Are you Fresh and Relevant Today or Relying on Old Mastery?

I had a great con­ver­sa­tion with friends, this week, about what peo­ple do to stay fresh and relevant.

I’m a per­son who likes to do dif­fer­ent things and to stretch myself. It serves me very well in the work that I do.

And, when I look at many great peo­ple I’ve met, over the years, some mas­tered their craft in their 20s and 30s, but stopped learn­ing as they milked and lever­aged what they knew through their 40s and into their 50s and 60s. Oth­ers also mas­tered a craft ear­ly, and then con­tin­ued to learn many new things in their 40s, 50s and into their 70s and 80s.

It’s the dif­fer­ence between a one-hit won­der in the music indus­try and an artist who con­tin­ues to learn, re-invent and evolve their craft.

With the expo­nen­tial pace of growth, knowl­edge and inno­va­tion, the world is just not the same as it was just 10 years ago, in every domain of life. Even sports are played dif­fer­ent­ly now. To stay fresh and rel­e­vant, you have to con­tin­ue to learn and evolve.

The same goes for the com­pa­nies we work with, where we see the dif­fer­ence between ear­ly mas­tery and recent mastery:

• Some already have with great momen­tum. So, we work to sharp­en their strat­e­gy and strength­en their team so that their growth continues.
• For those that have hit a flat spot and are not as in sync with the mar­ket as they need to be, we often have to res­ur­rect their strat­e­gy or rein­vent the team. And, some­times, we have to look at strate­gies or approach­es they have been rely­ing on for 10 or 15 years. In this case we look for ways to evolve the think­ing and work­ing to be more rel­e­vant in today’s world.

Now, not all the cas­es are like this. How­ev­er, we do find that most com­pa­nies that con­tin­ue to grow and thrive are mas­ter­ful at the things that mat­ter most in their busi­ness. Or they do enough new things – but not too many — to stay fresh and relevant.

The Chal­lenge

• Do you have enough recent mas­tery to keep your his­tor­i­cal mas­tery rel­e­vant? Or are you too caught up in the past?
• How might you change to per­form bet­ter and be more rel­e­vant today?

For a deep­er dive on this top­ic, lis­ten to this episode of The Growth Whisperers.

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.