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Key to Success

The only way to be successful is to help others reach their goals. The key to success isn’t necessarily having a master’s degree or networking with the right people, the secret is helping those around us accomplish what they have set out to do. If we’re selfish and it’s all about us, people can see right through that agenda and nobody wants to help a self-centered person… they have it all figured out anyway. And this is applicable to anyone whether we’re just starting as an intern, a middle manager, an entrepreneur, or the CEO of a Fortune 500 enterprise. Leadership in an organization should never just be from the top down, it needs to permeate throughout the company.

If every day and every move is about us, we cannot help those around us. When we cannot help those around us,we’re working for ourselves, and no single person has ever moved mountains on their own. Abraham Lincoln had a cabinet full of ambitious men, Rosa Parks & Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had entire communities behind them, and Jobs had Wozniak. None of them were alone.

In our professional careers there will be times when we have opportunities to go out of our way to help others. Pounce on them. Do not let them go by, those good deeds will come full circle and be repaid when we need them most. This can be helping to meet a deadline, it can be offering an outside opinion, it can be a listening ear when it’s needed, and so many other things. If we’re giving of our time and our energies, we will be repaid and we will build a reputation as someone that everyone wants to work with.

Everyone has their own personal goals and aspirations, I’m not saying to forgo them. But if those are always in the front seat and we determine that nobody is worth deviating, we will soon be standing by ourselves. And even is we do accomplish those life goals and we make it to the top, we’ll have nobody to share it with. The key to success is building others up, not building ourselves up.

Who can we help to accomplish their goals today?

Challenging Ourselves

As we manage teams we should always be looking for ways to push their limits. This is not a revolutionary idea, however we need to constantly practice the idea to constantly improve. Without calculated growth exercises or strategies, we run the risk of allowing ourselves and our teams to be mediocre. Constantly challenging ourselves and pushing the boundaries of what we’re capable of is the only way to get better. In sports this is when teams play someone at a higher level, for entrepreneurs this happens almost daily when faced with new challenges that we’ve never seen, in sales this happens when we stop choosing the low-hanging fruit and swing for the fences, and for me it happened when I was reading.

I was recently asked to perform a guest lecture at CSU and I am extremely excited to speak to a class of juniors and seniors about my experience thus far in the ‘real world.’ While I was putting together my notes for this class I came up with a particular piece that will be encouraging each of them to continue their education through constant self-improvement with books, articles, podcasts and more to help them grow. As soon as I transformed those thoughts into words I realized I was not practicing what I am about to preach.

Fortunately, I had just finished the book I was reading and it was time to pick another. Most of my book selections these days are non-fiction business books that tend to be 200-400 pages in length. I chose Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin which happens to be close to 1,000 pages. I came to the conclusion that I have not been challenging myself enough and that it was time to step my game up. 27 pages in I realize this will be a long journey, but I know that when this book is finished I will have pushed myself further than I have been.

This lesson is more than applicable to the ‘real world’ that I’ll be lecturing on in a few days. With the teams and the projects that we manage, are we pushing our team members? Are we giving the people we work with challenges that will enable them (not force) them to grow? Have we set BHAG’s for them? Have we taken on that project that nobody wants to touch because it’s “too much work” and everyone is scared of it? How can we push the limits of what we’re capable of today? This week? This month? This year? Without challenges, we do not have opportunities to grow and the worst thing that an organization can do is remain stagnant. No growth means we are standing still, and that means the competition is catching up or even worse, pulling away.

The Best

I used to call it creating a ‘wow’ experience for customers, Seth Godin refers to it as being remarkable and has dedicated an entire book to it, and my friend Jada Ross said it perfectly last night: “If you’re going to do something, dedicate yourself and be the best at it.”

Jada was inducted into the Charleston Southern University Hall of Fame for his football achievements. Jada didn’t just say those words with empty thought, he had power and conviction behind them. Jada amassed over 450 career tackles in his collegiate career (an amazing feat in itself if you don’t understand football) as well as setting numerous school and conference records for his individual play. He also helped lead our team to a conference championship (first in school history), a 14 game win-streak spread over 2 seasons, and was an integral part of turning a program with a losing history into one with a winning mindset. He was the ultimate combination of an outstanding individual talent that played well on a team and never put himself or his achievements over the team as a whole. He was the best at his position, and he more than deserved that induction into the Hall of Fame.

When Jada said, “dedicate yourself and be the best at it,” he was speaking directly to the current student-athletes in attendance at the induction celebration. But as he spoke there was the faintest mummer of agreeing that swept the room from coaches, faculty, has-been student-athletes, and more in the room that his words resonated with, especially me.

When was the last time we put our best effort forward? When was the last time we dedicated ourselves 110% to a task and did not let excuses get the best of us? As Jada also said, “The time will fly and it will be over before you know it,” and even though he was referring to the student-athletes remaining time to compete, it is applicable in our everyday lives. Nobody has ever been celebrated for giving a sub-par effort in sports, in business, or in life so why wait? If we’re going to do something, let’s dedicate ourselves and be the best at it.

Congratulations Jada, I’m proud to call you my teammate!

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