WHAT APPEARS TO BE
How are you feeling right now? Do you enjoy being called a loser?
Our hometown baseball team just got swept in the World Series, losing four straight games. These losses came after they won 21 of 22 games just to get to the biggest baseball event on earth.
Are they losers?
WHAT MIGHT BE
Some would argue yes. They lost. And it’s all about results, right?
It is about results- and it’s how we get the results- that distinguish the difference between the good and the great.
There’s an organization I know where the bosses on the top floor consistently inform those below them about their failures. These people live in the past. “You’re only as good as your last game,” they claim.
This argument is logically flawed. Why would anyone intentionally frame their past in a way that hurts them in the future? A friend named Ryan reminds us, “You can’t drive forward looking in the rearview mirror.”
How easily are you able to move forward when the past makes you feel like horse scat?
WHAT CAN BE
Somewhere, somehow, I learned leadership wrong. I learned that to get people to improve, I was supposed to point out their spots, their weaknesses. I was supposed to tell them they’re a loser.
And of course, because I told them they were losers, they acted like losers. Which ironically made me a loser.
The only time is now. Which means the only time we can win is now.
During their historical winning streak, the fellas on our local baseball team stated, “Each time we step on the field, we believe we’ll win.”
Do you believe you’ll win today? Your answer reveals your fate.
What is the difference between what “might be” and what “can be”? You decide.
Remember “management by exception”? Managers used to only deal with the exceptions. AND, as employees, that was how we were known (i.e., did you see what so-and-so did this time?). Never mind that 99% of the time most people do EXACTLY what they should do. But that 1% is always brought to light. I had a car wreck several years ago. I really felt bad about it, till my Mom said “It’s about time you had one. You’ve been driving for over 25 years”. She made me realize that, while an accident is tramatic, it is not the end of the world. A mistake, while disappointing, is not the end of the world.
As the saying goes – Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. (Winston Churchill)
Mike – your wisdom is obvious. Isn’t it amazing, the old idea of ‘management by exception’ only created greater need for management. (Perhaps a way for them to create work for themselves.)
But, when the approach is taken of focusing on exceptional acts – when people show their exceptional potential – we all get more done.
Thanks for standing with the tall guys, Mike.