If not on all the Mantras around here, at least most are focused on maximizing productivity, quality and progress. There is one thing that can consistently, time and time again, lay to waste a lot of the ground work done, and this is letting your guard down.
Me and my team have become quite good at spotting, curating, hiring and maintaining very good talent, which has been a benchmark of success for our organization. One time I’ve conducted an interview with a very good candidate and one of our old clients and the interview was a complete failure. We should have been more diligent and thorough, but our arrogance and good relationship with the client let our guard down on this one. No real impact happened but it was a good reminder to keep up the standards.
One side effect of getting good at something and achieving a specific milestone is, sometimes, stop focusing on said milestone.
Just like one week of binge eating can turn into several weeks of neglect and roll back a lot of the progresses made through many months of fitness work, one mistake with a client, a coworker, a team or a project can have devastating consequences on what we’ve worked so hard to build.