š Hi, Iām Jeff. I write weekly about lessons Iāve learned leading product teams and working to lead well in chaotic environments, drawing on 25+ years of building.
1:1 exec coaching: I work with a small number of senior product leaders one-on-one as a coach. These are typically six-month engagements. If thatās you or someone you know, letās talk.
ā± Read time: 2 minutes
Do you ever miss noticing progress youāre making while itās being made?
This has happened to me many times. It can feel like dissatisfaction with the present. Iām normally a notorious forward looker, and that means Iām usually working on something and somewhat dissatisfied about where I am on that journey. Maybe itās low-grade perfectionism or a type-A achievement style focus.
So typically Iād react to a feeling like this by simply pushing harder, or reading something to try and get better, or by just, well, over-worrying about the whole thing.
To be fair, there are upsides to working this way that have paid off, but itās not always the best habit for overall happiness, especially for people who care about you.
But Iāve been making a concerted effort to be more present for the journeys Iām on, and be less pressurized with myself about how fast Iām getting there. Closely related to this is being better at noticing progress being made that can sometimes hide if all youāre doing is pushing. No time to notice things.
This week I had a chance to meet up with 2 colleagues from a community Iām part of for a 15-min check-in call. The goal of the call is to try and meet up for 15 minutes every so often to check in with two simple prompts:
Whatās a moment youāve had that was better than imagined lately?
What are you taking with you until the next time we chat?
What came up for me this week was that my wife and I were in Seattle visiting our older son. I got some work done, met with a few coaching clients, and otherwise, experienced Seattleās sunny summer days. This meant a bunch of time outdoors exploring, kayaking Lake Union, lots of good food, fabulous coffee and more.
With that context, this quick community check-in surfaced for me that this is what we intended when I shifted my work earlier this year.
The goal at the time was to set up life how we wanted it (more time to travel, visit our sons, and be outdoors) and then build work around that.
For years I did it the other way. Work first, life second.
So the win this week was noticing: more time in the sun felt like what we intended.
I still have lots of work in front of me and nothing is perfect. But the progress was ā is ā there.
So I celebrated the progress itself AND the fact that Iād noticed it. In past versions of myself, I might not have even noticed. The noticing itself helps me better realize itās working.
Whatās something youāre making progress on that you maybe havenāt noticed?
Hereās a shot of Lake Union from Queen Anne in Seattle this week.
