Not my words but those of Steve Morgan, CBE. Steve is a successful business man, he is also a philanthropist who has given over half of his personal wealth to charitable causes.  The strapline for this podcast is "Work like hell to make your dreams come true", not mutually exclusive to the title of this article.

Phrases like this can divide opinion, especially if taken out of context. But if you take the time to listen, I think by the podcast has ended you will find it difficult to disagree. I recently saw an infographic posted by Steve Bartlett which summed up what Steve is saying as well, from memory this was an image of people queuing at a door marked "hard work", and more alongside queuing at a door marked "life hacks" - on the other side of both doors success. More people had made it to success through the hard work door, really there are no short cuts or "life hacks" that will get you there.

Steve Morgan makes several references to this, and to the fact that he has no particular special skill, just the willingness and determination to stick at something and work hard at it. He takes risks, and sees them through. Now you might think, well he can take risks as he is wealthy enough to do so...but he started with very little and risked it all when he first started out.

The high performance podcasts always make reference to the idea that we cannot always control what happens to us or the situations we are placed in. But we can take responsibility for them, again no different to what Steve is saying - but what does it mean? The responsibility comes from how we react and how we move forward - how resilient we are and how we adapt and learn for the next thing that life throws at us.

We are lucky to live and work during a time that, for the best part, mental health, work-life balance and wellbeing are better considered and more openly discussed. Be that in a work, peer or private life setting. This doesn't mean though, that the willingness to work hard at something should be undermined or discouraged - it is still vitally important and can still be balanced.

Now, you may have found the title of this article slightly jarring, you may not, but I think it is fair to say that Steve embodies hard work, and that is; 

  • Attention to detail, 
  • Setting high standards and not letting them slip
  • Seeing a task through to completion once you have committed to it, being focused on delivering what you have promised 
  • Understanding the difference, and the importance of, the relationship between fault and responsibility

Coming back to the title, it is really just another way of saying all of this - all of the above takes effort and commitment, not laziness. 

Have a listen, I think there is a lot to be taken away. It is a direct and honest account of the sacrifices that are often made to be successful, of taking responsibility for outcomes and for taking pride in doing a good job! 

#headhunting #responsibility #highperformance #worklifebalance #executivesearch #stevemorgan