Difficulty Is The Test

4 Jun 2024 · 0 min

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A speaker (CEO/leadership-focused monologue) argues that you cannot judge the quality of a leadership team when conditions are easy; true quality is revealed when the organization faces adversity. The speaker challenges CEOs who claim superiority by asking to reassess performance after the team is tested by storms or rough waters.

CEO's do come up to me. They say, but, Simon, like, no offense to you or anything, but.
We are the best.
On every metric. And my answer is always, for now. For now. And we can't judge the quality of a crew by how a ship performs in calm waters. We can only judge the quality of a crew by our ship performs in rough waters. So while things are great, sure. You guys are amazing. Let's see what happens when you get pounded a little bit by some waves and some storms. Let's see how the team comes together. Then let's talk about how great this team is.
Difficulty is the test.