Stepping Up —Life is Full of Challenges, Are You Up for Them?

A Set of Values & Behaviors that Separate People from the Merely Average or the Passively Involved

Part One of the “Step” Trilogy — Stepping Up, Stepping Out, Stepping Back

I have run across so many amazing people over the last few years — people I have really depended on in business, life, ventures or the Guild I helped foster. I’m always impressed with how they show up, usually when they are needed the most.

For the last couple of months, I’ve had this percolation of thoughts brewing up in my cranium on what defines these great, admirable people. I’ve considered their attributes in both professional and personal contexts. What fascinates me is that when I consider what I have authored in these clauses and verses below, various faces come to mind and the prevailing thought that scurries across my synapses “oh yeah, she has that strong stepping up quality big time” and “damn, he has that stepping up trait in spades”. Occasionally, I let a more cynical evaluation simmer “wow, those people so don’t have this stepping up sauce at all.”

As much as charisma, experience knowledge or great talent play big roles in being part of any success and generate my admiration, what separates my true reverence is something more, something different, something rarer. It’s more the approach people take to their lives that makes the difference. In a world that celebrates the sound-bytey superficial, the savvy slackers, the insta fake experts, the 4 hour work weekers, the quiet quitters, or the glib preentatious sages on the stages (or loud blasts from ‘casts if you are more new media friendly), I’d rather celebrate a different army of people — the ones that really do the work, the ones that don’t just talk a good game, but do it, the ones that always seem to make things happen.

When expected (or even better when unexpected), this post is central to people who Step Up. This is in my ode and listing of characteristics to these wondrous selective varietals and wunderkinds of people below. I hope you find yourself among their ranks:

Stepping up is a MINDSET…

Stepping up is aiming to make a difference.
Stepping up means embracing that impossble is nothing.
Stepping up doesn’t default to the notion that one person’s gain is another’s loss.
Stepping up asks questions, sometimes uncomfortable inconvenient ones, that take real effort on their part to answer.
Stepping up isn’t in it for the glory or the money, it’s for the passion.
Stepping up means you CAN make a difference.
Stepping up is belief in a cause, no matter how small or transient.
Stepping up is growth, that no matter what your age or impediment, that I can, that we can, and will get better.

Stepping up is a MERITOCRACY…

Stepping up doesn’t accept good enough.
Stepping up means making the best idea (regardless of who came up with it) better.
Stepping up doesn’t request special treatment for whatever tick box of a trait or feature you check, it’s what you do, not how you were born.
Stepping up rewards impact over style (admittedly, both are great together).
Stepping up is not cute phrases, it’s difficult and arduous mental and/or physical work.
Stepping up doesn’t try to swoop in and steal the credit.
Stepping up values and rewards commitment and effort, not status or title.
Stepping up turns bad into better, alchemizes average into great.

Stepping up is ACTION…

Stepping up doesn’t leave it as a conversation.
Stepping up doesn’t waste other people’s time.
Stepping up is progress, even with smallest little steps at a time.
Stepping up isn’t about scoring brownie points.
Stepping up is hard work, even more than you imagined.
Stepping up doesn’t avoid requests until the very last possible moment.
Stepping up is anticipating and jumping into the gaps.
Stepping up is looking around and realizing someone needs to do this thing … and then doing it.

Stepping up is DEPENDABILITY…

Stepping up is showing up, being present even in times of stress.
Stepping up means making a commitment, and keeping a commitment.
Stepping up is as much about availability as it is ability.
Stepping up is not time put in, it’s time well spent.
Steeping up is common decency to others, not hiding behind excuses.
Stepping up is not saying ‘sorry’ again, it’s doing the %*&# work.
Stepping up is coming clean, with ample warning, when things will not be happening the way we thought.
Stepping up doesn’t wait to be called, it’s already there.

Stepping up is a LIFELINE — found often not when things are going right, but when things are going wrong…

Stepping up believes in something to be achievable even when others don’t.
Stepping up grabs a pail when the boat is leaking.
Stepping up asks ‘what can I do’, without expectation of reciprocity.
Stepping up doesn’t do it for the accolades.
Stepping up means despite the current ‘shit show’, tomorrow can be better with some intervention.
Steeping up is not luck, it’s good purposeful energy and karma.
Stepping up is the best comment, the right action, at the worst time.
Stepping up stands by people when they need them the most.

Stepping up PUTS OTHERS FIRST…

Stepping up means going that extra inch and mile for the people on both sides of you.
Stepping up means delivering value and windows of opportunity not just for yourself but for others too.
Stepping up recognizes others are counting on you, you are the culture of a place, not some plaque on the wall.
Stepping up gives others the benefit of the doubt, even when soemtimes you shouldn’t.
Stepping up demands accountability, but no more than you ask of yourself.
Stepping up role models great behaviour.
Stepping up makes everyone around you magically better.
Stepping up means praising in public, critiqueing in private.

Stepping up is WHAT’S SAID ABOUT YOU WHEN YOU ARE NOT IN THE ROOM …

Stepping up is true leadership, beyond the platitudes.
Stepping up is people wanting to do good work for you, and with you, just because.
Stepping up improves the smell of a workplace, marketplace, playspace and living space.
Stepping up requires litlle refiltering or new interpetation — you are who you are, and even your competitors and frenemies concede it.
Stepping up is the stuff of legacy, rare is the person we ever lionize for taking the safe, convenient, selfish or frequently travelled routes.
Stepping up is getting and giving testimonials, even when not requested.
Stepping up turns colleagueship into peership, and peership into friendship.
Stepping up is a force multiplier, the investment of energy has an amplied, positive lifetime of return.

Ex nihilo nihil fit — nothing comes from nothing

What are your own thoughts on stepping up? And who makes your list? Please celebrate them as many frequently are those everyday heroes away from the spotlight — they deserve your attention.

Sean Moffitt is restlessly connecting dots — Sean is Managing Director of Futureproofing, Founder of Grey Swan Guild, Head of Cygnus Ventures, author of multiple books (Wikibrands, Uncertainty and Futureproofing), publisher behind over 20 research reports (The Customer Zeitgest, Emerging Technologies 30, Metatrends, Corporate Innovation Playbook) podcast host, venture builder, board advisor and keynote/executive briefings performer with substance.