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Brilliant on the Basics

April 11, 2010 in Development, Growth, Performance, Productivity with 0 Comments

Although I was quite young when legendary football coach Vince Lombardi died, I was influenced by his philosophy on life and success.  This is probably because football was the game I played most in my youth and the Vince Lombardi Philosophy was always being referenced either by my coach on the field or my dad at home. As a coach, Lombardi was known for being a tough and demanding man and his reputation was that of a winner. In his time as head coach of the Green Bay Packers he was able to lead them to five NFL Championships and two Super Bowl victories. The championship trophy that the NFL plays for each season is named after him.

I was doing some prep work this week for a talk I am going to give next week to a group of sales people and their leaders. As I was thinking about what makes a really successful seller, or leader, or organization I thought of Coach Lombardi and his philosophy on success and being a winner. He was once asked what he was going to do to get to the championships in the coming season. He answered by saying, “We are not going to be flashy. We are going to be brilliant on the basics. We will run, throw, catch, tackle, and block better than every team in the league. That is how we will go to the championships this year.”

Simple, but not easy

Have you ever noticed how amazed people are when someone or some team wins their sport championship two years in a row? Going for three? Wow! More than three? What? Are you kidding me? Impossible! Well, what coach Lombardi knew and what I have learned over the years is that success often breeds carelessness and complacency. Once we taste victory or enjoy a winning season we tend to adopt an attitude of complacency. “I have made it…I can relax”. I see this in the leaders I speak to and I see this in me and I find it to be one of the biggest reasons why we have so few repeat champions. Whether you are selling, leading, or just running the daily race of life, being brilliant on the basics is what places you in the position to win year after year after year.

Determine Your Basics

In Football, Coach Lombardi said, “Some people try to find things in this game that don’t exist but football is only two things – blocking and tackling.” That can be true of all of us, focusing on things that are not important or are not relevant to our overall success. In my line of work the basics are preparation and confidence.  I find that the more I do to be prepared and to build my confidence behind my message the more successful I become. The quickest way for me to lose is to think I have “made it”, don’t prepare properly (just “wing it” because, well, I am good, I have made it), and then flop in front of my audience and lose all confidence behind my message.

What are the basics for you? Have you stepped away from them and begun focusing on the flashy or unimportant aspects of your work? Take a few minutes this week to do the following exercise:

  1. Determine the two or three “basics” for your line of work. What is it that really successful people in this area do day after day better than anyone else?
  2. Perform an honest evaluation of yourself on these basics. Do a simple “fist-of-five” evaluation. High=5 (I am doing really well in this area), Low=1 (I have no idea what the basics even are for me). 2, 3, and 4 are somewhere in the middle.
  3. Make a plan to return to the basics. What actions would you need to take each day to begin to strengthen your performance in the basics of your life?
  4. Set aside a few minutes each day to execute on that plan. (read, practice, study, think)

Coach Lombardi said, “Success demands singleness of purpose.” It is so easy to be distracted by the “flashy”. He also said, “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” It is also easy to wish and want for success without being willing to put in the work required to actually be successful.

Question: What are the “basics” of a successful life? I would love for you to tell me at least two things that we each need to be brilliant in to experience a successful life.

5 Leadership Lessons from the US Marines

March 25, 2010 in Leadership, Performance with 5 Comments

For the second time in a year and a half I am witnessing a member of my family becoming a US Marine. The entire family will once again attend this humbling, yet exciting, ceremony. Our first Marine, Tyler is now serving in Afghanistan. Today, we will attend the commissioning service for Stephen. The pride even as I write this is almost overwhelming.

As I get the privilege to spend time around these brave men and women I always come away impressed and inspired. As I was thinking about what impresses me when I am here with them, I decided there were at least five lessons I see in them that could apply to any of us in our day to day pursuit of excellence.

  1. The first, and possibly the most important life-lesson, Discipline. There is no mistaking the discipline that is required to become US Marine. This is the ability to not only work hard, but the ability to know what needs to get done and then DO IT! No matter how I feel today, no matter what stands in the way, they just get it done.
  2. Be Prepared. No matter what may come at them in the field they are ready. They work hard at anticipating all the possible circumstances that might come up and then they prepare a response to that situation. They know, as we all should, that when an opportunity presents itself it is too late to get prepared. You never know what, or when, opportunity will knock, so be prepared every day.
  3. Teamwork – you never see a Marine alone. They are always moving about in teams. They are trained to work as one and communication is the key. My Marine here told me today that when you don’t think you can go any further a teammate comes along side you to help you make it through whatever challenges you may be facing. Working together as one ensures success.
  4. Follow-through – a Marine never stops until the job is done. There is no half-way. The same should be said for us. Are there any half completed projects around your house or work? This is where discipline and integrity come in. Finish what you start.
  5. Vigilance – The US Marine is always standing guard, watching over their mission, ensuring that nothing unwanted comes in to un-do the great work they have done. In life, that means keeping watch over your work and life to make sure that everything is going as planned and that nothing has crept in that reduce your chances for success.

I just returned from an entire day on the base with the graduating class and their families. The Marine values of Honor, Courage and Commitment were alive and well today, and every day, with these hero’s. I am inspired to be more and do more just for having been around them.

Question: What other lessons can we learn from our military heroes?

What Comes Out When You are Squeezed?

March 17, 2010 in Choices, Growth, Performance with 0 Comments

“I was angry!”

That was the answer when I asked, “Why did you send such a nasty email without thinking first how it would be perceived?”

Recently I wrote an entry in this blog about “mastering the pause” and how it can be an effective communication tool. I was reminded recently of a great place to insert a pause when I witnessed an unfortunate email exchange between two people that I know fairly well. We all probably have responses that we wish we could take back; emails we wish we had not sent or voice mails we wish we had not left. What a great place it would have been to insert a pause.

In his book titled, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Covey teaches us that between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.  He speaks about either being a reactive person driven by emotion and the behavior of others, or being a proactive person driven by values and the ability to choose. If I am completely honest with myself I would have to say that I can easily find myself on the reactive side of things from time to time. What I really want to do is figure out how to stay permanently on the proactive side, mastering the gap between stimulus and response.

I often work with young married couples who are struggling in their relationship with each other. It is common to hear one or both people say that their spouse is such an angry person. When I dig into this and compare it with my own experience I find that one or both of the people in the marriage are being driven by emotion and the behavior of the other person. I know this has been true of me in the past. The only thing I have found that can help in this situation is to realize what Dr. Covey so brilliantly stated, that between stimulus (angry words, or actions from someone else) and my response to those words or actions, I have the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. I can choose to react. I can choose to pause. It is my choice. If I am driven by emotion I will skip right past my moment to choose and I will strike back and take the situation from bad to worse. If I am driven by values and a desire to calm and diffuse the situation I will seek to better understand before I respond.

The question to ask yourself is how do you, how will you, handle the space between the next stimulus that comes your way and the response you want to communicate to that stimulus? Will you pause and evaluate the situation or will you react and allow the negative cycle of emotion to continue. It is your choice to make.

Mastering the Pause

March 8, 2010 in Growth, Performance with 1 Comment

I had a friend some years ago that really frustrated me every time I tried to tell him about something that was happening in my life. Each time I completed a sentence he would jump in and attempt to answer questions I had not asked. He would share how he had done something similar; how he had seen the same thing; how he thought I should handle what he perceived to be the situation.  I was afraid to pause, even to take a breath, for fear that he would hijack my story and begin telling me what it all meant to him. All I really wanted him to do was listen to me. I mean really listen to me.

Stephen Covey, in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” asks, “how often do we diagnose before we prescribe in communication?” My friend, and me as it turns out (and probably you), loved to jump to prescribe before actually diagnosing the complete situation. He wanted to be understood before he took the time to understand where I was coming from. We often choose to assume we understand the other persons point before they actually make it.

This is a problem I think many of us face and it has a negative impact on our relationships and on our ability to communicate effectively. As I have been working with sales people over the past few years on how to be more effective I have discovered a tool that I am trying to apply to my personal life and all opportunities I have to communicate with others. It is called “mastering the pause”.

Mastering the pause means that when I am in a conversation with someone, a customer, a prospect, a friend, a spouse, a child, I resist the urge to jump into their part of the conversation. When they pause to gather their thoughts or take a breath I do not jump in and start talking, I wait – silently. Now, if I am you and I am reading this I am saying to myself, this sounds like common sense to me. It is common sense, but it is not common practice. Begin watching how often you actually do not wait for the other person to completely finish what they are talking about before you dive in to either finish their thought or add value to their story. I have noticed that if they pause and I stay quiet they almost always start talking again. Only when I am sure that they are done with their story or the point they were making do I begin to formulate my response. This is tough to do.

Choosing to understand first before being understood yourself goes against a lot of our human nature. It is only natural to want to add value to someone elses story. But what communicates value to another person is listening with the intent to understand before you respond. Give it a try today. Can you master the pause?

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