As you develop people, in order to reach them you need to teach them new concepts and use vocabulary that represents these concepts. Using a word or a short group of words often facilitates quicker understanding and quicker application.

This week’s word: Hustle

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”

-Abraham Lincoln

Hustle means to use more energy get things done faster. Hustle means to use energy that maybe you didn’t want to because the situation calls for more. To hustle means you have to move quickly. Hustle doesn’t mean you move without thinking, it means that you are able to reach another, higher gear while doing the same task.

Hustle kills sloth. Sloth is a malaise that is always present in the individual lives of your team and also thus, is always growing or dying in the collective life of your team, department or organization.

Hustle creates high productivity. Hustle is where initiative means energy. Successful teams are characterized by members who actually take the initiative, not merely talk about initiative. Initiative is always seized. It has to be taken. And taking initiative always requires more energy than before. This what happens, people like the idea of getting things done earlier and faster, but the reality is they do not want to expend any more energy than they feel like they have to.

Hustle is energy at work. Energy is either gained or drained. Energy at rest never creates a greater capacity for force. Energy like muscle drains if you don’t use it. Using energy gives you a residual, incremental increase in more energy over time. It has to be paired with rest.

This week work hustle into your work.

Hustle comes from the heart. Those who love what they do and who they are doing it for or with, find it reasonable and expected that they will give more energy and more initiative before they are called upon, but especially if they are called upon.

Those who hustle knock on opportunity’s door most often.

(c) Alex Vann, 2018