Years ago, I read Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect by Bob Rotella, a noted sports psychologist. In this wonderful book, which has numerous applications to life far beyond the golf course, I found a teaching that greatly impacted my golf game...and life.
Most golfers, as they stand in front of a tricky shot over a water hazard, have the following running through their head: "Don't hit it in the water...don't hit it in the water."
What Dr. Rotella explains, is that there is a funny mechanism in our brains that does the following...it removes the word "don't". Therefore, between your brain and the muscles, the message changes to "Hit it in the water." (Well, that explains some things.)
Owing to that anomaly, he says simply take the message from a prohibitive, to a directive one: "Hit it over the water." That mental trick works well for my personality (see my previous post on Relentless Positivity).
Whether the 17th at Sawgrass is in your mind when you read this or you've never touched a club, the implications are clear.
This approach (pun unintended, but not bad), sprang immediately to mind when I read the following fantastic post on avoiding negative habits from the cooly-named Marc and Angel Hack Life: 30 Things To Stop Doing To Yourself
When I read this excellent article, I was mentally reframing each of the 30 statements that start with the word "stop", into a more directive statement a la Dr. Rotella's approach above. About a third of the way through, I decided to write it out...and here I'll share it with you.
I'd encourage you to go look at the original post, compare my riff on it, consider your own...but most of all...do some of it in your life!
Thank you Marc and Angel for providing the rich source material for this interpretation.
30 Things...To Do...
1. Spend time with the right people.
2. Face your problems.
3. Be honest with yourself.
4. Reprioritize your own needs.
5. Be authentic.
6. Move on.
7. Take a chance.
8. Forgive yourself.
9. Earn deep satisfaction.
10. Look within for stability.
11. Do something.
12. Do something you're not ready for.
13. Pick the right reasons for relationships.
14. Leave old relationships out of new ones.
15. Compete against your own standards.
16. Be appreciative.
17. Learn from failure and move on.
18. Forgive for real for your own sanity.
19. See #15
20. Be authentic start to finish.
21. Disengage.
22. Smell the roses while doing #21
23. Be content with good enough.
24. Take the stairs.
25. Let it out.
26. Woman/Man up.
27. Do what you can and let it go.
28. Sweat the right stuff.
29. Keep your eye on the ball...not everything else.
30. Appreciate.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Relentless Positivity
Don’t know why on a Monday of all days such a positive vibe seems to be in control. (Especially pre-first-cup-of-coffee.)
It did strike me as ironic that a Google search of “brutally honest” yields 5.2 million results, while a search of “relentlessly positive” yields only 129k. For more on my thoughts on brutality and honesty, see http://tricendent.blogspot.com/2009/04/surgery-vs-brutality.html, but for now I’ll focus on positivity.
In the current environment, this seems to be more difficult than ever. Yet much of our drive and resilience comes from positivity, and I love the illustrative juxtaposition of the words in the term Relentlessly Positive. Positivity seems so Pollyanna-ish, yet Relentlessness is so hard-edged. It might seem an oxymoronic phrase, but when you have it, and you stick to it, it pays dividends.
There actually is a blog I had never seen before called Relentlessly Positive. (http://relentlesslypositive.blog.co.uk/) In it, I found a key phrase right at the top of the latest post…
“Someone stole my Mojo for a week or so, but I'm back…”
That’s the great thing about Relentless Positivity, it doesn’t mean you’re always up (did I mention it’s Monday).
It means you always get up.
It did strike me as ironic that a Google search of “brutally honest” yields 5.2 million results, while a search of “relentlessly positive” yields only 129k. For more on my thoughts on brutality and honesty, see http://tricendent.blogspot.com/2009/04/surgery-vs-brutality.html, but for now I’ll focus on positivity.
In the current environment, this seems to be more difficult than ever. Yet much of our drive and resilience comes from positivity, and I love the illustrative juxtaposition of the words in the term Relentlessly Positive. Positivity seems so Pollyanna-ish, yet Relentlessness is so hard-edged. It might seem an oxymoronic phrase, but when you have it, and you stick to it, it pays dividends.
There actually is a blog I had never seen before called Relentlessly Positive. (http://relentlesslypositive.blog.co.uk/) In it, I found a key phrase right at the top of the latest post…
“Someone stole my Mojo for a week or so, but I'm back…”
That’s the great thing about Relentless Positivity, it doesn’t mean you’re always up (did I mention it’s Monday).
It means you always get up.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Grit (w/Grace) vs. Pedigree...
Today I had the chance to do one of my favorite things…provide a reference for a former employee named Melissa whom I truly admire and believe in.
During the conversation with the hiring manager, who was the president and co-founder of a small company making a significant investment in this applicant, he said something that struck me as worth sharing.
He said that out of the over 100 resumes he had viewed, there were plenty that had better “pedigrees” than the applicant, but in speaking with her, none were even close to her grit. I couldn’t agree more, and kudos to him for having the keen eye and the will to keep looking until he found what he wanted. That kind of sense for people is probably a big reason why his company has been successful for over a decade and why they are in a position to expand in a significant way, with my former employee at the helm of the effort.
The flip side of the grit commentary is that Melissa combines her grit with an unusual grace as well. She’s like a high quality emery board with rough grit on one side and a smoother surface on the other to finish things off just right. As we both heartily agreed, you can’t teach character. Add to that extreme acumen and that is what makes a wining proposition.
Give me someone like that over a great pedigree any day!
(And give me more hiring managers who don’t get fooled by smooth packaging on the surface!)
During the conversation with the hiring manager, who was the president and co-founder of a small company making a significant investment in this applicant, he said something that struck me as worth sharing.
He said that out of the over 100 resumes he had viewed, there were plenty that had better “pedigrees” than the applicant, but in speaking with her, none were even close to her grit. I couldn’t agree more, and kudos to him for having the keen eye and the will to keep looking until he found what he wanted. That kind of sense for people is probably a big reason why his company has been successful for over a decade and why they are in a position to expand in a significant way, with my former employee at the helm of the effort.
The flip side of the grit commentary is that Melissa combines her grit with an unusual grace as well. She’s like a high quality emery board with rough grit on one side and a smoother surface on the other to finish things off just right. As we both heartily agreed, you can’t teach character. Add to that extreme acumen and that is what makes a wining proposition.
Give me someone like that over a great pedigree any day!
(And give me more hiring managers who don’t get fooled by smooth packaging on the surface!)
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Good, Bad, and Ugly (LinkedIn pics)...
Since Tricendent has a search practice, I often am asked by candidates for interviewing tips. Beyond be yourself, be educated, be curious, I don't give much.
I will give some pointers about LinkedIn pictures here though for people who are seeking jobs. They (the tips) may seem opinionated, but, this is a blog ;-) Also, trust me, they're accurate.
If you are posing with a fish, I may assume that you want to be a fisherman. Since I am typically recruiting sales execs, not a good first impression.
If you are posing with your buddies at a club, I may assume that we will lose you early on Fridays (and maybe Wednesdays, and...)
If your pic on a site where you should be trying to put your best foot forward professionally looks like a mug shot with a firm frown that you refuse to turn upside down that, I may assume that you might (purposely) scare people in person.
If you have no pic, I may assume you at least have the good judgment not to do the three things above. But I'd rather see your face...with a smile on it. If you'd like to read some more about why that may get you a call...
http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/emiliya-zhivotovskaya/200809271036
Of course, if you're looking for a job piloting a fishing boat that makes regular deliveries to the hottest clubs where those uber-cool people who never smile are...please disregard.
I will give some pointers about LinkedIn pictures here though for people who are seeking jobs. They (the tips) may seem opinionated, but, this is a blog ;-) Also, trust me, they're accurate.
If you are posing with a fish, I may assume that you want to be a fisherman. Since I am typically recruiting sales execs, not a good first impression.
If you are posing with your buddies at a club, I may assume that we will lose you early on Fridays (and maybe Wednesdays, and...)
If your pic on a site where you should be trying to put your best foot forward professionally looks like a mug shot with a firm frown that you refuse to turn upside down that, I may assume that you might (purposely) scare people in person.
If you have no pic, I may assume you at least have the good judgment not to do the three things above. But I'd rather see your face...with a smile on it. If you'd like to read some more about why that may get you a call...
http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/emiliya-zhivotovskaya/200809271036
Of course, if you're looking for a job piloting a fishing boat that makes regular deliveries to the hottest clubs where those uber-cool people who never smile are...please disregard.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Customer Centricity = Shareholder Value
Being focused on and caring about your customers is not just about the warm and fuzzy. (See my prior post: What's So Salesy 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding.)
A little experiment I ran shows some definite indications of that. Now, I am nobody's data analyst, I don't even play one on TV. I do know when numbers tell a story however. I also am a big believer in the power of words.
So, I wondered, if a company is really focused on its customers, that would show in the words of its top executives. And if it showed in the words of its executives, would that have any correlation to a company's performance?
In order to do a controlled experiment, I chose the following, using a client as a baseline.
Words:
How regularly did the executives of public companies use the word customer in their latest earnings release call with the street? This is expressed as occurrences of "customer" vs total words in the call. The comparison is off of my client's baseline. So, for instance, Comp 5's execs used "customer" 126% more often than my client, and Comp 1's used it about 1/3 less.
As another comparison, I compared how often the execs used the word "account" (controlled for versions such as accounting, etc) vs using the word "customer". Comp 1's execs used "account" the most. Three companies' execs only used the word customer...not account.
Performance:
Set against the words analysis, is the 6 month stock performance of the companies. Also, several market indexes are included for comparison.
As you can see, there is a fairly clear correlation.
Is this the do-all end-all of analyses? No.
Is there enough here to warrant looking further into it? Yes.
Has anyone done any research that contradicts this? Not yet!
A little experiment I ran shows some definite indications of that. Now, I am nobody's data analyst, I don't even play one on TV. I do know when numbers tell a story however. I also am a big believer in the power of words.
So, I wondered, if a company is really focused on its customers, that would show in the words of its top executives. And if it showed in the words of its executives, would that have any correlation to a company's performance?
In order to do a controlled experiment, I chose the following, using a client as a baseline.
Words:
How regularly did the executives of public companies use the word customer in their latest earnings release call with the street? This is expressed as occurrences of "customer" vs total words in the call. The comparison is off of my client's baseline. So, for instance, Comp 5's execs used "customer" 126% more often than my client, and Comp 1's used it about 1/3 less.
As another comparison, I compared how often the execs used the word "account" (controlled for versions such as accounting, etc) vs using the word "customer". Comp 1's execs used "account" the most. Three companies' execs only used the word customer...not account.
Performance:Set against the words analysis, is the 6 month stock performance of the companies. Also, several market indexes are included for comparison.
As you can see, there is a fairly clear correlation.
Is this the do-all end-all of analyses? No.
Is there enough here to warrant looking further into it? Yes.
Has anyone done any research that contradicts this? Not yet!
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