Being in the big leagues has its advantages–money, fame, fans, etc.  Being in the big leagues also has its disadvantages.  Just ask major league umpire Jim Joyce.  With the TV cameras running, 17,000 fans on their feet, and a perfect game on the line, he obviously blows an easy call.  A 22-year veteran and everyone notices his one huge, nasty, unbelievable goof.  In the big leagues, the light shines brightly on its characters, including the officials.

In this situation, it is easy to criticize and chastise Jim Joyce for his mistake.  Why not?  He’s a professional. Professionals don’t make mistakes. Or do they?

Let’s put it in a different perspective.  You are a professional, too.  You get paid to do your job.  Have you ever made a mistake?   Have you ever really screwed something up?  Of course you have.  The only difference is the bright lights weren’t shining on you and you didn’t mess it up in front of a throng of fans.  So what?  You still screwed up.  Imagine how you would have felt if your employer, your boss, and the people you work with spent the next 48 hours repeatedly analyzing and hashing over your mistake.  How would you feel if they did that to you?

Here’s the learning from this for all of us professionals.  Everyone comes to work with the expectation and motivation to do good work. It may be that some people may not know or understand what good work is.  Nonetheless, everyone does not go to work with the expectation they are going to screw things up.

Mistakes happen.  People make mistakes–even seasoned professionals.  Mistakes are best managed not by putting someone under the microscope and openly criticizing them.  The best way to deal with any mistake in the workplace is to acknowledge it, learn from it, and do everything possible to avoid repeating it.

I was pleased the way the Detroit Tigers, Major League Baseball, and the umpires went to work the next day.  They acknowledged it and moved on.  This was great example of appropriately managing a gigantic mistake.  A wonderful lesson for all us professionals in the everyday workforce.

Listening is a lost art.  As a society, we are spending so much time talking–virtually or verbally–that we really are not listening very well.  Listening is the source of learning, discovery, understanding, and enlightenment.  If you are spending your time listening in order to get ready to tell, prove your point, argue, disagree, sell, or promote, you are not listening.

There are two keys to effective listening.  (Think about these before you start to agree or disagree.)

1. Not “Listening to…”: Our listening often involves listening to: who is talking; whether I am going to agree, disagree, like it or not like it; where I can chime in and make my contribution.   This is not effective listening.  This is effective interrupting.  You are simply mentally interrupting their thoughts, ideas, and expressions as you wait for an opportunity to actually interrupt.  You cannot possibly listen to learn if you are listening to interrupt.
2. “Listening for …”: Effective listening involves listening to what the other person is discussing and listening for the opportunity that emanates from their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions.  Simply dismissing what they are talking about because you may not like what you hear is not creating opportunity.  Creating opportunity in your listening is accepting their perspectives as valid from where they sit and listening for an opportunity to discover the opportunities from your respective viewpoints.  This requires attentive and active listening regardless of who is talking and what they are saying.

The art of listening involves engaging in actively hearing, not interrupting the conversation or discounting the thought, idea, perspective or suggestion. When you listen for the opportunity, you will create a more effective engagement, relationship and outcome.  Put real listening  to work, you will be amazed at the results.

“Big things happen by doing small things very well everyday” ~ Steven Caldwell

Having coached sports at several levels, I am passionate about preparation.  There are people who will defend their favorite college coach despite his diminished record because of uncompetitive practice facilities, weaker talent, or what not.  Truth is, preparation and execution are the key to everything.

In sports, the only measure of success is winning.  They keep score for a reason.  And, winning is ultimately defined by execution.  When one team out executes the other, they will usually win.  Talented teams will lose to lesser teams that out execute them–and they often do.  A team focused on and committed to the fundamentals, preparation, and execution will beat poorly prepared talent almost every time!

The only way to assure you will be successful is your preparation and consistent execution on the little things that matter most.

This quote inspired me because of its focus on the simple, the basics.  We all want to accomplish great things.  We have big ideas, big dreams, big desires.  Often, we start working on getting to the big thing without realizing greatness requires several simple, small steps done really well and very consistently. 

• Woody Hayes and his “three yards and a cloud of dust offense” is an example of that.  You knew they running off-tackle right or off-tackle left.  Yet, no one could stop his teams.  Why?  They did the little things in that offense very well everyday.
• Magic Johnson was a skilled basketball player.  One of my personal all-time favorites.  As a kid, he would dribble a basketball in his right hand going to the store and in his left hand coming home.  He learned to do the little things well everyday.
• Spouses who stay together forever and seem as happy as the day they got married, make it a point to express their love everyday.   It sounds like such a little thing; but, its the little things that are the key to the big result.

Whether you are an athlete, a business owner, a leader, a sales professional or a parent or a spouse, being great isn’t about the big things.  It is recognizing the little things that are critical to your big dreams and doing them well everyday.  Execution is the key to success.  The systematic, exceptional execution of the little things will get you there.

I have had many conversations with people who dream out loud what they really want to do with their life.  In nearly every conversation they have something they are passionate about and rather skilled at.  Their challenge is in pursuing it and believing they can do it.

Often they begin defining their passion in terms of a job description and struggle to figure out how they can monetize it.  That thought process usually creates barriers, not opportunity.  I advise them to go through a more strategic and creative thought process that allows them discover the options for turning their passion into a business, a hobby, a cause, or a service.

Instead of dealing with traditional roadblock thinking about your passion, I encourage the following thought process:

1. Clarify your true passion.
2. Define and articulate how others would benefit from this skill and energy.
3. List options and opportunities as to how you might provide this to the world.
4. Initially avoid the traditional thoughts about whether this would make money, require money, or fit into something easily described to others.
5. Look at the options and decide which one best defines their interest and devise a plan for turning it into something.
6. Then define how passionate you are about this opportunity by taking action and “owning it” or do nothing.

This approach takes people out of the “I have a dream, but don’t know whether it would work” mindset and facilitates a “what’s possible” interaction.  For an example of this kind of thinking, read the article, “Don’t Miss That Aha Moment.”

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I had the pleasure of watching  a condensed replay of this year’s Super Bowl on the NFL Channel this weekend.  Skipping the huddles and the constant TV chatter was awesome.  Injected into the mix were the “wired” players and post-game interviews and several instant replay looks of the big game.  Quite cool.  I may wait to watch future Super Bowls this way.

What caught my attention the most during this replay was the reminder of the importance of a focused, committed, and prepared team.  This Super Bowl, like several in recent years, featured the star and his guys vs. the other team.  In 2008 it was “Tom Brady and the Patriots vs. The New York Giants“, in 2002 it was “Kurt Warner and the Greatest Show on Turf vs.  The New England Patriots” and this year it was “Peyton and the Colts against The New Orleans Saints.”  Funny how the “star and his guys” always lost to the “other” team.  It is as if in the hype, everyone forgets that there are actually 22 starters, a multitude of key role players, and a coaching staff involved in the game, too.

One guy will not win the game by himself.  One component of a team cannot win a game without the fully-committed, support of the rest.  In all three of these Super Bowl cases, it was obvious to everyone who the winner was going to be.  Funny, the other team didn’t know they were supposed to lose.  And didn’t play like they were expected to lose.

Business is the same way.  There is far too much emphasis on the separation of powers in most organizations.  Too many businesses allow their internal teams to operate independently with each other.  Functionally and operationally, most businesses are divided into the sales team, the marketing department, the finance group and there is the executive team.   The greater the separation and distinctions of the respective roles, the less the organizational team functions.  The closer the lines of communication, interaction, and strategic collaboration, the more likely the business will be on a winning track.  When these self-important, separated departments face a crises, they are not organizationally equipped or structured to weather the storm.

When I replayed that Super Bowl game the one thing that struck me more than anything–the New Orleans Saints as a team was more prepared to win than the Indianapolis Colts.  Their leader was engaged, prepared, calm, emotional, and focused.  So were the players.

Businesses can and do struggle with external challenges everyday–clients, competitors, economics, etc.  The businesses that are structured as a well-led, well-prepared, cohesive, cross-functional organizational unit are much more prepared and positioned to win than any organization that allows any of its superstars to become the center of attention.  Build a strong team in your business — great teams always win!

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We all have had those experiences where something happens in our life and seemingly catches us by surprise.  Worse, while we are lamenting the calamity our friends, colleagues, co-workers, or family all carefully explain to you “they saw it coming.”  Before you read any further take a look at the link to this video.  This is the wreck that we all are surprised by, that everyone around you saw coming.

I have worked with a lot of business owners, managers and employees discussing various challenges and issues.  Those that are receptive to the honest advice, council, and influence of others make adjustments in their professional or personal life and often avoid the bus that is about to hit them.  However, there is another group that is so determined to keep on marching on the path that they are on, that they never see the bus that is about to hit them.

My message in this blog is directed to business owners and senior level managers: your people have gone through a great deal this year.  They have seen co-workers they like lose their jobs, co-workers they despise keep theirs, they have lost benefits, perks, and income, plus, they have been asked to take on more work than ever before.  They want to be successful, appreciated and motivated.  And your best ones will find a better environment the first time the economic situation enables them to do so.

Can your business afford to get hit by a busload of unhappy, disengaged team members? Can you manage the increased loss of intellectual property in the form of experienced people walking out the door?  Will your customers accept another service miscue because you are busy training another replacement?

Your business is built on the spirit and the talent and the energy of your team.  Remember that.  Before they expect it, find a way to reward, thank, or recognize your team. It does not need to be anything elaborate or complicated.  Simply providing  a measured way of saying “thanks” and saying it regularly, or saying “nice work” when it is deserved goes a long way to changing the course of that bus that is about to hit you.  Trust me, I have seen the scenes from this video played out all too often in many businesses.  Forget to give your team the recognition it needs and deserves right now and you will get hit by the bus you never saw coming.

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