Impacting Mr. Average

When it came to sports, I was always Mr. Average. I’ve ridden plenty of pine in my day. I remember one particular basketball game where no matter who the coach pulled from the bench, we weren’t going to win. As the clock ticked down to less than one minute, I remember thinking, whatever happens, please don’t send me in now.

Then it happened. It was as if life shifted into slow motion as the coach looked down the bench and yelled, “Sanders! Sanders you’re in the game.” No not now, I thought! Wow, a whole 40 seconds to turn the game around. Why doesn’t he just send me to the locker room for towels or something?

It was all I could do to pry myself from the bench and step onto the hardwood. In a matter of seconds, I went from being a comfortable spectator to being the center of attention at the half-court line.

We were on offense. The ball was passed to me. Although no one was near me, I panicked. I bobbled the ball. I dribbled three steps and then stumbled over my feet. Like a punter for a football team, I kicked the basketball to the other end of the court. The ball fell into the hands of our opponent. Before I knew it, the buzzer sounded and the game was over.

How embarrassing. Who cares about lettering, just let me out of here! I ran off the court and down the stairs to the locker room. As I did, I hit my head on a water pipe. What a klutz. Mine was a perfect ending to a horrible game. The locker room was full of laughter as my teammates began to reenact the fiasco. What was the coach thinking? Why did he pick me?

I didn’t know then, but I think I know now. My coach believed in me. He may not have seen potential in the player, but he did recognize potential in the person. A few weeks later as the two of us were leaving practice, coach put his arm around my shoulder and said, “You stay after it Sanders, and you are going to be something someday.”

I will never forget that day. It was a turning point in my life. He saw something in me that I never knew existed. He gave me the gift of confidence and self-esteem. I may not be the best at anything, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do my best and still make a difference. The message got through.

How about you? What if you had been my coach?  Would your words have been an encouragement?  What if you were my boss?  Would I see you as my mentor or as my worst critic?  Leaders are surrounded by average people.  The real question is whether or not you will be an average leader and do nothing or be a giant leader and impact the life of Mr.. Average. 

Written by Ray Sanders. Ray@giantpartners.biz

Fishing with a Friend

Today’s blog has nothing to do with leadership…at least it sounds this way.

 

I went fishing today with Dave Gillogly.  Besides being a successful executive and former president of Express Personnel www.expresspersonnel.com , Dave has a heart that would make Christ smile. There is no BS in Dave. I love his frankness and sharp mind.  If he likes or dislikes something, you know it immediately.  In today’s world of choosing our words so carefully to not offend anyone, this is very refreshing.  So when I get to spend time around people like Dave, I try to ask a lot of questions and shut up and listen. 

 

I am fascinated by people, especially bright and innovative thinkers. After reflecting on our conversation today, I made a commitment to invest more time with exceptional thinkers like Dave.  However, this is contrary to the habits of most successful people.  As we gain notoriety, create wealth and absorb power, we are the less likely than ever to listen to others.  Why do we need to listen to others if we believe we are the smartest person in the room?  A friend of mine who is a confidant to several billionaires said, “Matthew, as people gain wealth they lose their hearing. They become deaf.”

 

Remember what James said, “be quick to listen and slow to speak.”

 

Are you listening today like you did when you were younger and poorer?  Do you still seek out and listen to those smarter than yourself?  Remember gaining wealth, power and success does not mean you are any smarter today than before.  On the contrary, you may be going deaf and becoming more ignorant as you gain material success.  Are you willing to surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth…even when it hurts? 

 

For the record…we did not catch many fish today but believe it or not, a fish actually jumped in our boat! 

Enjoying Your BAD Boss

Over my career, I’ve been to countless seminars, retreats and training sessions.  Most were excellent and helped me to develop some depth of knowledge about leadership, management and business in general. However, no one thing advanced my leadership and management skills more than having a bad boss.  Over one’s career, it is bound to happen: getting saddled with the worst boss you’ve ever seen.  Here’s a quick list of traits of my worst boss. Maybe you will recognize a few of these: 

1. Intimidating:  he loved making people shake in their shoes.  He would spinout at the drop of a hat, raising his voice in front of others. 

2. Rude:  He was oblivious to basic business etiquette. Whether it was in a business meeting, or at a dinner, he would usually do something to make others less comfortable. 

3. Self-Focused:  He had a knack of making the business revolve around him as opposed to the customer, the owners, or others in the organizations.  I never once saw him perform an act of servant leadership. 

4. Window-Closer:  His favorite tactic when he wanted to scold someone was to call that person into his office (loudly) and then close the Venetian blinds.  If his “closing of the blinds” would have been for privacy, I think I could have accepted it.  However it was obvious it was a “showman” tactic designed to further intimidate the recipient of his wrath.

 

 5. Poor Example:  He would spend the company’s money like it was water, however, would yell at any employee if they spent a little too much for a meal.  On one occasion, he told me I needed to personally chip in on some of our expenses (we were on a trip together) because he had spent too much on dinner the night before (and I wasn’t even at the dinner.) 

6. Shocking:  One time I was on the phone with a very important customer. Spending time on the phone trying to help the customer was going to make me a few minutes late to our weekly staff meeting. In the moment, I decided to stay with the customer to make sure we took care of his problem.  Upon seeing my boss, I apologized for being late, and explained that I was working with one of our largest customers, taking care of their issues.  My boss didn’t even blink and blurted out, “You need to get your #@&# priorities straight!” 

It was at that point I vowed to myself to become the complete opposite of him. In hindsight, he was the best boss I have ever had.  I learned more of what not to do than I did in any seminar, conference or training event.  

I am now a much more caring, compassionate leader, always trying to be the opposite of what I learned from my former boss.  And fortunately, it has served me well for many years, ultimately providing with the opportunity to be CEO of several organizations. 

What lessons have you learned from a bad boss?  I’d love to know.  Share a comment for all to see.  Together we can learn the art of servant leadership.

Written by David Woods. David@giantpartners.biz

From “Good to Great” to “Bad to Worse”

In the groundbreaking book, Good To Great, by Jim Collins, readers discover key ingredients for transforming good companies into great companies. While many good companies populate the business landscape, great companies are still hard to find. Bad companies, however, are readily available on every street corner.

Now, let me offer a few secret habits that are guaranteed to take any bad company and make it worse. A few skilled leaders can take a company from “good to great,” but it takes a special kind of leader to take a company from “bad to worse.” I know these work because, in the past, I have tried everyone of these listed below. Here are my top 10 rules to eliminate profits, lose customers quicker, attract low performing employees sooner, lose leaders faster, destroy company morale overnight and basically make your company a total mess faster than you ever thought possible. 

 1. When something is not working, do nothing. This is guaranteed to get you the same dismal results as you were getting yesterday. Better yet, doing more of a bad thing assures that it will only get worse in the future. This will guarantee you will run off the high achievers within your company as they will be too frustrated to work for you.

2. When things are bad, do not listen to outsiders. Ignore the truth that “no one person is as smart as all of us.” Therefore, no matter what you are tying to do, ignore the high probability that there are others close by who know more about it than you do. Let your pride swell and forget the proverb that says “pride comes before destruction.” Humility and the statement “I have made a mistake” should not be in your vocabulary if you want to go from bad to worse.

3. When you want results, listen to everybody. This is just the opposite of #2 listed above. Let everyone weigh in and provide their input. This will guarantee you mountains of useless points of data that forces you to review and waste countless hours of your time. Becoming truly bad requires you to work on all the wrong things, which will happen when you listen to everyone.

4. Avoid the problem. Stick your head in the sand and kick your ostrich skin boots in the air. Problems, unlike wine, rarely get better with time. So you can guarantee the problem will go from bad to worse with increasing velocity with this surefire technique. Ignore your accountant, legal counsel and your smartest employees who tell you to address a rising problem.

5. Dismiss the warning signs. Determine that flashing traffic lights, tornado sirens and buckets of red ink are only admonitions for weak under-achievers. When you see red flags, ignore them. Anyone who brings them up, call them a naysayer and pessimist. Better yet, you should say this in front of others at a team meeting. This will guarantee the warning signs will never be brought up again and you will be isolated from further relevant information that can help you make better decisions.

6. Don’t delegate or build a team. Instead, believe completely in yourself knowing you are always smarter and more effective than everyone else. So why involve others when no one can do it as well as you? You will never get from bad to worse if you build an effective team. The best part of this habit is that you will never attract or retain leaders. Great leaders work for other great leaders, not followers. To go from bad to worse, you must attract a team of followers that must rely on you for the success of the company.

7. Work harder by doing more of the same thing. This is my personal all time favorite as I have gone from bad to worse faster using this technique than all the others. I am particularly fond of this habit because you will feel like you are accomplishing a lot while going from bad to worse. Nothing beats the feeling of working hard while going broke.

8. Keep the same people involved who are failing. Most problems inside a company can be attributed to people. Remember, ignore the wisdom “be slow to hire and quick to fire.” By keeping low performers on your team, this will attract other low performers who will fit right in to your low performing company.

9. When something is profitable and working, change it. Sticking with a strategy that is working is boring. Where is the fun in this? You want excitement! You will never get from bad to worse while you are consistently making a profit and providing financial rewards and opportunities to your team.

10. I will leave number ten to you. No doubt you have discovered a few ways to go from bad to worse. No one succeeds all the time. Will you dare e-mail me or leave your comment below with your secret for going from bad to worse? Come on! With a little extra effort, you can bankrupt your company in record time.

Sound like a bad idea? I thought you might think so. Even worse, I thought you might be implementing some of these truths by growing your company from bad to worse.

Written by Matthew Myers. matthew@giantpartners.biz