out how to get the right people around them in order to get the work done.
Getting the right people on their teams allows them to do what only they can do.
At this phase in your career, this is where the mindset shift has to occur.
Yes, you earned the right to be in the executive seat you worked, you pushed, you executed, and you did all the things.
Now you’ve got to put a group of individuals around you to get the work done. So that together, you are a team. You are at the helm of the ship, so to speak, and you’re giving guidance and direction on where to go and how to get everything done. But you’re not the doer, you’re the decision-maker.
You don’t have to earn the right to be in the executive seat. You already have.
The third and final reason we feel the need to “earn it,” is we think that because we’re not prepared to be a high-performing executive we have got to earn the knowledge to therefore “earn” the results.
Does “earning” the knowledge make you a better leader?
Does “earning” the knowledge get you better results?
No. Earning it simply delays the results you need to get and it delays the support your team needs from you.
Yes, you’ve got to learn, yes, you’ve got to figure out how to perform at the executive level defined by your job description and the role in the company, yes, you’ve got to perform.
Performance is a must.
Learning is a must.
But earning it and doing it on your own, aren’t musts.
Stop thinking about earning it and focus more on building your team, leading through individuals, and learning very, very, very quickly.
Earning it takes time, and that’s one resource you don’t want to waste.
The “earning it” mindset is one of the reasons it takes an average of 12 months to generate consistent performance results as a first-year executive.
We can’t take 12 months, especially when it doesn’t have to take that long.
If you’re ready to go ahead and eliminate that mindset, build your team, build your high-performance brand, and get results quickly, don’t delay, take action now!
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