You still have to prove it

Original post:  June 8, 2015

Sports may not be to everyone's liking, but there are some aspects of competition that are directly comparable to our business world.

This weekend, American Pharoah faced the weight of history. Over the past generation, many brilliant horses had won the first two legs of the Triple Crown but fallen short at the Belmont Stakes. American Pharoah not only lived up to the hype, he also was able to leave no doubt by leading wire-to-wire throughout his race. The first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 can now enter the history books as the first storied horse of a new generation.

In the tennis world, the French Open represents the second major title in the calendar year. For the women, Serena Williams won despite playing at less than her best due to illness. On the men's side, world #1 Novak Djokovic finally beat his clay nemesis, Rafael Nadal. Nadal had won nine of the previous ten Opens and had lost only once before in the tournament. After beating Nadal, it appeared Djokovic would finally claim his first title on clay. That would give him the career Grand Slam (a win at each of the four major tournaments)--something only seven other men in the history of tennis had ever accomplished. Unfortunately for him, victory in this tournament would elude him again. He was crushed by the sudden emergence of Stan Wawrinka, a talented Swiss player who had struggled with self-doubt despite his massive talents.

In the NBA, the Golden State Warriors played the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first two games of their best-of-seven series. Golden State was the most successful team in the regular season. They dominated the stronger Western conference and are highly favored to win the series. To add their fortune, Cleveland lost one of its star players earlier in the playoffs to injury. In a closely contested first game, the Warriors managed to offset the heroic efforts of the best player in the game, LeBron James and win in overtime. To add to the degree of difficulty, Cleveland lost another star player to a serious knee injury. It now appeared that Golden State would waltz to the title.

LeBron James was quoted before game two as being upset that the sports writers now seemed to dismiss any hopes of Cleveland winning the title. In a spirited effort, Cleveland clawed to a two-point win in game 2 to level the series and wrest home-court advantage away from the favored Warriors.

How does any of this relate to the business world?

The competitive lives of any athlete are doomed to be brief. Age ends up robbing even the most gifted players of their talents. In the same way, our organization is loaded with potential. Despite our many advantages over our competitors, we will not succeed without an excellent total effort from our entire organization. Without incredible dedication and fortitude, we can't expect to win. We'll have to work extremely hard--knowing all the while that our competitors are waiting for the slightest bobble to take advantage of their opportunity (Nadal, Djokovic and Wawrinka). Even when the stars seem to align and point the way to victory (as in the Golden State example), you still have to perform when the time comes. If we do, perhaps we can live up to the advance billing (like American Pharoah) and enter the history books as champions!

If we are really consistent, then perhaps we might one day aspire to Serena Williams level of greatness. She just won her 20th major championship. There are only two women in history with more--Steffi Graf with 22 and Margaret Court at 24. She won her first major in 1999! Sixteen years of excellence in a grueling sport like tennis (where most players are washed up by the time they turn 30) is truly impressive.

I have always depended on the kindness of others

Original post:  Nov 25, 2013

Late Friday, I got some bad news. We are making extensive preparations for a major meeting. Unfortunately, we were working off of incomplete information. No one realized the oversight until the last minute. Making things worse, we are facing a deadline to deliver later this (Monday) morning.

At that point, you have to decide what you are going to do. You can allow that oversight to blossom into a full-blown failure and deal with the consequences. You might have an excuse, but it certainly won't ease the pain. I don't think too many people sympathize with finger-pointing.

I am fortunate to be working with a number of dedicated individuals. These hardy souls refused to be intimidated by the circumstances. Instead of panicking, they calmly asked for the correct information and set to work completing the mission. Through their dogged intervention, we should be ready in time for the deadline. Of course, it required heroic efforts and the sacrifice of personal weekend time to get it done.

I am very thankful that I am surrounded by persons who are so focused on delivering more than what is expected. I am firmly convinced that none of us can be truly successful without the benefit of a total team effort.

If we do the job correctly, no one will really know what happened. The expectations of our customers was that we had everything under control all night long. That said, I know what these individuals did. I will make sure that a wide range of individuals within IS know and understand their commitment. I also plan to add my personal thanks.

Just because it burns, doesn't mean you're gonna die

Original post:  Jun 5, 2013

I failed yesterday.

I gave it my best shot. My target originally appeared to be headed down one path. It would work in the short term, but might lead to some long-term strategic disadvantages. There is another possibility. It is riskier, but it has the potential for much greater opportunity over the years. It also had the disadvantage of greater expense. I thought I had a solid, logical case. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to close the sale.

Still, sometimes you have to accept that you aren't always going to win. Sometimes you win when you don't succeed immediately. It forces you to try harder to figure out what went wrong and correct those deficiencies. Perhaps the best course of action for now is to allow the existing method to progress naturally while working behind the scenes to see if we can build greater support for the longer-term view.

You gotta get up and try, try, try....

A Nation in panic

Original post:  Apr. 6, 2012

Talk radio is filled with hyperbole. That mentality has spread so deeply that it is difficult to get away from it in any format. It seems like the competition for attention has gotten so bad that if anything is called "good" it is automatically discarded. It has to be "the best ever" in order to even be discussed at all.

We see this magnified in sports talk. If a team wins the championship, they are automatically entered into a discussion of "best ever". If they win more than one, the talk of "dynasty" begins. The converse is also true. A string of a few losses and you are on the discussion of "collapse" begins. The only saving grace on the downside is that it can be really tough to enter the "worst ever" discussion because there does seem to be a lower threshold. If you haven't lost the most games or the most games in a row, you (thankfully) don't qualify.

Here in the Boston area, baseball season began yesterday. The off-season was filled with grumbling because we didn't spend inordinate amounts of money chasing high-priced free agents in an attempt to leverage our way to the World Series. There were even some whispers that the team might stumble to a fourth-place finish with a payroll of over $180 million. The screams have intensified now that we dropped the season opener in excruciating fashion. It doesn't help that we allowed our best relief pitcher to sign with a rival for $50 million and replaced him with someone who will now be recovering from thumb surgery for a few months.

It must be really difficult to be a professional baseball player. The season is 162 games. The crushing pace of games averages out to about five per week from April through the end of September. You have to sustain peak performance at a relentless pace against players who are often nearly as good or better than you at all times. One injury could literally be the end of your career. Through it all, you must learn to block out the howls of the crowd who will turn on you during a prolonged slump even if you are (or once were) a superstar.

I think there's a lesson in there. It may involve fortitude or perseverance. Or perhaps it is just about survival.

There are days when it doesn't seem all that different at work....

Learn and grow

Original post:  November 9, 2011

In one of the presentations at a recent internal conference, the speaker discussed the need to allow for some failure in our corporate culture. It is through these stumbles that we eventually learn and grow.

No one sets out to fail. We often limit our exposure by restricting our attempts to the familiar areas where we've enjoyed previous success.

I experienced this phenomenon firsthand over the past weekend. My son asked to play catch in the back yard. We had often used a small Nerf football that is easy to throw and catch. Wanting to challenge him, I asked him to get the real leather football.

He hesitated. The leather ball is much bigger. His five-year old hands have difficulty holding the ball. His face immediately twisted into a pout and then a frown.

"I can't. It's too hard."

He asked to go back to the smaller ball. I explained that he needed to learn to throw the right way so that he would be prepared for real games. After a round of gesticulations that ended just short of tears, he finally relented.

There were a number of wobbly ducks that went back and forth. With some gentle encouragement, he finally started to accept the challenge and try harder.

After about ten minutes, the first clean spiral appeared.

It took a moment for him to realize what he had done. The smile and the joy running across his face was quite contagious.

Even though there were lots of terrible throws mixed in with a few good tosses, the point had been made.