“Clear the mechanism.”
This phrase has been stuck in my head for nearly a week, and I can’t stop thinking about the myriad implications it can have in one’s professional and personal life.
The expression was highlighted for us last week by Ogilvy’s global CFO, Stacey Ryan-Cornelius, who reminded us of its sports film origin, “For the Love of the Game.”
How impactful is the expression? So impactful that, when I shared it, it actually convinced my wife (who isn't a sports fan) to want to watch the movie with me.
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Ryan-Cornelius contextualized the phrase for what it means for her — one of her biggest measures of success is how leaders prioritize their time. When one arrives at the level of leadership she has reached, one of the biggest challenges is to understand how to bring the kind of value the organization is theoretically paying you for and not get distracted by being in the weeds too often.
For Ryan-Cornelius, “clearing the mechanism” is a leader who can “calm down in the heat of the moment, like Kevin Costner does in the scene when being heckled at Yankee Stadium ... I believe this ability to stay calm during stressful moments provides not only an opportunity for clarity when figuring out how to prioritize time but is a major indicator” of someone’s high potential.
Steering a ship as large and complex as an Ogilvy requires a central focus on the primary task at hand when there are a thousand data points of distraction whizzing around you like Neo trying to interpret the Matrix for the very first time. And, given the driven nature of every CFO we meet and talk to, there is a measure of pride in the ability to do this.
But, there’s another side to the coin. Sometimes “clearing” means “resetting.”
Once you reach the job title of finance chief, especially at a company that experienced 4100% growth in less than a year, you’ve reached a milestone few have. But, for Lori Love, former CFO of CleanSpark, she arrived at a place where she didn’t want to remain. Due to the rising stakes of the company’s success, along with adverse market forces and investor scrutiny, the situation became unbearable. “The stress was unbelievable. I was getting chest pains and migraines. My body was telling me to step back. I always give 150% in everything I do, and I couldn’t do that anymore as a CFO,” Love told CFO.
Much of life’s pursuits is the calibration between these two ideas — when to push forward, and when to retrench. When to pursue growth, and when to stabilize through profitability. When to look for the next company to acquire, and when to clear the M&A machine to focus on internal cultural health. When to pursue the next job promotion and when to realize some other part of life needs more of your attention.
It is a good reminder that what we call progress is not always traveling in one direction. The progress highway can flow in opposites.
“We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man ... Going back is the quickest way on.” — C.S. Lewis