Mastering the Boring

I keep mentioning this during interviews and inductions when people ask me what they need to do to be successful. 

“Mastering the boring” is my common response. 

It means doing the unflashy basics with ruthless consistency until they become the way you operate, and reaping the results that compound over time. These are the things no one notices in the moment, the things nobody claps for. But they are the difference between a promise that sticks and a promise that quietly falls apart along the way.

People love the big stories: the deal pulled out of nowhere, the dazzling pitch that wins the customer, the new business idea that suddenly works. These are fun and exciting, and no doubt they are important. But most success stories are not built on them alone. They are built on a hundred small actions that don’t look like much individually, but absolutely add up. 

For instance, in cricket, you will notice that the highlights package of a test match shows a handful of boundaries and wickets. What wins the game is the long, steady stretch where someone leaves well, rotates the strike, fields cleanly, keeps the pressure. Oh yes, it looks boring. But that is exactly what wins games. I once heard Harsha Bhogle explain this bare truth in detail and it stuck with me.

The same lesson applies in the gym. I had a phase of chasing personal records every time. Felt great on the day, then I would miss three sessions and be back where I started. Real progress has been the boring part: set the alarm, turn up, do the work, go home. Nobody celebrates that, but it stacks. 

Work is no different. 

For sales, I am not asking for magic. I am asking for the basics to be non-negotiable: 

• When a new lead lands, call within ten minutes. 
• If you don’t reach them, call again the next day. 
• Send a quick SMS saying you tried. 
• When you meet a customer, greet them warmly. 

Show them options, even if they are picky, even if you think you already know what they want. And most importantly, write the notes. Every single time. What you promised, what they asked for, the next action, and who owns it. On a busy Saturday it can feel like it slows you down, but those notes mean Ops can actually deliver what you sold in the first place. 

The customer gets the same experience at the end that they were excited about at the start. Over a quarter, those habits are often the difference between a good salesperson and a great one.

In Customer Experience, the same principle holds: 

• Acknowledge quickly. 
• Update the system before you close the ticket. 
• Do a next-day check-in when something matters. 

Mind you, none of this will get you a podium shout-out. But do it for every customer, and suddenly you are the person people trust. You may not always see the direct line from one update or one call to a closed deal, but over time the gap opens between people who do the little things every time and people who only turn it on for the big moments.

Managers are not exempt from this continuous exercise. Reviewing P&L and important decks matters, but the small things move culture: 

• Starting meetings on time.
• Turning up prepared for a meeting.
• Sending well thought out written feedback instead of a quick corridor comment.
• Giving regular public appreciation that takes 30 seconds but makes someone’s week. 

Sometimes the harder, boring thing is to hold back: to listen properly, go away, whiteboard your thoughts, and come in with a clearer plan. It does not feel heroic, but it saves the team a week of back and forth. And sometimes the boring discipline is restraint: letting the dust settle, avoiding drama, and protecting people’s focus. I’ll admit these are the areas I need to keep working on myself.

Some people ask if this makes work robotic. I don’t think so. Mastering the boring does not replace creativity; it creates space for it. When the basics are in place, you have the time and trust to try the fun thing, the risky idea, the special touch the customer remembers. And at a company level, this is how a brand gets built. Consistency builds trust. Trust builds a brand. Brand earns margin. 

Customers will feel it without us needing to say it.

I am not writing this as an expert. Most of it comes from my own mistakes and the realisations and feedback I have received from others. I am still trying to get better at it. But I am convinced of the core point: the edge is not flair. The edge is doing the boring things every time, even when nobody's watching. That is the work that lasts.