It would be incredibly boring if life moved at one slow, monotonous, steady speed. Because it doesn't, you'll want to master the "go slow to go fast" principle to increase your successes in life.

What do job seekers, sales professionals, athletes, managers, HR professionals, accountants, physicians and health coaches all have in common? To be really, really effective at what they do, they must adeptly manage their actions in response to the speed demands of their jobs.

Today's society seems to press everyone for more speed to get things done faster. Masters of the "go slow to go fast" principle have learned the only way they can ever successfully sustain speed and quality in executing their job is through intentionally planning their "go slow" time.

• Can the physician perform emergency surgery to save a life if he or she didn't first put in hours of "go slow" work studying procedures, practicing techniques and learning to anticipate outcomes?
• Can the job seeker be effective in landing his or her dream job if he or she never invested many hours of "go slow" work by relentlessly developing an effective network?
• Can an executive have the trust and willing followers needed to launch a new venture without having spent hours of "go slow" time, developing relationships while learning the skills and limitations of the team charged with making it happen?

Case study: Unstalling a promising executive career

Take the situation faced by Christina Finch, a brilliant logistics executive working for a multinational manufacturer under CEO Bill Smith (names changed for anonymity). Bill hired Christina because of her unique set of talents and lightning-fast mind. She had an impressive track record of rapidly identifying business issues, their causes and organizational impact, and always had outside-the-box approaches for remedying them.

The rub was most of the people who worked with her felt intimidated by how she seemingly eviscerated their ideas in departmental meetings, or her tendency to publicly suggest ways to "fix" problem areas in their departments. While Christina saw her role as "helping to speed things along," her peers saw both creativity in her ideas and an impediment in her approach, so they complained to Bill.

Bill and Christina met to discuss things, and Christina was not at all surprised to learn she was frustrating her co-workers. She said the same thing had happened in previous positions she held. She told Bill how discouraged she was whenever she saw the company taking too long to address an issue.

While Bill loved the critical thinking Christina brought to the company, but he wasn't sure the drama that seemed to follow her was worth it.

How Christina went slow

Christina was urged by her coach to take the following "go slow" actions over the next 90 days:

• Stop offering on-the-spot suggestions and critiques of the plans or performances of other department heads in meetings. Instead, listen to what others have to say without editorializing.
• Privately meet with each peer and offer a sincere apology for having placed him/her on the spot in past meetings. Commit to work cooperatively from this point forward.
• As a key step to rebuild trust, invest in quality one-on-one time with each peer, getting to know him/her better. Let him/her do most of the talking about the issues most important to him/her.
• In a low-key manner, ask peers "please help me understand" questions. For example, "Janice, would you please help me see from your perspective what you see as the key issues?"
• When you have an idea or suggestion, go to the peer privately and ask if you can share an idea with him/her. Never spring an idea on him/her in public. Ask for feedback and listen.

How Christina got to go very fast

Once she had re-established trust and built a solid professional relationship with her peers, her peers began seeking her input and feedback on the topics they planned to bring up in the next meeting. Likewise, she began vetting her ideas with them. Because of this pre-meeting collaboration, when it came time to discuss ideas in the meetings, an idea's discussion and adoption were often completed in the same session.

Bottom-line result: Within six months, Christina's peers had all shared examples with the CEO of how Christina helped them to be more effective with their ideas. Both the speed and quality of decision-making improved.

Are there areas of your career where you could apply the "go slow to go fast" principle?