Start Sharpen Our Axe Now

The Star 15 May 2010 (Saturday)

A very strong and skilled woodcutter asked for a job with a timber merchant. His boss gave him an axe and on his first day, the woodcutter cut down 15 tress. His boss was pleased and said: “Well done, good work!” Highly motivated, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but could only fell 13 tress. The third day, he tried even harder, but only 11 tress were chopped down. Day after day, he tried harder but he cut down fewer trees. The woodcutter thought he must be losing his strength. He apologized to the boss, claiming he could not understand why. The boss asked: “When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” The woodcutter said: “I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been too busy cutting down trees.” He sharpened his axe and immediately was back to 15 trees a day. Since then, he begins the day by sharpening his axe.

Moral of the story

1. Most leaders are too busy doing and trying to achieve, that they never take time to learn and grow. Most of us don’t have the time or patience to update skills, knowledge, and beliefs about an industry, or to take time to think and reflect. Many assume that learning ends at school and so sharpening our axe is not a priority.

2. Dr. Steven Covey, who popularized the term, believes it means “increasing your personal production capacity by daily self care and self-maintenance.”

3. Most people fail to understand what it means and mistake it for taking a break or vacation. If you’re overworking yourself and your productivity drops off, take a break.

4. However, that isn’t sharpening the axe; that’s putting the axe down. When you put down a dull blade and rest, the blade will still be dull when you pick it up.

Sharpening the axe is an activity. We too can sharpen the axe of our life. Here are 10 ways:
a) Read a book every day
b) Get out of our comfort zone by changing jobs. A new job forces you to learn
c) Have a deep conversation with someone you find interesting. Sharpen your axe through that interaction
d) Pick up a new hobby. Stretch yourself physically, mentally or emotionally
e) Study something new
f) Overcome a specific fear you have or quit a bad habit
g) Have a daily exercise routine or take part in some competition
h) Identify your blind spots. Understand, acknowledge and address it
i) Ask for feedback and get a mentor
j) Learn from people who inspire you

You’re so focused on your task at hand with no time for discussion, introspection or study, you’re not really moving forward.

The Management Mythbuster author David Axson believes most organization still rely on outdated management strategies. Unless we are sharpening our axe daily by observing the changing world and changing ourselves accordingly, we risk becoming irrelevant.

Andrew Grove reinvented Intel and oversaw a 4,500 times increase in market capitalization by his daily habitual “axe-sharpening” ritual of understanding global changes and taking advantage of these to ensure Intel remained relevant.

Employees at Japanese organizations like Toyota believe it’s a crisis if they do not create improvement each day. The “Kaizen mindset” means that every day, whether you’re a line worker or executive, you find ways to learn something new and apply it to what you’re doing. This forces employees to be alert, mindful and constantly improving.

Many of us do just the opposite. By staying in the same job for many years, although we become experts and our roles become easy, our learning flattens.

We don’t like changing jobs as there is pain and struggle in taking on new roles. But the more we struggle, the more we learn.

Our natural inclination to be mindless as mindlessness is our human tendency to operate an autopilot, whether by stereotyping, performing mechanically or simply not paying attention. We are all victims of being mindless at times. By sharpening our axe, we move from a mindless state to a mindful state; from “blindly going with the flow” to thinking and “breaking boundaries.”
When there is a crisis or financial situation, the first thing that gets slashed is training programmes for employee. Yet, in a crisis, there is a greater need for employees to have sharpened axes to deal with issues. Crisis often helps companies to become great because they finally take time to sharpen their axe by relooking at their current strategies and reinventing their industries, sometimes through painful reforms.

Of course, too much or aimless axe sharpening can become another form of procrastination. Many like to attend training courses and classes but end up never using the axe. After sharpening the axe, use it or all is in vain.

How are your various blades doing? Your skills, your knowledge, your mind, your physical body, your relationship, your motivation, your commitment to succeed, your capacity for growth and your emotions etc…

Lincoln once said: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening my axe.”