Dream big but start small

I dream big dreams. I get excited about great visions and lofty goals. If you have a plan to make the world a better place or transform the universe - count me in!

My struggle begins as soon as I realise that I cannot immediately get where I want. I cannot transform the universe within a week. I have to start small to show tangible progress, prove the value of my ideas, influence my team as well as my stakeholders. Translating visions into actions is hard.

Dreaming big and thinking long-term may be your super power when you paint a picture of the future to inspire your team. But your big dreams are not worth much if you cannot prove their value to your stakeholders and leaders. If you cannot show how your ideas will help drive the right outcomes.

I have caught myself many times nurturing ideas until they became bigger than I could handle.

• An opportunity to exchange learnings between the two parts of my organization, changed into a plan for an org-wide transformation.
• An idea to join forces with the adjacent team to solve a customer problem, kept growing until it involved six team spread across the entire company.

An attempt to solve too many problems at once will take you nowhere but to a dead-end. It is valuable to see connections between different parts of the company. It is important to notice how teams can deliver more value through collaboration. But you will get paralysed by the scope of the change if you try to take it too far. No matter how impactful it would be, there is little chance that it will ever happen.

I happened to me many times. As I was sharing my transformational ideas, people were nodding their heads and they liked my story, but… nothing happened. The usual follow-up question was: “So what”?

What I am not saying is that thiking big is of no value. We need visions and BHAGs to keep challenging the status quo and help our companies become better. But as leaders we cannot stop there.

The moment you start reimagining your future and as soon as you can see the new better version of today, make sure you ask yourself a few questions. These questions will help you take action and start turning your dreams into reality.

• What is the first step I can take to move towards my goal?
• What data do I need to prove if I am right or wrong?
• Who is/are the best person/people to spar my idea with?
• What is it that is within my control?

It is rewarding to see your dreams become reality. This requires rigour and patience. It requires starting from the place that you can control.

Stoping myself from dreaming too big and starting small is where I need to grow as a leader. This is why I have this post-it on my laptop:

This simple trick may help you move forward rather than be paralyse by the size of your own visions. Let me know!

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash