The Ball is Always Right
December 3, 2009
Life is always interesting because you can learn profound lessons in the most unlikely situations. In this case, it was from a tennis lesson during a corporate retreat.
My company offers a wide variety of programs to help organizations improve their performance and effectiveness. By far, my favorite is the “Learning to Fly” corporate retreat, where we introduce leadership and customer skills in the morning and reinforce them in the afternoon on the flying trapeze at Club Med.
During a program I held there a few weeks ago, I arrived a day early to make sure everything was set up properly for the attendees who would be arriving later in the day. When that was done, I headed over for the tennis workshop to try and resurrect a tennis game that has seen very limited action for the last few years.
As luck would have it, I was the only person there, so I got a 45-minute private lesson. As fate would have it, the instructor was a tyrant. No, really, he was! He ran me all over the court because he claimed that I wasn’t shuffling my feet enough when he hit the ball right to me; that I wasn’t shifting my weight properly; and that I was off balance when I hit the ball. (I can assure you that none of these claims were true.)
After a few minutes, I got with the program so he began hitting the balls closer to where I was standing so I could work on the mechanics of my stroke. By mistake, he hit one ball farther away then the others, and I watched it go right by me.
He got annoyed at this (remember, he was a tyrant) and asked me why I didn’t go after the ball. I told him that he didn’t hit the ball where he was supposed to. He laughed at this and said, “No matter where it’s hit, the ball is always in the right place. If it doesn’t come where you expect it to, then you need to move to the ball, otherwise you’ll lose the point!”
And although he was only talking about tennis, his statement had implications that reached far beyond the game.
How many times in life are we faced with a situation where things don’t go the way we expect them to? Where a situation at work unexpectedly complicates our jobs? Where we’re thrown a curve that dramatically impacts our personal lives?
And when this happens, our initial reaction is to just stand and watch, dumbstruck, as it happens, complaining that this wasn’t the way it was supposed to turn out, just as I stood and watched as the tennis ball passed by me just out of reach.
Mistake or not; intentional or not; fair or not; when the ball is hit out of reach you have two choices: you can stand there and do nothing, or you can adapt your strategy to the situation and move to where the ball is and give it your best shot.
Remember, the ball is always in the right place. Whether you win or lose depends on how you meet the ball.
It’s All About Choices……
December 2, 2009
It’s All About Choices……
Thanksgiving is a dangerous time, especially if you’re trying to stay in shape. There are simply too many opportunities to eat good food. And then there are too many opportunities to eat leftovers for the rest of the weekend!
With the kids both home from college, we had a full day: brunch at a friend’s house, final preparations for our own dinner, visiting some other friends, then off to see Phantom of the Opera at the Durham Performing Arts Center.
That makes for a very full day. And with all that ahead of us, we certainly would have been justified in sleeping in late that morning. But life is all about choices, and we chose instead to get up at around 6:30 am and participate in the Gobbler’s Run, a 5K (3.1 mile) race to raise funds for the local Boys and Girls Club in nearby Wake Forest.
Okay, three of us decided to get up; our daughter decided to sleep until around 11:00 – even the prospect of a great holiday brunch wasn’t enough to get her up that early!
But there was an added benefit to running: it “created some room” for all the food we were going to eat that day. And we weren’t alone, by the way. Over 1,250 people participated by running or walking in the event, including the 77-year-old father of one of our friends.
The results we get in life, whether about fitness, career, or personal issues, are directly related to the choices we make each and every day. What choices are you making today?
The Annoying Telemarketer
November 24, 2009
It’s important to be honest, but it’s also important to have the right attitude about your work, particularly if you have direct contact with potential customers.
While I was away on a trip, my wife answered the phone and was greeted by an overly cheerful voice, and the following conversation took place:
“Hello, can I speak to Mr. Rosenberg?”
“I’m sorry he’s not here. Can I take a message?”
“No, that’s okay – I’m just an annoying telemarketer.”
And the caller simply hung up. With all the telemarketers that call our home, my wife thought that was very funny and quite appropriate, but I wonder how his employer would have felt about that comment. With phone solicitors calling during dinner, on the weekend, and at other inconvenient times, people have a bad enough feeling about these callers without them adding fuel to the fire by admitting to people that they are annoying.
And how can you be effective, confident, and enthusiastic about your job if that’s the way you feel about the work you do?
If you don’t enjoy your job, than at least pretend you do. And if you can’t pretend convincingly, it may be a good idea to find another more compatible line of work.
The Safety Pin
November 19, 2009
Motivated employees can be an integral part of your overall business strategy. But when your recognition programs backfire, your employees can end up doing more harm than good.
Many companies have extensive and sometimes expensive employee-recognition programs that go a long way towards maintaining an aligned and motivated workforce. Other companies have similar programs that have no impact on performance whatsoever as you’ll see in the example below.
Several years ago, I was attending a conference in Charlotte, NC. As I checked into the hotel, I noticed that the front-desk clerk was wearing what looked like a large gold safety pin with about 15 round metallic discs threaded along one side.
After completing the registration process and receiving my room key, I asked the clerk about the interesting piece of jewelry she was wearing. She explained that the safety pin was part of their employee-recognition program. Each time the hotel received a positive comment card about an employee, that employee received one of the small discs to add to their safety pin.
It wasn’t surprising to me, then, that this particular clerk had so many discs; she had been very professional in her interaction with me during the check-in process and I mentioned this to her.
I was a bit curious as to whether these discs motivated her to provide outstanding service. When I asked her about this she looked around nervously, leaned over the counter and whispered, “No, not really. I’d be a lot more excited about this program if they offered some additional compensation or award for top performers like me.”
If you’re going to make the effort to develop, deploy, communicate, and administer a program to recognize and reward excellent performance, then be certain that it will actually motivate your employees. Otherwise, you might just get “stuck” yourself.
Maturity of Technique
November 6, 2009
People seem to be in a rush these days. Rushing to get from work to the gym. Rushing to get to the next vacation. Rushing to get promoted to the next level at work. I’ve certainly been guilty of all three at different points in my life. But sometimes it’s better to take it slow.
When I started training in the martial arts, nearly 30 years ago, I took to it instantly…and intensely. My life at that time consisted primarily of work and karate. Sometimes I took as many as four classes in a single day. I clearly remember the head instructor seeing me in my fourth class, and muttering to no one in particular, “Rosenberg’s hooked…”
Because I was putting in so much time and effort in my training, I was able to move up through the various belt levels much faster than was typical. I ultimately got my first-degree black belt in just two years when four years was the norm at that particular school.
But my training partner kept chiding me to not keep testing and getting promoted so quickly. “But I’ve mastered the skills required for each belt level,” I protested. He agreed, but pointed out something profound: “There’s such a thing,” he explained, “as maturity of technique.”
Instead of getting promoted from orange belt to green belt, he suggested, why not spend a little more time there and get everything out of being an orange belt you possibly can?
This same concept applies to absolutely everything you do at work and at home. It translates to living deliberately.- to squeezing everything you possibly can out of everything you do and every situation you experience.
This alone won’t earn you a Black Belt in the martial arts (or even in Business Self-Defense), but it is an essential skill to achieving great things and living a rich life.
Good Question!
October 23, 2009
People spend a great deal of time, money, and effort trying to find “answers” to the questions that are keeping them awake at night. But that’s not necessarily the best way to get results.
As you know, if you’ve been reading this newsletter for at least four months, we belong to a high-level marketing group that meets three times a year in Baltimore. One of the highlights of the two days we spend there is the open Q&A session that takes place on the evening of the first night.
And, after being in this group for three years now, I’ve noticed something interesting: the best questions get the best answers. It’s a pattern I’ve seen repeated time and time again in a variety of situations.
People who think out their questions and send them to me in advance of our monthly Gold Coaching webinars, teleseminars, and one-on-one coaching calls, solicit better – and more useful – information from these sessions than people who are more or less unprepared.
One of our key success principles is that if you don’t ask the right questions then the answers are meaningless. Make sure you’re asking the right questions of your customers, your staff…and yourself.
House at Pooh Corner
September 28, 2009
We had a fun time last Wednesday – we went to see Loggins and Messina in concert.
Some of you may be old enough to remember them – there I go, showing my age again – Kenny Loggins had had a long (and still-continuing) solo career which included several movie themes including, “I’m All Right” (from Caddyshack) and “Danger Zone” (from Top Gun), along with his classic hit, “House at Pooh Corner.”
Jim Messina was in the very popular groups Buffalo Springfield and Poco before teaming up with Loggins in the early 70s. – there I go, showing their age!
And age is actually what I want to talk about here. Because as we sat watching the show, we also were watching the crowd. By our estimate, the average age of the people in attendance was “late 50s”, and from 30 seconds of Google research, I determined that the age of Loggins and Messina themselves was 61.
Here’s the cool part. Sometimes when you go and see the aging artists you listened to growing up, you leave a bit disappointed because, well, they don’t sound that great any more. In contrast, Jim Messina’s playing skills and voice were still strong. And Kenny Loggins’s voice, in particular, was still incredible. At age 61 each! (Three others whose voices still remain as strong – if not better – than in their youth: Steve Winwood, James Taylor, and Stevie Wonder.)
And while Loggins and Messina and their fantastic band were rocking it on the stage, the people in the audience were up on their feet dancing throughout the show, reconnecting with the music they grew up listening to, and seeming to regress in age 20, 30, even 40 years right before our eyes – if not physically, then surely in terms of attitude.
So much of what we can accomplish is based on our perception and outlook on a given situation. Instead of sitting at home, bemoaning the rapid approach of their 60th birthdays, these people were out dancing in the aisles to the music of two legendary musicians who were doing exactly the same thing on stage.
Whose music are you dancing to today?
Make New Friends, But Keep the Old
September 17, 2009
You may recognize that title from the Girl Scout song that goes, “Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold.” I happened to come across these lyrics recently, and they seem to be particularly appropriate now.
This weekend we’re going to do something very special – we’re attending a wedding. But not just any wedding, this is the wedding of someone we’ve known since she was born. Actually since before she was born, if you want to get technical.
When we lived in New Hampshire, years ago, we had a close group of four couples, all about the same age, and all together for just a few years. We knew each other from work, and got together frequently for a gourmet group where we would pick a theme, select and assign dishes, and show up at one couple’s house to cook the meal and have a great time.
Over time, we all started thinking about starting families, and Lorie and I were the first to make the announcement – at a dinner, of course. We told the other couples that they needed to get on board, and – wouldn’t you know it – the two other couples that were trying got pregnant shortly thereafter.
Our son, Jason, was born that December, Meghan was born six weeks later, and Zach was born two weeks after that. It’s Meghan’s wedding that we’re attending this weekend.
After the company we were working for closed the facility, three of the four couples left New Hampshire. We still got together every year to see how the kids had grown and to bring ourselves up to date on what was happening in our lives. But as happens so frequently, time, distance, and the general demands of life made it a bit more challenging to get together, and the annual get-togethers became less frequent, and ultimately stopped.
The good news is this wedding is going to give us an opportunity to reunite (at least three of the couples – the fourth, unfortunately, can’t make it). And these are the kind of friends where you get together after a long gap and it’s as if you had just seen them yesterday. Make new friends, but keep the old…
Time flies by if you let it – one minute three babies are propped up against a couch, and the next minute one of them is getting married. If you can, try not to let everyday demands get in the way of important relationships.
Fame Can Be Disappointing
August 26, 2009
I was out running some errands on a Saturday morning, flipping through the radio stations when I stumbled on a familiar voice. It was Elvis Costello, the English musician with a 30-year career spanning back to his early days in the ’70s as part of the emerging New Wave style.
He was being interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition program, and Scott Simon, the host, was asking questions about his roots in music, the different styles he’s embraced, and his long and successful tenure in the industry – an uncommon feat in the face of the public’s fickle tastes in music.
When asked what advice he’d have for aspiring young musicians today, Costello remarked that they should be acutely aware of why they’re playing. Are they doing it to become rock stars, or to make great music, because, he continued, “Fame can be disappointing, but music is rarely disappointing.”
Similarly, you should be acutely aware of why you’re in business. Unfortunately, too many people seem to be confused about this and it affects every aspect of their companies. If you’re a non-profit, out to save the world – or at least a small part of it, fantastic! Nothing wrong with that. You still need sound fundamental business practices, of course, but you can take a different path in some areas than a for-profit business can.
And if you are a for-profit business, then your key decisions and processes should all be focused on maximizing profits while abiding by our three rules: don’t do anything illegal, immoral, or unethical.
Keeping a clear focus on why he’s writing and playing has kept Elvis Costello both active and successful for over 30 years. Maintaining a similar focus can have great results for you as well.
You Can Do Something…
August 5, 2009
Life and experience are always the best teachers, and this last weekend was no exception.
Always looking for a greater challenge, I’ve moved up from the shorter sprint distance triathlons to the longer and more demanding Olympic-distance races.
The distances for the race this weekend were:
Swim: 1500 meters (.93 miles)
Bike: 28 miles
Run: 6.2 miles
A few comments on the distances. Even though the swim is 1500 meters, because it’s an “open-water” swim (on a lake, ocean,or in this case, a river) you always end up actually swimming more than the posted distance. That’s because you’re seldom swimming in a straight line like you do in a pool with lane dividers and a solid line that you can see on the bottom of the pool.
Second, you’re doing these events one immediately following the next, so there’s not much chance to catch your breath.
And third, preparing for three very different events requires a rigorous and disciplined training regimen. And that’s the one that got me this time. You see, between work, travel, and a nagging knee injury, I had to sit out the run. And since Lorie had been even busier with our daughter’s graduation events, she wasn’t really up to doing the complete race either.
So we decided to compete as a relay team. Normally, three people participate in the relay, each one completing one of the events. We had done this at a recent Half-Ironman event with our friend Lisabeth doing the 1.2-mile swim, Lorie doing the 56-mile bike leg, and me doing the 13.1-mile half-marathon segment.
This time, there were just the two of us, so Lorie did the swim; I did the bike; and Lorie finished up with the run.
Now let’s get down to business and see what this all means for you. (I figured you might be wondering that by now…)
First, either one of us could have decided to drop out of the race entirely. Certainly we both had enough going on to justify that decision. But in our minds, that would have been simply giving up, and that’s not really our style. Instead, we found a solution that took our circumstances into consideration, but still let us compete.
Too many people hit a major roadblock – or even a minor bump in the road – and simply give up. Then they blame an incompetent boss, the bad economy, or an unhappy childhood for their lack of success. In all but the most horrific situations, there’s usually a solution. Not always an ideal solution, but a solution nonetheless.
More importantly, sometimes these “alternate solutions” provide an unexpected opportunity to excel. And that was true in this case: because I didn’t do the swim (my weakest event) and didn’t have to hold anything in reserve to do the run, so I basically went all-out on the bike ride, turning in an average speed of 20.5 MPH – by far my fastest time ever.
Sometimes having just one task to focus on lets you perform extremely well in that area. Similarly, eliminating unnecessary distractions in your work and in your life may be just the thing you need to excel at what’s truly important to you.
And even if there’s no one timing you and no finish line to cross, you can still experience the personal victory of a job well done.
