If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen

It’s now less than three weeks until the 14th of July and the official launch of It’s Not Rocket Science. I can’t believe I’ve finally got there after five years of writing, editing and re-editing. For those of you that didn’t know, in the US, books are usually launched on a Tuesday to align with The New York Times Best Seller List and other industry publications that compile weekly data from Tuesday to Monday. The UK launch will follow a few weeks later at the end of August, and I have a small book signing planned in Manchester in early September, which will be a nice way to mark the end of what has been a really different sort of project for me.

I thought today I would talk about one of the simplest lessons in the book, which, not surprisingly, was also the shortest to write: "Ask Your Boss." This one is critical for both new young people starting in their first roles as well as experienced professionals joining for what will hopefully be the largest and most important part of their careers.

This lesson is about how they are going to learn what decision their boss would make given a certain set of circumstances and therefore take advantage of all the knowledge that those more senior to them in the organisation have built up over many years tackling similar sorts of issues. If you take this to the nth degree, then every decision gets checked with the CEO, which might sound crazy, but it really drives learning fast. As I have always said to my team, I have never said to any of my managers, "Don't bother me with that."

When new people join, it soon becomes clear whether they have this quality or not, because if they don’t, they soon start making lots of simple errors that could easily have been avoided with a quick face-to-face chat, phone call, text, Teams message or email. As the organisation has grown and the management layers have deepened, I also always advise them to put their questions in writing by email, as it not only provides a record of their action but also puts more pressure on their boss to take it seriously and usually take faster action—hence the origin of the title to this blog, "If It's Not on Strava, It Didn't Happen."

This topic is one of the subjects at an off-site I am running this week with some of our graduates and younger managers, and you can find this lesson and several others at billholmes.me, or alternatively buy the book in a few weeks' time!