Pundits, Pontificators, et al

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are coming.  What a terrific sports festival for our modern era!  Interestingly, the 2022 Winter Olympic gold medal for women’s figure skating was only recently determined.  Finally, after two years of debate, discussion, and controversy.  I wonder if that’s how the Greeks did it 2,800 years ago? 

America has our own “modern game”.  Did you join in the aftermath?  It was Monday, February 12^th.  Ring a bell?  How about this: It was the day after the most watched television event in history with an estimated 123.7 million viewers.  Actually, the phenomenon I’m referring to started the night before; even before the fans left the stadium. 

Monday February 12^th brought out the rest of the seers; soothsayers; second-guessers, pundits; pontificators; doubters; experts; gurus; quarterbacks of the arm-chair and Monday-morning variety, and (of course) the critics. Some are still grinding on it.  I chuckle about the pontificators: 

“Pontificator” 

in British English 

NOUN a person who pontificates 

Yes, yes, I’m a pontificator, too.  Even so, are these other gurus worth listening to?  All the hoopla reminds me of Dale Carnegie’s pontification: 

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. 

I’m talking about Super Bowl LVIII.  (That’s 58 to us non-Latin-Speaking-Romans).  I get it.  Sports fans, bettors, media, and even the 123.7 viewers have their opinions about whether the Chiefs won the game or the 49ers lost it.  Is Kyle Shanahan an elite NFL head coach who has yet to win a Super Bowl?  Or is he a bumbling idiot who blew the game over a coin flip? 

Shanahan certainly unleashed the “What if’s”.  Especially the “if’s”.  And we all know: 

If the Hamm’s Bear drank Schlitz, there’d be no land of sky blue waters. 

Unknown Sage 

I could join in.  “What if” it turns out that the Kansas City Chiefs are one of the greatest NFL teams ever assembled.  In spite of the Bills Mafia (a favorite fan base of mine), Buffalo couldn’t beat the Chiefs at home.  Not even the Baltimore Ravens with the best regular season record, home field advantage, and the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 2024 could beat KC. 

Personally, I admired Shanahan’s confidence.  Score first; hold KC; and the debate shifts to whether the Superbowl MVP should have been Brock Purdy or Christian McCaffrey.  Oh, Kyle could have doubted; played less aggressively; feared Patrick Mahomes; anticipated the punditry.  But try as they might, the post-game media experts couldn’t get him to say he made a mistake.  He remained confident in the face of criticism just as Michael Treacy wrote about in his book The Discipline of Market Leaders ©: 

            Courage in the face of doubt is essential. 

Oh well, criticism of defeats have been with mankind as long as there has been mankind.  I’m sure you and I face the doubters and second guessers every time a decision we made doesn’t turn out very well.  I’d rather heed the ancients: 

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing; say nothing; and be nothing. 

Aristotle 

Nonetheless, the debate and the criticism continues; especially the criticism in spite of what the ancients might think.  As for the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has published this historical perspective: 

The Original values of Olympism as expressed in the Olympic Charter were to encourage effort, preserve human dignity, and develop harmony.  

Hmmm… No mention of coin flips by a single seer, soothsayer, or pontificator. 

                                                            GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Tough times?

I understand.  Your team missed their number; your company did too.  As a manager, you had to "lay off" a sales rep; maybe two; maybe more.  Now what? 

It's the new fiscal year; quotas are bigger; territories are smaller; and compensation plans were changed... your people have to sell more just to make the same.  You too.  Now what? 

Companies want employees to return to the office (at least a few days each week). Employees have become accustomed to working from home aka remote, aka online, aka virtually, aka in their PJs. Your sales people are resisting.  They think it’s a waste of time to show up just to show their face.  Now what? 

Are we working, managing, and living in tough times?  Yes.  Managing people remotely is tough. Maintaining a sense of camaraderie and culture is tough. Staying up beat in the face of adversity is tough. And people are realizing that "working from home" has morphed into "living at work".  Now what???

Well, if you are leading a team, "now what" is why you were selected to lead a team: 

Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition, such as lifting weights, we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity. 

Stephen R. Covey 

Recently, enjoyably, I’ve chatted with several sales people, sales managers, and sales VPs on the topic of leading during tough times.  Each of them responded to the question, “Now what?” by phoning a friend.  IMHO, that was an excellent, first step.  Why?  Because sales is a team sport.  More on that in a minute…  Back to your today.  Difficult day?  Yes: 

Life is difficult.  This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.  It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it.  Once we know that life is difficult – then life is no longer difficult.  Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters. 

M. Scott Peck  

OK Captain Obvious… easy to pontificate but what do we do about it?  Here are a few ideas I shared in my recent conversations.  I thought you might find value in them, too. 

As I stated first and foremost, sales is a team sport.  Foster your team; conduct team meetings… but… don’t focus on the “usual” stuff aka forecasts; month end deadlines; tough times; misery!  Instead:

• Invite a client to address your team and share their experiences with your company’s products/services.
• Read a business book and discuss how to apply tips & tricks to your team’s daily routine.  (I recommend Inside the Magic Kingdom by Tom Connellan.)
• Watch a Ted Talk or a LinkedIn Learning module and have a team discussion about ways to apply lessons learned to their routine. 

Why that book and why the daily routine?  Well, successful selling (and the “secret” to Disney) is executing all of those little things each day with excellence: 

Focus on having a good day; every day; and the year will take care of itself. 

Gary Givan 

The third piece of advice I offered in our conversations was the importance of maintaining a positive, can-do, mental attitude.  James Reston put it best this way: 

Stick with the optimists.  It’s going to be tough enough even if they’re right. 

If today’s tough times are getting you down, don’t try to go it alone.  Phone a friend.  Not sure who to call?  Give me a call.  I’ll fly with ya. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.