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"Experience is the best teacher" Wait. No – it's not. What is?

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We’ve all heard that old saw “Experience is the best teacher.”

If that was true, then the most successful person in the world would be the one who had made the most mistakes, right?  Hmm.  That doesn’t seem to line up with what I’ve seen in life.

So, if that’s not it, what is the best teacher?  Evaluated experience is the best teacher.  In life, it’s necessary to make mistakes but those only become powerful weapons in your arsenal when you take the time to evaluate what happened, how you responded and how you might respond differently the next time you’re in a similar situation.

Mrs. Frizzle says “Take chances.  Make mistakes.  Get messy.”

When that has happened and you find yourself all messy:

  • Take time to look around to assess the situation, 
  • pick something up while you’re down there, and 
  • consider how you got there.  What can you learn from this?

Do that, and you’ll be far ahead of most others.

Evaluating your positive and negative experiences is a key part of “Raising Your Game.”

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4 essential questions to ask to achieve your 2011 goals

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All of a sudden the weather is warming, the days are getting longer, and it’s getting harder to convince me to come back in to the office after enjoying the weather.  This can mean only one thing.  Q1 is OVER! 

This is an excellent time to take stock of how you’re doing with your goals for the year. 

You *do* have documented, measurable goals for the year, right?  If not, check out this post on how to set them.

So here are 4 essential questions to keep you on track:

1. What is working?  –  Why?  Have you celebrated your successes?  This is critical to your momentum.  Click here to learn why. Whatever is going well, you want to celebrate it so that you’ll get more of it!

2. What is not working? –  Why?  Were the goals you set unreachable?  Did you assume you’d clear hurdles easily and find out that they were higher than you thought?  What do you need to change about the goals?  Do you need to add resources?  Add time? Change assumptions?  Remove a goal?

3. What is missing? –  What have you learned this quarter that changes your perspective?  What do you know now that would have changed your goals?  What do you need to add to your 2011 plan?

4. What is next?  –   It’s time to get started on Q2 – what do you need to tackle next? 

Using this simple formula will help you stay on track.

Les McKeown has a nice resource on this topic, too.

Keeping the big picture in mind is a key part of raising your game.
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6 key leadership lessons from acceptance speeches

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This week I had the opportunity to attend the Tech Council of Maryland’s Frederick County Tech Awards Celebration.  The awards recognize local companies and people for their contributions to the community and the economy.

One of the benefits of attending this event was the opportunity to pick up some leadership tips from the leaders who accepted the awards.

I heard the common thread of relationships, teamwork, and shared credit from each of them.

Dr. Larry Arthur, CEO of SAIC-Frederick won “CEO of the Year.”
Dr. Arthur talked about his personal relationships with other Frederick leaders, and how interdependent Frederick’s business community is.  He also praised Frederick as a great place to live.

Dr. Uplaksh Kumar, Site Leader and Director of Operations for Life Technologies Frederick Maryland facility, won “Executive of the Year.”
I appreciated the way that Dr. Kumar was quick to thank his wife for her support, allowing him to be able to excel, and recognized her contribution to their family as critical.   I respect a man who praises his wife publicly.  He also praised his team, saying “I’m getting this award for them.”

Steve and Arleen Chafitz, President and CEO respectively of E-End, accepted the award for E-End which won “Service Provider of the year.”
Steve was quick to share the praise with his team, and spoke of service as a key part of E-End.  I loved the way that he made sure to include everyone on the team in the picture.  That spirit of shared credit and inclusion is a powerful message about the value he places on his team members.

Sheila Buscemi, First Grade Teacher at Valley Elementary School won “STEM Educator of the Year.”
She thanked everyone for letting her do a job she loved.  It’s obvious that she is passionate about her kids and the work she does.

Jim Racheff, Chairman and CEO of Data Management Services, Inc, accepted the award for “Firm of the Year”
Jim started out telling us that they were shocked at the untimely loss of their founder this year, but he would have been proud to see them there.  He talked about how DMS is a tight-knit team that takes care of each other like a family.

Community, family, shared credit, value for others, passion for work, and teamwork. 

All important parts of Raising Your Game.

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How can you create a great corporate culture? Have you heard the one…

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What does it take to build a great culture in your company?

First you need to know where you’re going – and we covered that in How to Define Your Achievable Strategy in the next 15 Minutes,

Part of it is knowing why you’re doing it – the mission behind your company –  “The first thing you do is teach the person to feel that the vision is very important and nearly impossible.  That draws out the drive in the winner.”
– Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid
Corporate culture is all about answering the question:
“How will we treat each other on this road together?”

What stories do you tell?  What do you celebrate?  This is something that I saw done very well at Marriott International.

They intentionally told the story of the 9 seat root beer stand that Mr. Marriott and his wife started in downtown DC, and how the company grew.

More than only being about the past, they actually built a database of stories where employees were celebrated for demonstrating the values that Marriott says they want to see.

The stories they told were about times when team members were selfless and thought of others, because Marriott is in the hospitality business – the business of caring for the needs of others.  They knew it was important, and taught leaders in the company to be sure that they TOLD those stories to their teams, even teams that didn’t directly work with guests.

What stories do you tell?  Are they stories of a hero who pulled an all-nighter to deliver at the last minute?  Are they about the time that a team member let you down?
Or…
Are they the stories about how someone served a customer in a surprising and meaningful way?
How a team sacrificed for another team to do something important?

You choose the culture where you work – what do you want to see happen?  What stories will you tell today?  What stories will you write down today? What stories will you hear, will resonate with you, and then purpose to tell tomorrow?

The culture will happen with or without you.  Unless you’re intentional about it, the stories will be about the mundane and negative.  You can make them be about what is special, meaningful, and rich.  And you can have fun telling them, too.

Telling good stories to shape your culture is an important part of Raising Your Game.

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How to be happier and more successful in 20 seconds a day – literally!

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I recently heard an interview with Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage
He talked about some exciting research on happiness. 

Happy people are more productive
I’m not talking about the “rose-colored glasses” kind of happiness, I’m talking about happiness based on facts.  It seems that happier people are more productive – a LOT more productive.

Our brain can find itself in a state of happiness, neutral, negativity, or stress.  It turns out that the research tells us that when your brain is in a state of happiness you will outperform every other state.

In one study doctors who are happy were able to diagnose problems 50% faster with 3 times the intellectual flexibility.

That kind of result translates to significant increases in productivity and profitability.

Achor talks about a study where managers made a new habit – they praised just one person per day, 21 days in a row.  What this study showed was that six months later those teams had a 31% higher level of productivity.   This is not pollyanna or pie in the sky stuff – this is about hard business results!

What if I’m just not a “happy person”?
The really exciting part of this is that you can re-train your brain, and you can do it in just a few seconds a day.  Achor has found that if you can add a small habit to your routine, you can “prime” your brain to move from negative, neutral or stressed to happy.  This small change moves you to the zone where you perform your best.

What is this powerful and simple tactic?  Achor listed two options:

  1. When you open your email in the morning, write an email – no longer than TWO SENTENCES – which recognizes or praises a team member for their performance or contribution.  OR
  2. As you start your day (or kick off a meeting) take a few seconds to call out 3 things for which you are thankful.
That’s all there is to it.  
If you can do this for 21 business days, it will become a habit.  Your brain will be more easily “set” into the pattern of highest capability, and you will rapidly be at your best.  
A really powerful side effect of this is that your actions will have “primed” those around you to move to their best as well.
Taking advantage of this powerful “brain hack” is a part of Raising Your Game.

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I don't have time to be afraid. Do you?

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Are you frozen by fear?

I was trading emails with a fellow entrepreneur the other day on the topic of fear.  We don’t always call it that – sometimes we call it “procrastination” which is really fear of failure or criticism – one of the things we tell ourselves to justify standing still.

We were talking about how easy it is to question everything and find ourselves awash in indecision.

I asked him about the difficult life circumstance that spurred him to take action on his entrepreneurial vision:  “Once the worst that could happen happened, you became fearless?”

His response was excellent.  He said

“It wasn’t the worst that could happen, but it was bad enough to instill in me a sense of urgency.

When worrying if a forum post is worded just so, or wondering if I should take a particular tone in a blog, or worrying what someone will think if I send them an email out of the blue, I frequently realize I just don’t have time. 

If something feels like I should do it or it looks at least 75% correct or it meets the minimum requirement for not being dumb, I just do it.  

Fear isn’t a consideration because I don’t have time to wait for a perfect situation to arrive that’s risk-free.”

This is the heart of entrepreneurship – overcoming what Seth Godin calls the “resistance” in the “Lizard Brain” holding us back.

What is holding you back today?  Do you have time for that?

I teach my kids “Courage is not the absence of fear.  True courage is when you’re afraid, but you do the right thing anyway – in spite of being afraid.”

If you’re going to fail today, do it as a result of taking action.  Don’t stand still like a deer in the headlights because you’re uncertain about the outcome.

Bold risk taking based on the wisdom resulting from your experiences is a key part of Raising Your Game.

Go for it!

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