Oftentimes I hear people talking about giving 110%. I saw it yesterday and it got me thinking, first, that there is no such thing as 110%, but more importantly, what IS ‘giving 100%’ really? Of course, there are times when we have pushed ourselves to the core, and we believe without question that we have given everything we’ve got to a project, to a relationship, to a competition, to an opportunity, to a team….
As an example, I think back on a time in my career – decades ago – when I gave everything I had in the tank toward building the strategy and execution of customer experiences as a product marketing leader in tech. In the end, our customers were happy. The main stakeholders in the business were happy. But as I look back years and many lessons later, there were people on my extended team who weren’t so happy with me. I was demanding. I was pretty ego-driven. I don’t think I listened to other perspectives as well as I could have. So, in reality – at the time it was about MY win with MY customers and primary stakeholders, no matter how other contributors felt.
Many lessons learned, but while at the time I thought without hesitation that I gave 100% (even the elusive 110%), what revealed itself over the years to come is that I may only have given 90%. That extra 10% could have been used being a better listener, being more inclusive of other people’s ideas and perspectives. The biggest win would have come from everyone feeling their biggest win.
So what would it be like to sit back and just be with the question: what if what I thought to be 100% was really 90%? What might be hidden from me right now that would get me truly ‘giving 100%’?