Olympian…

Did you enjoy the Olympics?  Who wouldn’t want to have “Olympian” on their resume! 

During Olympic coverage, the sports media poured tons of hyperbole over the gold medal performances.  The spotlight may even have shined brighter on those athletes that failed, true?  Either end of the extreme is good for the ratings business, I suppose. 

In Olympic competition, not every competitor wins every event.  Their day is a lot like our day.  Following the closing ceremonies, what do you suppose the Olympians are doing this week?  Getting ready for their next competition, I’ll bet. 

Competition is about striving to win; preparing to win; competing to win.  Winning (or losing) is simply the end result, isn’t it?  You and me, we compete in our daily lives, don’t we?  And when we fail, what motivates us to try again?  Here’s Steve Richard’s view: 

            Who motivates you?  You! 

Of course, others can also play a big part in helping us leverage the power of motivation to overcome failure in pursuit of success.  For instance, teammates. 

As a sales professional, I advocated “hunting as a pack”.  There is power in the team.  I learned this approach from Joe Newton, who coached, “running as a pack”.  You may have read my writings about “Tiger Joe” before.  He was one of the most successful high school boys cross country coaches ever.  Although I was not a runner, he was the person who most influenced my sales process.  (BTW – he also coached 4-time Olympic gold medalist, Sebastian Coe.) 

There were many elements to Joe Newton’s competitive approach; the principle of continuous improvement; the ability to earn great success yet going back out every day to prepare anew; etc.  One key I remember was his focus on offering positive motivation to his kids.  His key to positive motivation?  Pretty simple, really. 

Every day at every practice, Coach Newton called out every kid by their first name - every day.  Every kid (and most of his teams had 100 runners or more) would hear his coach call him by his first name (or nick name), every day.  Joe Newton coupled this with saying at least one positive thing to every kid, too. Every day. 

It’s amazing how far a simple; “Way to go!” goes.  Joe Newton’s positive reinforcement helped his runners, run; every day.  They were motivated to train hard – harder than their competition.  On race day?  They dominated.  And after dominating?  Back to preparation because: 

It requires a strong constitution to withstand repeated attacks of prosperity. 

Joe Newton 

Back to business - Loren Brockhouse, a former colleague of mine, offers this link to Inc. Magazine’s “9 beliefs of remarkably successful people”. I particularly like Belief #9:

            The extra mile is a vast, unpopulated wasteland.

Enjoy the full article - 9 Beliefs of Remarkably Successful People 

Way to go Loren! 

GAP 

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

 

Soaring…

I love to see someone’s joy!  His shadow makes an even bigger impact:

Joy – what a great feeling!  We often hear a pro athlete after making the “big play” say they used to dream about being in that moment during their childhood.  They used to imagine soaring.  Such joy is not limited to sports. 

Bill Gates’ marathon coding sessions to become the first to create an operating system for PCs (e.g. DOS, the Disk Operating System) are legendary.  Though a self-proclaimed introvert, I bet he was joyous when his operating system booted up for the first time.  Maybe he didn’t physically soar for a dunk, but I bet he was more than happy. 

The variety of sources that give us joy are further defined by experts.  In Daniel H. Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us ©, we find: 

The performance of the task provided intrinsic reward…  The joy of the task was its own reward. 

Harry S. Harlow 

Regardless of what we get paid to do, is the joy of the task our own reward?  Assuming we are doing something that drives us, of course.  Daniel H. Pink goes on to clarify: 

… true motivation comes from autonomy, the desire to direct our own lives; mastery, the urge to get better at something… 

What do you think?  Are we spending most of our time self-directed; autonomously pursuing and yearning for mastery?  Or, are we stuck in our daily routine?  Autonomous motivation is easy to write about, but it’s hard to soar in the real world, true?  Nonetheless, we are wise to heed this advice: 

If you're not enjoying the journey, you probably won't enjoy the destination. 

Joe Tye 

My friend Dom above reminds us of what joy looks like during the journey.  And who knows what his destination might be:  

See the similarities?

GAP

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

 

Hope +/-…

Hope is Not a Strategy© is a book by Rick Page I like to quote.  I hear that word, “Hope” spoken often by business people, salespeople, and entrepreneurs.  Successful businesses always make me wonder, “How did they make it?” 

I wonder about a lot of things.  How planes fly for example:

Launching a business can be like flying a plane - extremely challenging.  On the business side, what makes one business succeed when so many others fail?  It’s certainly not air, magic, or even important magic.  

Maybe its belief.  What do you think?  Does success require belief instead of hope?  Well, there’s this story by Gino Wickman: 

An entrepreneur slips and falls off the edge of a cliff.  On his way down, he manages to grab onto the end of a vine.  He's hanging there, a thousand feet from the top and a thousand feet from the bottom.  His situation seems hopeless, so he looks up to the clouds, and decides for the first time to pray.  “Is anybody up there?” he asks.  After a long silence, a deep voice bellows down from the clouds, “Do you believe?” 'Yes" replies the entrepreneur. “Then let go of the vine,” says the voice.  The entrepreneur pauses for a second, looks up again, and finally responds, “Is there anybody else up there?” 

Perhaps success requires both hope and belief.  Perhaps even more.  I enjoyed Phil Knight’s book Shoe Dog © about how he started Nike: 

The cowards never started and the weak died along the way.  That leaves us… 

Ahh, bravery and strength.  Maybe successful businesses are started and operated by the brave and the strong.  Well, farmers are definitely brave to make a living on crops, livestock, weather, and the marketplace.  They certainly have to be physically and mentally strong.  Farmers add another ingredient to success: 

ACTION: 

Having the world's best idea will do you no good unless you act on it.  People who want milk shouldn't sit on a stool in the middle of a field in hopes that a cow will back up to them. 

Curtis Grant 

Now we’re getting somewhere.  In researching successful entrepreneurs and business owners we find this: 

Don't hope more than you’re willing to work. 

Rita Mae Brown 

Ahh… “Work”.  A recent speech by this billionaire sought to debunk thinking about work-life balance   for entrepreneurs. 

I’m sure there are even more ingredients that go into a formula for business success.  Starting with Hope + Belief + Bravery + Strength + Action + Work – Work/Life Balance, what else would you add or subtract? 

GAP 

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

 

Fine line…

There’s a fine line among accountability; criticism; and coaching, true?  It can be easy to criticize.  On the other hand many people are motivated by coaching - when it’s done right.  In his book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise©, Anders Ericsson offers: 

… meaningful positive feedback is one of the crucial factors in maintaining motivation.

Note the qualifier, “meaningful”.  Not all coaching is motivational.  It’s also often easier to coach someone you like; someone who’s already preforming well.  It’s those you don’t like; those who suck that are the challenge.  Yet a sales manager can’t simply ignore the under-performers.  Ignoring is not on the path to superior performance.  It’s not fair to the team.  It’s not fair to the under-performer: 

… if the person is struggling, it is actively uncaring to allow him to keep playing a part that doesn't fit. By this definition, firing the person is a caring act. 

Marcus Buckingham 

There’s that fine line… The path between the books-ends of coaching and firing is narrow.  That’s where we find accountability.  In my experience the best salespeople accept accountability for their own responsibility e.g. sales performance.  Beyond our individual people’s attitude, applying accountability is a management skill: 

Accountability, particularly when executed well, trumps coaching and enabling every day of the month and twice on the day that the sales report gets published. 

Mike Weinberg 

Note the qualifier, “when executed well”.  That’s the skill. Otherwise, accountability attempts can send the wrong counter-productive message.  It’s a fine line: 

Great managers want each employee to feel a certain tension, a tension to achieve. 

Marcus Buckingham 

The “feel of tension to achieve” is a great feeling!  However, it’s found on a very narrow path indeed aka a fine line. 

GAP 

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

Whadda ya expect?

We were enjoying an early dinner at a local restaurant recently (Takoda Tavern).  The owner came around to welcome us adding a nice, personal touch to our experience.  I told him I enjoyed his approach to setting customer expectations:

We’ve heard lots of cliches about expectations, true?  Perhaps the adage, “Under promise; over deliver” is most familiar.  I had my own experience with setting, or shall I say mis-setting, expectations my freshman year at college.  It actually started my senior year of high school.  One of my teammates, Gary Nottleman, thought it would be humorous if we wore jingle bells on our shoes during the Proviso West Holiday Tournament.  We exceeded expectations in that tournament and decided to wear bells for the rest of the season. 

Fast forward to the fall of that same year and my first day of basketball tryouts at Knox College.  By then, I had forgotten all about bells on my shoes.  I was so nervous that first day I didn’t pay attention to them when I took the floor.  Our coach Bill Foss, also an assistant coach on the football team, was a celebrated athlete himself.  Meeting him for the first time on that court I could tell Coach Foss had a tough-nosed, no nonsense approach.  That’s when I caught sight of him glancing at my shoes. 

Remaining expressionless, he went to the equipment locker and pulled out a linebacker blocking pad from the football gear.  He blew the whistle and we gathered around; he would run a rebounding drill and would obviously “make contact” as we went up for the ball.  Turning to look me straight in the eye he said, “You’re first”. 

That’s when I realized I had lowered the expectations-bar with those jingle bells.  Coach Foss was about to test my toughness.  As I stepped into position, I reached down and pulled a mouth-guard from my sock to protect my teeth.  I had actually knocked out my front tooth in the Proviso West tournament but played on.  Following the game, I had a false tooth installed and the dentist instructed me to wear a mouth-guard if I planned to continue playing ball. 

With mouth-guard in place, my new coach was surprised.  (It was an era before mouth-guards were common in basketball.)  He proceeded with his “full-contact” drill; I proved to be as the song said “tough enough”; and went on to collegiate success culminating with induction into the Knox Lombard Athletic Hall of Fame. 

Lowering the bar was one way to exceed expectations I suppose.  I did it myself, even if by accident.  But excellence is actually about raising the bar, true?  Here’s one example showing the power of setting high expectations: 

The Value of Publicity 

There are six peaks in Europe higher than the Matterhorn. 

Name One. 

Harry Beckwith 

Our meal at Takoda was delightful.  If you decide to visit, don’t let their sign set the wrong expectations. 

GAP 

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

Superior Performance…

Ever wonder what goes into attaining a level of superior performance? 

In the Business-2-Business sales profession I coach the “4 As”.  Leveraged these myself as a producer. 

A is for Approach.  As Yogi Berra said: 

If you don’t know where you're going, when you get there, you'll be lost. 

Applied to sales this includes a “Territory Plan” combined with a repeatable selling process.  These comprise the “What” we’re going to do and the “How” we’re going to do it.  Thankfully, if we don’t know have these we can be coached to develop them. 

A is for Activity.  B2B selling is a “contact sport”.  Maintaining a high level of contacts (verb) with our contacts (noun) can overcome all kinds of deficiencies in other areas and lead to superior performance.  Thankfully, an approach to activity can also be coached. 

A is for Ability.  I define ability as a combination of knowledge and skill.  Experience can help, but not required (even “junior” salespeople can and are successful).  Regarding knowledge, I believe our prospects expect us to be experts on our products; experts on current technology; and experts in comparing/contrasting our offering to that of our competitors.  Selling skills is a broader topic and outside of today’s scope.  Fortunately, the primary elements of ability can be coached. 

And finally, A is for Attitude.  Of the 4 As, this one is all on us.  In the sales profession not everyone can do this for a living.  Others have also commented on the futility of trying to change someone’s inherent attitude: 

What Great Managers Know: 

·         People don’t change that much. 

·         Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out. 

·         Try to draw out what was left in. 

·         That is hard enough. 

Marcus Buckingham 

OK, I submit for your consideration that 3 of my 4 As can be improved with coaching.  Thus, I suggest the key to superior performance (with attitude duly noted) in sales, or for that matter any other pursuit, is coaching.  Almost every person I can think of that achieved a superior level of performance had another person in their life that made a significant impact.  A parent; teacher; coach; mentor; manager; client; sibling; spouse… coaching comes from an almost limitless number of sources. 

Take one example; professional golfers.  Often looked upon as an “individual sport”, if we dig deeper with any of the superior performers (e.g. Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Scottie Scheffler) we find that every one of them had multiple coaches covering their swing; putting; physical fitness;  competitive mindset; the works. 

The sales profession is no different.  Often confused as an individual job filled by “lone wolves”, attaining a superior level of performance, is best approached by what it is; an individual sport AND a team sport.  Hmmm… maybe I should consider And as a 5^th A? 

GAP 

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