Becoming a Personal "Island of Excellence"

 Lesson 23
 

Becoming a Personal “Island of Excellence”

In many of the keynote speeches and seminars I have done someone will come up to me after my program and say, “Danny, I’m thinking about leaving this company.”

My response is “Why?”

The normal response to my question is that the person says that he or she wants to grow and develop but the levels of management above them are not motivated to grow in their jobs.

At this point, I explain that it’s impossible to manage the managers in the levels above them. So it doesn’t even pay to try.

Then I explain what I learned from an audience member named Joe Topper (yes his real name).  After my talk he came up to me and said that over a year ago he had become bored and disillusioned. His frustration gave birth to creativity. His new idea was to become a personal “Island of Excellence” within his sphere of influence. He would get so good at what he was doing that something great was bound to happen.  And for Joe it’s happened. He is now the General Manager for a large California Resort.

That’s the spirit! That’s what I’m talking about!

This technique above, pays off in two ways. First, you become more valuable to your present company, perhaps even to the point they consider you indispensable. This could lead to promotions, bigger salaries, perks, etc. Keeping that sustained high performance record really builds your equity.

Second the better you get at producing results, the more value you have that is noticed by the competition.  Don’t be surprised if you get a call from your competitor, saying, “Can we have lunch?”

In either of these two scenarios, as you see improvement, your own morale starts up and there is no limit. Just remember that stagnation can happen at any level. Guard against “repeating yesterdays” and keep planning new tomorrows.  It’ll be a bright future for you and your family.

To achieve great things, know more than the average person considers necessary.

Goal Focus

Lesson Fourteen

I did a program once with former heavyweight champion George Foreman.  Even though he is the former champion, I still called him Champ.  As we had lunch together that day, I studied his nose from across the table.  A heavyweight boxer’s nose is a work of art.  George Foreman’s nose is a monument to goal orientation.  It has been sculpted by some of the strongest, meanest punchers ever to step into a ring.  I wondered how any man could endure the incredible pain that George Foreman must have endured with so many heavyweight boxers hammering on his nose over the years, so I asked him. 

"If I see what I want real good," he answered.  "I don't notice any pain in gettin' it."

A new reality is an achieved goal.  We are headed into the future at the same rate the second hand sweeps around the clock, whether we like it or not.  We can’t hold back time.  So, given that the future is coming, how are we endeavoring to shape it?  What are we doing now that will leave our mark on our future?  Here are my steps to shaping a new reality:

Visualize Your Goal Vividly  

You must clearly see what you are intending toward.  Generalizations about your intended goals do you no good.  The greater the clarity of your vision, the more focused and efficient your efforts toward it will be.  The more diffused your vision, the less efficient your efforts will be.  I don’t know of anyone who gains value through wasted effort.

Break Your Goal Down into Doable Daily Tasks

When goals loom enormous on the horizon, it’s natural to feel intimidated and to become reluctant to even approach them.  Be realistic about what a human being can accomplish in a day and don’t expect any more of yourself or others.  Realizing goals is far less dramatic that way, but you will eventually get there.

Act on Your Goals Every Day

I'm not suggesting that you work seven days per week.  But, don’t let a workday go by without taking even a small step toward a specific goal.  Progress is progress, no matter how small, and the feeling of accomplishment is just as sweet in many small doses as it is in one large one.  However, breaking the task down into smaller disappointments will not minimize the feeling of disappointment at never achieving the big goal.

Here are some of my guidelines for goal achievement:

·      Make sure your goals are measurable, realistic, and challenging.

·      Write down your goals and divide them into short-, mid-, or long-term categories.

·      Set a timetable for achievement, begin and don't stop, concentrate on results, and celebrate when a goal is achieved.   Then immediately replace it with a new goal.

"If you don't know what to do on a daily basis to

achieve your goal, then it is not a goal--it's a fantasy.”

Set Goals When the Heat's On

 Lesson 13

Come back a few years and picture you and me standing beside my fighter that is capable of speeds near twice the speed of sound.  You’re about ready to crawl into the rear cockpit for a ride with me as your pilot-in-command.  Before climbing up the side of this sleek, needle nosed, high performance fighter, you might have a few questions.  The first is, “Which way are we going to take off?”

“We’re parked in this direction," I answer.  "We might as well take off the same way."

“Which way are we going to go once we’re airborne?” you ask.

“This direction’s as good as the other 359 available to us,” I respond.

“How high are we going to go?”

“Until the jet quits climbing.”

“How far are we going to go?”

“I guess until we run out of fuel.”

That’s when you would quit using the word “we” and instead ask, “What are you going to do when you run out of fuel?”

“Maybe there’ll be an air field under us.”

Then you’d ask, “What if there isn’t?”

My response would be, “Look, I don’t even want to think about that! Go ahead and get in.”

Would you?  I don’t think so.

Many managers plan like that and can’t figure out why they can’t get a long-term commitment from their team.  To build a strong, committed high performance team, each individual must be able to describe in detail what the leaders’ vision is for the organization and how it will be accomplished.  Equally important is the vision the team members have for themselves.  

        

The vision we invite our people to share with us is the future as it best suits the organization and the people who make up the organization.  Helping your people experience the future through their own eyes is critical to effective leadership.  Do you know what you’re working for?  Can you see it in great detail?  If you can’t, how can you help your people to see what they’re working for?  Helping your people truly see what they’re working for is one of the greatest, life-long gifts you can ever give them. 

The great Mad Magazine cover boy philosopher, Alfred E. Newman, said, “Most folks don’t know what they want, but they’re pretty sure they don’t have it.”  Leading your team blindly without clear goals renders all of your sophisticated navigation equipment useless.  Being driven by a sense of dissatisfaction with the present is not enough if there is no clear course established.  A clearly charted course or plan is the second best thing to having a distinct goal. With a clearly charted course, you and your organization know in which direction you want to go.  You are intending toward something, even if the something is not well defined.

Here are four important questions that will help you get started in setting goals:

·      What do I really want?

·      What will it cost me in time, money, and energy?

·      Am I willing to pay that price?

·      When should I start paying the price?

“Deciding not to have a specific goal is a specific goal.”

Examine Your "Rushes"

Examine Your “Rushes”

“Your life is like a book. The title page is your name, the preface your introduction to the world. The pages are a daily record of your efforts, trials, pleasures, discouragements, and achievements. Day by day your thoughts and acts are being inscribed in your book of life. Hour by hour, the record is being made that must stand for all time. Once the word ‘fini’ must be written, let it then be said of your book that it is a record of noble purpose, generous service, and work well-done.”

Grenville Kleiser, author of Training for Power and Leadership

Lights, camera, action! Welcome to your own private Hollywood: You are making, right now, day by day, the movie of your life.

At some time in the future you will reach that great cinema in the sky. You will take a seat in that heavenly auditorium and watch the movie of your life as you lived it––playing out on the big screen to end all big screens. How will you feel about that movie as it unspools? Every night as I go to sleep, I find myself wondering, how will “The Life and Times of Danny Cox” look when it is played back? Will I be proud of that movie? Will I know in my heart that the central character pursued the right goals, for the right reasons? Or will I wonder why on earth that man on the screen made the choices he did? Will I find myself yearning for the chance to make another film––the film I should have made? What can I do now, today, to make sure that that movie is the best I can possibly make it?

Yesterday’s film is “in the can.” The choices we make day by day, the goals we set for ourselves, the way we act toward achieving those goals––those are the only factors that will affect the film that still remains to be shot.

So, how can we improve that film? One-way is to use the technique used by the Hollywood moguls to insure film quality; Look at the daily rushes.

What are daily rushes? They’re a moviemaker’s short-term answers to big questions: “Am I getting to where I thought I was getting? And if I’m not, where the heck am I getting to, and how do I get back?”

When Steven Spielberg sets out to make an exotic new adventure film, he doesn’t travel around the world, shoot every scene in his script, and then sit down and review all the footage from beginning to end. That’s a risky way to make a movie! Spielberg might just get to the end of the process and realize that the mood in scene 43A didn’t quite match up with the mood scene in scene 43B––and then ask himself why he didn’t notice that while he was still in Sumatra with the cast and crew.

Waiting until the last minute to review one’s shooting is a dangerous proposition. Instead, a good director takes a look, each day, at the rushes, the early film clips that reflect the work that was just completed. By reviewing the first prints of that day’s clips, Spielberg (and every other director worthy of the name) can evaluate each of the individual shots that will eventually turn into a movie––the movie that the director set out to make.

It’s close to impossible to put together a good movie if you don’t look at your rushes until the end of the production process. I believe the same principle applies to the movie of your life. And who wants to run the risk of sabotaging that release?

Rushes give filmmakers the chance to review each day’s work. For a director, looking at the rushes means sitting in a dark screening room and looking out for what worked and what didn’t. As he watches the images go by, the director asks questions. How should a scene be edited? What needs to be improved? How does what’s up on the screen affect the next day’s work?

In the same way, a barrier-breaker learns to ask questions about the “shooting schedule” of the day just past. Every day, at some point we need to ask ourselves, “What just happened? What brought me closer to my goal? What moved me further away from my goal? What worked? How can I get what worked to happen again and happen on a regular basis if I need it to?"

It’s just as important to ask, “What didn’t work so well? What would I edit out if I had the chance? What needs to be done all over again? What do I need to do to keep a ‘bad scene’ from happening again?”

Even more important is to ask, “What was the big lesson life had planned for me today?” Once you figure that one out, you can ask yourself, “How well did I learn that lesson, and what can I do to put it to work the next time I face a similar situation?”

Asking questions like that, once a day, is part of reviewing the day’s “rushes”––the actual events and decisions you made over the course of 24 hours. That’s the way to be sure the film of your life is shaping up, as it should. Watching your own daily rushes is the same as monitoring the progress you’ve made toward the important goals you’ve identified.  Again, taking baby steps is fine, as long as you go somewhere you intend to go!

Immediate Action:  At the end of the day today, ask yourself, “Did I move upward, toward positive role models and energizing goals, or did I move down, toward negative influences?” Be ruthlessly honest with yourself, and write down the answers you come up with on a sheet of paper. Find out whether there was net “gain” or a net “loss” in movement toward your constructive goal, and then ask yourself how you can maximize gains and minimize loses tomorrow.

Point to Ponder Before You Go On:  Examining your rushes is not an exercise in negative thinking it’s a way of fine-tuning your daily goals, and thus making progress toward your major goals. If this opportunity for self-evaluation becomes an opportunity for self-flagellation, you’re in trouble! Goals always look forward; discouragement always looks backward.