The American spirit strives to win whether it is in our personal or professional lives. In these trying times, companies will feel the need to step up initiatives to bring back jobs, production, and sales. Winning does not just pertain to coming out on top regardless of how our teams are treated.  

Mark Miller is one of my favorite authors. I have read every one of his books and he just published his fifth installment of books in his High-Performance series. His latest book Win Every Day – Proven Practices for Extraordinary Results focuses on execution to create a remarkable organization. Mark’s books are business parables where the reader becomes a part of the story and engages with teams every day as they identify and tackle organizational problems.

Our business parable focuses on CEO Blake Brown who learns how to consistently cheer his team on to excel at execution after identifying some internal customer service issues. Coincidently, he receives ideas and leadership from an unexpected source, his son’s new high school coach who is working with the team to bring up their performance and teaching them how to win every day in one form or another. The coach uses a variety of approaches and field trips to teach valuable lessons to the team that brings results where everyone wins. Blake takes these same strategies and applies them to his company to win every day in a variety of areas, not just increasing profits.

High performing organizations do four things that create excellence:

1. Bet on leadership

2. Act as one

3. Win the heart

4. Excel at execution

Obviously, every organization must agree that they aim to be great, excel, and unique. Moreover, leaders need to be sincere in doing their best, encourage others to be the best for families, customers, vendors, and ultimately the world. Teams need to sincerely buy-in. Teams should pursue mastery, own the numbers, and help others to win. On the other hand, leaders should coach for life, focus on processes, and communicate.

Mark offers some key takeaways from Blake’s journey. Most importantly, Black acknowledges that he is the root cause of how the company experienced some failures and he is the key to encouraging everyone to win.

1. The past does not determine the future

2. Communication is the oxygen of execution

3. Our competition is our own arrogance and complacency

4. When you win every day, you can live a life with no regrets

5. Execution is not one more thing – it is THE thing

6. We cannot win every day without everyone

7. If I do not make the right choices, my team never will

8. We want to measure activities that actually help us win more “games”

9. If we own the numbers, we can hold each other accountable. More importantly, we can hold ourselves accountable

10. Mastery is a level of skill in which three things are true: the desired behavior is consistent, execution is flawless, and the behavior is second nature.

I love nothing more than a good story and Mark Miller is a master parable writer. I learned lessons that “stuck” in my mind because I was learning from a story and the ideas flowed in order and made sense. In particular, I was fascinated by how Blake learned so much from his son and his son’s coach. They learned how to teach teams new ways of growing, supporting each other, and how everyone could win. So often we see how sports analogies and business strategies are the same, we just use different terms.

If you love easy reading stories that teach you lessons as you grow in your career and influence your teams then Win Every Day is a must-read. You will find yourself lost in the book eager to see how the lessons from a high school sports team and those of a successful company seeking a new status are entwined.

Can You Handle Your Opposite?

"To know one thing, you must know the opposite" - Henry Moore

 

Not only do opposites attract but they make each other brighter!     I love having friends over in the summer for a drink by my garden pond. It’s so relaxing and I enjoy sharing the colors and textures in my yard.  The question usually surfaces pretty quickly as to whether or not my husband and I garden together. That’s an easy question – NO! Don’t get me wrong, he helps a lot when I need it. He has built me some incredible arbors and he built our peaceful multi-stream waterfall that is the centerpiece of our yard. To be honest, I’m glad that he isn’t a crazy gardener like me – our tastes are opposite and well, I don’t think that our ideas would mesh.  I’m a bit of a control freak and he isn’t. It’s great for a marriage!  There’s a house a few miles from us that is absolutely stunning with puffs of color everywhere. It’s a beautiful kaleidoscope of flowers standing to attention arranged as if a painter staged a set. I regularly see an older couple outside tending to the garden in harmony. They both wander about doing their own thing and seem so peaceful and diligent in trimming and watering. I always think of how the scene would be at our house if my husband and I gardened together. My vision involves me chasing him with a hose or shovel for moving something or clipping a bush that I don’t want touched. Good thing he doesn’t like to garden…..  Numerous people share hobbies and it really strengthens their relationship. On the flip side, not all couples enjoy the same things. At the very least, we all need to try something once to see what will bring us together. I quickly learned that I don’t share my husband’s passion for jet skiing and snow skiing. Instead, we play off of each other and follow our own hobbies, yet share our love of other mutual social activities. Our opposite interests work well together and keep us happy while our marriage grows. We need to respect each other and understand what drives us. Likewise, we need to understand what drives us nuts about each other. Like a plant in the garden playing off one another, one person’s strength is another’s weakness and we can learn so much from each other.   “If everybody is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly in the opposite direction” – Sam Walton   There’s no doubt that I am an extrovert - no to the extent that my husband is – but an extrovert through and through. I admit that it has taken years for me to understand and have patience with introverts.  A few years ago I worked with another manager who was a thinker and very much an introvert. It was unnerving. I clearly remember a lunch meeting when we were tossing ideas around and she just stared at me. Thinking. And thinking. Thinking. I thought that I would lose it. I did what all extroverts do – I began chatting away to fill the silence and I’m sure that she wanted to tape my mouth shut because she still wanted to think.  That day haunts me and it was at that point I committed to trying to understand and accept introverts.  Personal and business relationships are so important. Not enough of us take a step back to try and understand one another. Most of us are fast paced and steam ahead without considering how our style may turn off (or scare!) a partner or colleague. My commitment to building relationships with the “aliens” (introverts) led me to the new book by Jennifer B. Kahnweiler, PHD  The Genius of Opposites – How introverts and extroverts achieve extraordinary results together.   In her book, Jennifer not only shares her own clashes with introvert and extrovert relationships, she outlines a 5 step process to help us in our own lives. She shares a 5 step process with an ABCDE approach which really leads the reader through an eye opening experience. She offers great chapter summaries and stories. After reading this book you will walk away agreeing that “Opposites are most successful when they stop focusing on the differences and use approaches that move them towards results”. Here are the ABCDE’s that will help you move towards results with those that your work with:  ·         Accept the alien: You can’t change people but you can try to understand them better. Focus more on how you can partner than on how your opposite drives you nuts. ·         Bring on the battles:  Start seeing disagreements as a necessity and as a positive to find effective solutions. Challenge your opposite in a healthy way and watch the growth and collaboration. ·         Cast the character: Quickly ascertain each other’s role and “cast” him or her to work on bringing out the best in that person’s role. If you understand your characters you can help orchestrate success. ·         Destroy the dislike: Above all else, respect each other and don’t let the opposite style annoy you or cause issues. Act like friends on the outset and you will be.  Accept that we are all different stop fighting it. ·         Each can’t offer everything: You can’t personally offer everything and we all offer something. Accept and embrace diversity. Look at differences as a positive and play off each other’s strengths. Don’t fight it and become respectful partners. As you read this book I encourage you to take the time to really think about someone who your opposite is and how you can partner with them for results. Try to understand them and learn what each of you can bring to the table.  Answer the questions at the end of each chapter to influence your relationships to bring about effective solutions, new ideas, and really bring out the best in others. As you share hobbies or daringly garden with your partner, be open and accepting. You just never know what you can grow together!