The Hidden Progress in Stepping Aside

Leaders' in transition

Hello People,

Hope you all doing great and enjoying the festive season. Happy New Year from my end and hope you spend some great quality time with friends and family. I am really looking forward to another great 12 months of learning.

Travelling for business has one big plus. You get to catch-up on variety of media such as movies, music, your favorite sit-coms, all thanks to in-flight entertainment.

On a recent flight, I watched Cars 3 and watching Lightening McQueen mature was the real highlight for me. Animated movies provide a great burst of inspiration. Although, the general perspective is that its directed towards children, there is so much learning for adults, in select frames.
The end sequence of Cars 3 absolutely gripped me. When McQueen genuinely identifies the ‘real’ racer in Cruz during his critical comeback race. Apart from this McQueen also recognizes it is time for him to step aside, to give an ‘aspiring racer’ Cruz chance and guide her to victory. Which he does with such humility!

Would Cruz have won the race without being given a chance or being noticed? The bigger question here is would McQueen have won the race despite giving everything he knew about racing and winning in the new racing gen? Stepping aside unleashed a different energy and responsibility in McQueen and he felt his victory in Cruz’s victory.

This is the pure magic of stepping aside.

Where actually your progress is embedded in the lane parallel to the fast lane heading in same direction.

In reality, this movie sequence is no different to real life. Picture life as an athletic relay race. Imagine the knowledge, skills and experience (personal & professional) you gained are all inside the baton. You have been tightly holding and running with it for last few decades. You are now in the ‘middle to senior’ zone. The situation is getting even more challenging and intense as;

  • You are unable to run longer with your physical speed revs declining
  • The weight of the baton is getting heavier not allowing you to accelerate.
  • All your wining techniques are somehow not showing that same magic it used to.

What is your body and mind signaling you here?

They are telling you, PASS THE BATON! It’s time to handover your best learnings to another athlete (junior to you at work/or your wife or growing children, etc.) who can accelerate faster, further improvise with your learnings and create the same for future athletes. From personal experiences, I can say there is no visible finishing line in this race. It is a human race with continuous passing of the baton. In this ‘giving’ transition you are allowing your own-self to unconditionally accept that others’ development needs are after all your responsibility.

It brings into perspective that the whole is infact greater than just the single individual identity we live with.

The switch from ‘doer’ to ‘enabler’ unleashes a whole potential in you. The passion of winning and moving forward is still thriving in you, the difference is only you achieve it through another body, but perhaps with your shared vision and strategy. I leave you with 2 questions, “have you passed the baton?” if not “what’s holding you to pass on the baton”.

Good Luck Athletes. See you fresh in 2018!


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