You Can Swim Here

Welcome to the 146th edition of “InTouch”. As always, I would love to continue the conversation so please hit reply and let me know what you think.

Story of the Week: “You Can Swim Here”

Last week, while staying at Daios Cove in Agios Nikolaos, Crete, I met Kristakis Ntosti.

Kristakis has been working at the hotel for the past five years. During our stay, whenever the sea brought in plastic, seaweed or other debris, I would see him walking into the water with his net and clearing it away. I remember thinking: How could one person possibly hope to keep the sea clean?

So, I asked him whether the waves would not simply bring more back. He smiled, pointed towards the stretch he had just cleaned and said, “You can swim here.”

That answer made me think about how often we look at the size of a problem and convince ourselves that anything we do is too insignificant to make a difference.

I see the same pattern in many of the teams and organisations I work with. Almost everyone wants the whole business to change – the culture, the numbers, the customer experience – and they want it to happen all at once. But those that actually get there are rarely aiming at a complete overhaul. They are the ones in which each person takes responsibility for their own particular piece of the action, while still moving in the same direction as everyone else.

Perhaps leadership, then, is more about taking responsibility for our own “stretch of water” and less about trying to change the whole ocean.

After all, every great culture, every great team and every great organisation is built the same way. It just takes one person to decide that their part matters.

Words of Wisdom

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” Robert Collier

A Question to Ponder, dear friend.

Are there seemingly small things you keep doing because you know, in time, that they will prove their worth?