Thursday, December 1, 2011

"That's not what I meant!"

    We all at some time in our lives have felt misunderstood. Whether by a family member or a co-worker, the personal frustration and the actual monetary cost of communication breakdowns can be exponential. Before you chalk up the next miscommunication mishap to the blame of the other guy, take a time out to reflect on our own communication methods. While you may be right, you still may not be heard. Which is another way of equating you to being wrong.  You may feel justified and emboldened about an idea, but that doesn't mean your communication will transfer that passion and conviction to those around you. Quite the contrary, our own passion can actually heighten a situation to the point that it undermines the facts that you want to communicate. The person on the other end of your "conviction" just goes into survival mode and builds up a self-preservation wall.  The facts get lost in translation make the situation worse at best.

    The vantage point of everyone involved can be a killer to the efficiency an intended point if it isn't taken into account. So before you stomp off from another discussion gone wild, do some self-reflection in regards to the intent and motivation behind your communication. Does that other person understand your intent? Do you appreciate theirs? By asking yourself to assess the landscape first, you will be better prepared to glean some beneficial dialogue instead of putting another brick in the personal grudge wall.  In an interview with Inc. magazine, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal was asked to outline his own communication strategies that have served him so well in crisis. The principles he shares are simple and just as applicable to the grand theater of war as they are to the family dinner table. As intent is understood, organizations, teams, and families can then operate with a mission-driven independent efficiency since they understand the grand idea.



Win Today!

Victor

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Effective change is closer than you think

As the year wraps up, we may once again be considering new year's resolutions for change. For some, the thought of the well-intended resolutions that we let fall by the way side this year can have a perturbing effect on the process since we hated that feeling of failure.  Nonetheless, we all know deep in our heart that we are called to more and have to change in order to achieve.

When considering personal change,  we can tend to focus our change efforts on some under-achieving area of our life, instead of pouring our limited change energy into strengthening the areas which are peforming. It's a natual tendancy since we tend to focus on our negative instead of expanding our positive. Scott Belsky of "Fast Company" challenges us to optimize instead of employing a drastic change. More often than not, our radical attempts to change fail since we attempted to over-correct much too drastically, leaving in its wake a chaotic mess of frustration and self-condemnation.  Additionally, Belsky suggests that our pursuit of greatness has more to do with optimizing our strengths instead of just trying to rid ourselves of the unattributable qualities that suffer from comparison. In other words, take what energy you do have and apply it to the areas that are producing in hope of optimizing yourself.  So the next time you are considering change, consider optimizing. When applied, the concept will give you the small Penny principle victories that add up over time to make up a windfall of greatness. Below is a short video piece on the concept of optimization.



Win Today!

Victor

Friday, November 4, 2011

Sitting in the airport waiting for a connection flight can give you the time to people watch and to contemplate. The people watching is what I enjoy most about the waiting, but through the time to contemplate I can't help but recognize an energy of purpose in the air among all of the travelers moving through their journey.  As I see it, purpose has a way of making our lives much more focused as it summons our innate desire to be relevant.  What's more, when purpose arrives, an efficiency of sorts tends to infect our entire process so that our decisions become prioritized.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A success story that all began with a little ambition

I just finished reading the success story of Trisha Waldon, a retired millionaire who started her own business when she was 28.  The kicker is that Trisha was a single mother of two, barely surviving on food stamps in the Black Hills of South Dakota (not exactly the opportunity capital of the world).  Her full story can be found here. Trisha claims that her ah ha moment came when she over-heard a teacher at her daughter's school say "You can create your own life." She goes on to say, “I knew I had to take responsibility for my own life. I had been running it according to others and things hadn’t worked out very well.” 


The value of a moment couldn't be more poignantly captured than by this story.  Her reality was dim at best, yet she found that spark of ambition in herself to believe that she was worth not giving up on. The story is inspirational and practical, since the magic fairy godmother didn't wave a wand over her life to put her where she is today.  Trisha achieved through trial and error, but never retreated to her previous place in life. She grew with each moment and over-time began to learn how to properly harness the power of an ambitious spark.  In Trisha's own words she reminds us that it is a day by day process of hard work, but the ambition kept her in a growth mindset, “Getting there was incredibly challenging, I learned by trial and error, I cried a lot..." I am reminded that we all need to believe a little more that we actually can achieve what we know we are worth. It just won't be easy that's all. And that's the starting point of every great success story. 


Win Today!

Victor

Sunday, October 2, 2011

A little ambition can grow a giant dream

A baby pygmy hippo who will eventually grow to weigh 400-500 lbs
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
- Mark Twain

Ambition is a word that can often be misunderstood by those who quote it, and or, by those that hear it being quoted. It's often an attribute assigned to the captivated person who is single minded in a pursuit. Moreover, it can also be a shield of excuse for those that do not know how to wield it correctly, thus mistakenly claiming ambition as the cover for ill-spirited actions. The world is littered by the collateral damage of ambition gone astray. Yet in it it all, ambition is the fuel for realizing an upstream located vision, despite the current down stream reality.  The question is how well do we understand the fundamentals of this powerful tool?

Monday, September 19, 2011

Failure to focus

No matter if you are a boxing fan or not, this past weekend provided a bit of controversy for the sports world to debate after the championship bout between the defending champion Victor Ortiz and the challenger Floyd Mayweather ended in an "unorthodox" manner to say the least.  While the sports world is destined to debate the ethics of sportsmanship and whether or not this outcome is legitimate, the point of it all is that failure to focus can and will cost you.

In brief, the controversy arises because Floyd Mayweather knocked out Victor Ortiz after the referee broke the two apart to deduct a point from Ortiz' scorecard for head butting. After the referee resumed the fight, Ortiz' then put his guard down in an apologetic stance as to say "sorry for intentionally ramming my forehead into your head...let's continue the fight from here on out like gentlemen." To Ortiz' surprise, Mayweather took the  opportunity to knock-out the apologetic Ortiz'.  I know I am overstating the obvious when I suggest that whenever you are in a ring with an opponent that is getting paid a high-dollar figure to knock your head off, you should always be on guard. Just because you are the champion going into the ring doesn't mean you are privileged with an alternative set of competitive rules that allow you to decide the tempo of the competition. The name of the game is to knock the opponent out from the time the bell rings to begin the round, all the way until the bell rings to end it.

There are moments in all of our life that we begin to rely on a rhythm of life instead of a focused savory of the existence that we occupy. When this happens, we fall into the tyranny of the ego-centric mindset and tend to interpret the world around us based on our emotions and relative agenda instead of applying due diligence to the factual circumstances we function in. While it's all of our hope to consistently succeed in whatever we put our minds to, the confidence that can come from previous victories doesn't privilege us with the excuse to cruise forward to the next perpetual success. This is the failure to focus that Victor Ortiz fell victim to last Saturday. For us, we should grow our capacity for greater achievements and responsibility from our successes, but never lose the fundamental focus and hunger that  fueled our journey in the first place. Without this fundamental focus, we are destined to grow complacent, eventually falling victim to a self-serving misconception that could cost us more than we ever imagined.

Win Today!

Victor

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Never again...And this time I mean it!

    Looking back on our lives we can see moments where we wished we had acted differently.   Prior to those occurrences we had the best of intentions, and perhaps even boasted of how we were going to respond to a situation the next time it came up. The cost of such impulsive behavior can range from a dent in a relationship due to another flippant slip of the tongue, or to a car crash in life due to the loss of momentary intellect and impulsive instinct took over.  Perhaps we have grown from those instances if we have taken the intentional preparations for the next happen chance. Or, like most, we just think we will act differently the next time since we didn't like the pain of the previous experience. Until then, we will keep living in our self-serving kingdom of perceived reality, because as the pain diminishes, and a new normal arises, we soon revert to our old selves. Unless you are one of the rare flawless in life, we can tend to over-estimate the reactive selves that we are when it comes to future fore-casted events.  

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Commitment - Daring to be great

Dipping your toe in the water can only provide a brief insight to the temperature of an experience.  Only when we jump into the fullness of a commitment can we experience the greatness that we see others enjoy and that we hope to capture for ourselves. This simple observation can be applied to our career path, relationships, and any other positive endeavors that we dream of one day achieving. Are you looking for a career or just a job.  A career requires an arduously attained and repeatedly demonstrated skill set worthy of recruitment. A job brings home a check, but lacks the engagement of your heart-filled commitment. Love requires an all-in attitude, while companionship serves the moment until the temperature changes.

I recently came across this video that helps us catch a visual of the comprehensive spectrum of living that can only come from risking a committed attitude.




Win Today!

Victor

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Time crunch. Deciding what's vital and what can wait.

In this age of instant communication overload, our lives are bogged down more than ever with time demands. It seems like everyone has learned just how to make their requirement convincing enough to necessitate your time. The house is burning entreaties of "If we don't act now, we will lose out!" has certainly taken its toll on modern society. As you maximize the 24 hours of the day by working longer to check off that next to do, the smell of defeat lingers all the more with every email, text message, phone call, and snail mail solicitation crying out for there to be 25 hours in the day. Ironically, we can easily slip away into irrelevance through activity if we don't step back and decide what is vital in our life.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Change your life with a good decision.

It has been said that our lives are a culmination of our decisions. Bad or good. Wise or foolish. We all have experienced both ends of the spectrum at some time in our life. Each day we wake up we are given a unique right, which is the power to choose. And while circumstances and environments are influential in regards to what we choose, it never takes the ownership of this special right.

Now that we are in the month of August, some schools are already back in session and the fun of summer is beginning to fade. It is a reminder to us all that the seasons keep coming and going as the world keeps on spinning like it always has. The challenge for us all is whether or not we will apply this incredible power of decision making in such a way that we will become more of what we want to be a year from now.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Familiarity breeds contempt: Rupert Holmes is genius!

Humans are very peculiar if you really think about it.  We work so hard to achieve, yet once we arrive, discontentment soon follows. What is this? Some would say it's a positive "keep pushing" and "never satisfied" attitude that helps form a champion spirit. Ok...Perhaps.  Conversely, discontentment can also be the leak in our hull that keeps draining our satisfaction with our present moment.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Get busy living or get busy dying

In 2011, the evidence of how businesses have fallen by the way side are all around us. While unavoidable economic hardship may be the culprit, many of their failures are no more than a lack of innovation. At one time they were on top and thriving! Yet, like all living things, unless it innovates and rejuvenates it will then begin the process of dying. As the line goes in the movie the Shawshank Redemption, "Get busy living or get busy dying." The dilemma is that while humans are naturally dreamers and creators, we are also addicted to predictability. The reason being is that predictability provides a well known landscape for our daily living. While you may not be content with it, at least you know it. Knowing something well then provides a sense of confidence and comfort. The irony of this mindset is that knowing something so well that it lacks all creative breath is fundamental to a presumptive life of perpetual motion. Get busy dying.  



Sunday, July 24, 2011

Are we writing in sand?

photo source: Claudine Zap
Last week I read a story of an extremely wealthy Arab sheikh who spent his money having a crew dig  ditches in a sand peninsula so that the ditches would form the letters of his name. Now plenty of us have enjoyed casually drawing our name in the sand, however the difference with this attempt at significance is that the sheikh made sure the ditches were so large that his name could be read from space! To be so rich that you can waste money on digging your name in sand only to be washed away is an absurdity to most.  Having the will and resources to pull off such a task is something that most of us will never have to ponder. However, before we rush to criticize with such impunity, it does beg the question if we are unknowingly spending large amounts of time and treasure in other not-so-obvious activities that are essentially just writing in the sand? 

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Crisis of comparison?

Reality TV, walls, reunions, and top ten lists.  All modern day measuring sticks to let us know if we are doing ok. If we see someone else of similar background or measure doing worse off than ourselves we may feel empowered about our current condition. Conversely, if we fail by comparison, we may feel defeated. As narcissistic and even ridiculous as this may sound, it is a common theme that commentaries are beginning to observe in western culture. Can it be that the deep need for comparison is a symptom of something deeper?

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Rise and grind. What to do when emotion ends and reality remains.

We've all had those days. The ones when the emotional tank is on empty and the motivation to keep turning the crank of responsibility seems to wane.  Similar to those Hollywood scenes where the spirited rebel gets in their car and drives down the highway to escape the mundane, only to hit reality when the fuel runs out in the middle of the desert with no gas station in sight. Suddenly, the romance runs dry and the dream seems less inspiring since the distance to destination didn't match up with what you originally calculated. For any new venture, or an old one for that matter, a person will surely hit this wall. Whether it be a business person or a romantic relationship, the wall moment isn't a signal of failure, but rather an opportunity for growth. It's in these times when we feel that we've gone too far to go back, but question our ability to get to the other side that our capacity can increase if only we will chew on the fundamentals of work.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

So what do you do?

So what do you do?....It's a question that we have come accustomed to asking or being asked when introductions occur. Having witnessed and experienced the awkwardness of this scene one too many times, lends me to believe that the understated profoundness of this question may be serving as a driving force for much of the relational and career choices that we experience. If we assimilate to the social norm of this repetitive Q & A scenario, we can then consciously, or subconsciously, build our lives according to this "existence" defining scoreboard. In order to "win" the next time this question is asked we may overextend our financial and social resources for presentation sake. And this is when the trap snaps! Just like a dog chasing its tail, the feeling of never arriving in our own skin cycles with each "what" achievement. As the what piles up, the loneliness of why can haunt us. The real question to be asked is "Why do you do what you do?" What's motivating you each day that you wake up? The what achievements will fade quickly. The why motivation will fuel us continually.


Simon Sinek, an organizational consultant, has been helping groups re-evaluate their business paradigm in order to reposition their motivation to the Why instead of the What. He shared his "Start with why" model at a TED conference video below.  I believe that this model has profound implications to our Win Today efforts since winning today isn't about achieving the largest to do list that we can before we go to bed, but to the contrary, it is about engaging in, and finding value with each moment that we are granted to exist. Life is happening right now, not in some past or future state. By discovering a constructive why to replace the soulless what for each of our domains of life, the well of passion has a greater chance of being tapped into instead of just hoping to discover it.  



Win Today!

Victor

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Entitlement can be killing our ability to commit, grow, and discover.

Recently, when I was running I came across this out of place flower bursting through a crack in the concrete curb. The fact that this flower, once a seed, had committed itself to fulfill its God-given potential even though its' circumstances were obviously working against it, is a life-lesson metaphor worth appreciating. No pot. No potting soil. No support system. No fanfare or glorious flower bed to be a part of. Just gutter water and shallow soil in the crack of the sidewalk. It was a real life example of the old saying "commit to bloom where you are planted." Could the same be said about you and I with our lives, or is an entitled persona keeping us  from experiencing real growth?

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Vision: It can still help!

In today's over-demanding fast paced life we all have felt overwhelmed by the responsibility? If not, you are probably still in elementary school or you are in college on a full-ride scholarship. As for the rest of us, the demand doesn't seem to stop.  The world we live in now expects us all to cover the 24 hour shift. Unfortunately, I don't think that demand is changing anytime soon. By establishing a clear vision for yourself, your family, and your organization, you can help prioritize and clarify the scrambled demands around us and perhaps bring back an integrated sense of self that we prefer to exist in.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Setting Sail Through Transitions: Are we depending too much on the predictable?

Smooth Sailing...This is an often quoted phrase descriptive of a peaceful and predictable state that most everyone would love to exist in. The quote infers that your affairs are in order and that you are the captain of the S.S. My Life sailing towards your proper future. In other words, you believe to be resourced and well equipped for the predictable. The statement smooth sailing is also often associated with the phrase "famous last words." The problem with a smooth sailing aspiration is that life has never promised to be predictable. So why then do we struggle so much when it isn't? Could it be that the state of predictability that we associate with our smooth sailing is an infiltrator to be wary of instead of longed for?

Monday, June 27, 2011

Investing your time today or spending it?

"Today you're going to do one of two things with your time.
You can invest it or you can spend it." - Nick Saban

Have a dream? Have a goal? Then let's get with it!  Today is Monday and for some the prevailing culture of today has convinced them that Monday's are bad days. The start of a long week. Ugh!  Why are we allowing this type of low living mindset determine our lives when the reality is that Monday marks the beginning of opportunities to be had.  For successful minded people, Monday morning is a starting gun for opportunity. 


Still, we all need an attitude adjustment once in awhile, because the truth is that life is tough. However, we can't let the tough demands of life suck out the flavor of living.  Recently, Nick Saban, the Head Football Coach at the University of Alabama, made a speech to begin their summer football camp. No matter what your opinion of Coach Saban is, or your opinion of football, the outlined principles in his message are timeless and Coach Saban's success is indisputable.  Today, we can either invest our time or we can spend it on fruitless perpetual motion activities. If you need a fire up speech to get you moving one step closer to a life you envision,  I believe this one will give you the extra charge that you need. 


Win Today!

Victor

Friday, June 24, 2011




YOU ARE HERE

I wake up with a yawn.
The beaten path is familiar as are the same steps of routine that take me through the day.
Out the door here we go.
So much to do in the immediate now that my potential will have to wait.
If only I could grasp.
If only I could arrive.
"When I grow up" seems farther away each day I live.
Where's the starting gun?
The finish line is almost here.
I hear my breath and feel the elements.
Life is happening now without me in it.
I must admit that I missed the sign.
But now I've come to realize what it said.
YOU ARE HERE.
No more banking on the potential that kept me sane at night.
Its now or never to begin my journey.
YOU ARE HERE.
Pack what love I have and leave behind the bitterness that decorates my walls.
I'm leaving now to meet my life.
What I hoped for hasn't waited for me.
Yet, I'll take the first step to consummate our treasure.
Me and life together as one.

Author - Salvador Cross

Win Today!

Victor

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Digital Street Smarts - 6 Suggestions for Managing Your Digital Self


Half Human Half Digital - Art by Nick Gentry
 I am a self-declared old school type of guy. Yet, the inevitable has now become my reality.  Welcome to the digital age! Like most Americans, my work communications rely more heavily on email than actual voicemail. As a matter of fact, if I really want to get an answer in a timely manner, I have to text instead of email or voicemail. This post is not a complaint or a nostalgic call for the return of the good ole days, but rather a statement of observed behavioral norms that must be recognized in order to navigate and manage our "digital-self" both socially and economically. 

Monday, June 20, 2011

Phronesis and the Vantage Point principle

In my June 11, 2011 post titled "Vantage Point: Valuing Perspective for Daily Performance Demands" I cited a May 2011 Harvard Business Review article titled The Wise Leader; How CEO's can learn from practical wisdom to help them do what's right for their companies, written by professors Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi. They have recently posted a YouTube video interview that I believe adds real value to any of our own spheres of influence and responsibility. The video is particularly relevant as it pertains to how we apply the Vantage Point principle.  The leadership paradigm that they build is based on an over-arching Aristotle idea called Phronesis. Phronesis is a mindset that they believe is fundamental to building a bridge between the tensions of the daily transactional demands of the bottom line and the social justice demands that we've become more and more aware of. When questioned regarding the relevance of such a paradigm, Nonaka and Takeuchi associate Phronesis as a key to the success of leaders like John Chambers, CEO, Cisco.  No matter what your rank or role may be, I believe that looking into a phronesis paradigm can help provide a substance rutter to our daily living. This video can help us all begin to appreciate the context and opportunity afforded from each other's vantage point. Enjoy the video.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Roughhousing - When risk is worth it

This morning I came across an emotional intelligence news feed about a new book written by Anthony T. DeBenedet M.D. and Lawrence J. Cohen Ph.D. advocating roughhousing as a vital component to the E.I. and social development of children.  The book is titled "The Art of Roughhousing: Good Ole-Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs It," (Quirk, May 2011). In light of all the current educational budget debates, Benedet and Cohen take the position that classes like gym and P.E. should be taken off the chopping block and put back on the critical to quality priority list. Moreover, they suggest that the innate need for physical roughhousing is being substituted by potentially more adverse risk in that of virtual roughhousing, i.e. video games.

The reviews that I've read are intriguing and may even call to question the standards by which my generation of parents have been titled  (aka "The helicopter parents"). As a dad, I for one am guilty of erroring on the side of over-protection. To my defense, I am so blessed to be called their "Dad," and for that, they in return make up the highest of priorities in my life. At the end of the day, when I take account of my Win Today scorecard, I want to be able to say that my parental responsibilities were successful. With that said, its books like this that make me have to check my own vantage point and review if my parental practices are best for my kids' own win today development. 

While life experience benefits me the knowledge of potential dangers, this book reminds me that winning today isn't about having everything in complete order or control. Not possible! We are human beings. Our life consists of growing, falling, growing, falling, growing. Discovering and experiencing the richness of emotion that at times comes through risk. It's at those peak moments, when we do have full control, that we can often be at are very worst. Even more, at those times in the valley when we do fall, we may perceive it as such an injustice that we quit all hope and respond with dysfunction. Allowing for the rough and tumble interactions that the book prescribes may in fact cause a few tears from the bumps and bruises, but in the end, the behavior nurtured by living in a bubble could become even more detrimental. Let's be honest, every great success story is characterized by risk and unknown (Loyd Dobler, 1989). Without risk, there is no reward. Without pain, there is no pleasure.  Winning today is not about earning the perfect life, but rather about living a full day of faithfulness to our responsibilities by appropriately working, loving, resisting, laughing, communicating, responding, planning, confronting, organizing, collaborating, and forgiving. Lastly, at the end of the day, it is a matter of being humble enough to check yourself when you missed on a moment. Having everything under control is a fools paradise. 

I'm not sure if I'm all in with the roughhousing thing, but I am willing to pull down some of the bubble wrap that's stapled to the walls of my house.  The timeliness of this book is perfect for me since my oldest (9yrs) just joined a free wrestling club at the local high school.  He is really enjoying it, and I am also seeing how his E.I. is being developed since the club experience has presented him with some new physical and challenging social settings. Most of all, its worth it when I see him smile as he and his friends roughhouse on the mats.

Win Today!

Victor

Monday, June 13, 2011

How many habits does it take?!

7 habits? 9 habits? 4 habits? 3?  Or are they principles? How about suggestions? 

I recently tweeted about Heidi Grant Halvorson's February 25th, 2011 HBR post "Nine Things Successful People Do Differently." I think it is a great read for anyone who is trying to Win Today. However, it did make me think that how in the sea of this new era we live in where predictability is relegated with the good ole days and the "knowledge" economy is in, we can be convicted by thought or circumstance of a need to change or improve our present selves. It can go a little something like this...

 1 - We may hear a sermon or a media show giving an abundance of compelling motivators and personal agreement to change.
 2 -  We leave the building or turn off the show with a ball of energy to discover the "new" us.
 3 - If the passion makes it through the night, or even past the next meal, we may even go and buy a book or join or acquire a new membership. "And this time we mean it!"
 4 - The abundance of reality that makes up the current you takes hold and we fall back into the comfort zone (which is actually our trained nervous system falling back into efficiency).
 5 - Guilt and disappointment over our inability to make those life changing "habits" assimilate into the new envisioned you. And sadly, the guilt feeling makes it even harder to start a personal change effort the next time, because your mind is naturally failure adverse.

To our own disappointment, we have all gone through such a cycle at some point in our life. Most of us will never publicly admit responsibility for the lack of change. Usually when asked how our self-advertised change was coming along, we will relegate the responsibility to some outside reason for its failure. But once a new and improved sequence of habits or suggestions emerges at the bookstore or in the mainstream media it can once again capture our passion and we go right down the same path.  Now let me stop here for a moment to insert my disclaimer for what I am about to suggest to make your next change attempt a manageable one.  If what you are trying to change has anything to do with a medical condition or addiction, please seek the advice of your own primary physician. Let's move on.

The issue isn't how many habits does it take to become the enlightened and efficient you, but rather what is your current capacity for change? You see, we all have a current capacity, or ability to efficiently and effectively perform.  If we set out to change a habit or acquire a new one, we first must take inventory of our current condition. I'm a big fan of any habit that can help us discover a more excellent personal and professional life! As a  matter of fact, in an effort to increase my win today "W" column I will keep abreast of the latest personal and organizational management trends. Yet, as I learn more about proposed "habits" I find that I have to actually pass on attempting some, or modify them. You see, I don't have the capacity to actually make some of those habits a new norm for me in their outlined state.

For instance, at a previous position of mine I had to attend a seminar regarding day planner organization. Admittedly, organization is not a natural tendency of mine. It wasn't until I worked for this manager who sent me to the seminar (who by the way was the most organized man I've ever been around) that I actually began adopting the organizational skills that I deploy today (fear of losing your job can do wonders). Yet, as I left the seminar with my new passion, planner tools, and education, I was never able to deploy the techniques at half the level of what the seminar prescribed. The reason was that my capacity for such a discipline was juvenile relatively speaking to the prescription that the seminar suggested.

You see, in the athletic world there are 4 principles to change that must be understood before we ever attempt to reach a new physcial capacity. These straightforward athletic training based principles are fundamentals to the physical training world, but to my knowledge, have not been clearly interpreted for the application of the personal and professional management world. 

The 4 principles are:

- The overload principle: Any load above and beyond your normal routine (capacity) will be stressful. It takes overload to make the adaptation process begin, but do not overload yourself too much. For example, if you never even walk as a normal routine of your day and want to start exercising, then walking 2 laps around a track will surely be above and beyond your normal routine. If this is you, do not do the new years resolution jinx and run a mile the day you decide to change. You will break yourself. For now, a mile is far beyond your capacity.

The principle of progression: Capacity will change faster than you think, but will not change overnight. If walking 2 laps was originally above and beyond your normal routine than you will need to progress in some systematic form to 3 laps. In my experience, people can up the load in intervals of one week without over exhausting themselves as long as the progression of the load is realistic.

The principle of specificity: If we are to change something, acquire a new habit, we must be specific. We can't just run into a weight room and lift sporadically each day.If we are to measure progress, we must focus on one discipline or in the case of athletic training, one exercise. Usually the personal management technique gurus do a great job of providing the specificity.

- The principle of rest: This is often times the largest hurdle for the new habit disciple that wants change NOW! Again, using athletics as an example, I cannot demand that my players perform the same lift at the same load sequentially. I must prescribe that there is at least a day off in between the load attempt if they are to grow their capacity. You see, the rest factor is when the muscle is actually building its capacity since the taxed muscle fibers will heal in such a way that they will be able to operate efficiently the next time that load is applied. Rest and progression go hand in hand.

In hindsight, here's how these 4 principles could have helped my day planner organization change effort. First, I should NOT have measured myself against my manager. His capacity to perform all of those finely tuned day planner duties with an unconscious competence was far beyond my newbie self. While all of those day planner techniques were sound and beneficial, to take them on all at once like I did provided more frustration and distraction to my day than efficiency. I should have prioritized the techniques in an order of relevance (overload/specificity). Next, the progression by which I was held accountable for was unrealistic. My manager required that we all communicate and plan with the methods prescribed by the seminar starting the next day. The accountability was certainly a motivator, however the expectation was unrealistic. Instead of applying the majority of my energy towards my organizational responsibilities and some towards my day planner learning, the exact opposite occurred. I began to measure my success for the day in term of my day planner efficiency instead of my actual employment responsibilities. As I mentioned above, in terms of specificity, I should have prioritized the day planner disciplines in regards to relevance to my job demands instead of attempting all the day planner duties at once (specificity). Lastly, myself and my manager should have reviewed the week's day planner performance to see exactly what I was performing effortlessly and what I was still grinding away at. Then, and only then, we could have come up with a outline of what I should attempt to tackle the next week (progression/rest). Remember, the idea behind any of the habits that the guru's prescribe is to make you more efficient and enlightened. That can only happen if and when it becomes a natural schema for us instead of a constant workout.


The wow factor of an entertainer's endorsement may be inspiring, but the motivation will quickly fizzle if you aren't aware of the key fundamentals to growth. In my own life, I will always begin a change with these principles in order to pull back the curtain regarding workout plans or personal behavioral change initiatives I'm attempting. Inevitably, I will fall off the path to change, but when I look back to the principles it helps me to re-focus and continue the journey. Once you figure out the fundamentals of these 4 principles you can give yourself good odds for change. At that point, it only becomes a matter of how many habits, principles, or suggestions that you have the capacity to change.



Win Today!

Victor

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Vantage Point: valuing perspective for daily performance demands

When I was a boy, my father would occasionally take me fishing after school.  It was in those moments when I would learn some of my most lasting lessons.  On one particular trip we searched for a secret fishing hole that someone had told us about. Finding the spot took a bit longer than my limited patience could take. Sensing my anxiousness, my dad led us up to a higher plane in order to get our barrings. In a spirit of frustration I asked , "Why are we walking up the hill when we were told the secret spot was in the valley?" My dad patiently looked at me and and said, "Vantage point." "From this higher place we could expand our line of sight and better understand the landscape of the valley." Once on the top of the hill, the markers we were told about to find the fishing hole began to make much more sense. This was the first moment in my life that I began to understand the value of vantage point.

 
      Depending where you are on the mountain, your frame of
reference,your criticism, your reactions, and your decisions
are critically influenced by the vantage point you hold.
In our daily attempts to win each day, the principle of vantage point can play a major role in such areas as; conflict resolutions, assets management, and overall context. In a the May 2011 issue of the Harvard Business Review, professors Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi wrote an article titled The Wise Leader; How CEO's can learn from practical wisdom to help them do what's right for their companies. In the article they write
"The world needs leaders who will make judgements knowing that everything is contextual, make decisions knowing that everything is changing, and take actions knowing that everything depends on doing so in a timely fashion. They will have to see what is good, right, and just for society while being grounded in the details of the ever-changing front line. Thus, they must pair micromanagement with big-picture aspirations about the future (2011)."  Nonaka and Hirotaka give us some food for thought regarding just how critical an appreciation for the principle of vantage point can be for our daily competitiveness.

As leaders, parents, friends, and employees, we can all benefit if we take a step back from the moment to assess the context that our vantage point is feeding us. For instance, as the head football coach of a college team I am surrounded by a wealth of opinions. Initially, I may agree with some, however as the HC, I may disagree with others based on my more expansive vantage point. You see, I'm held accountable for leading the entire program to a greater good. While an opinion may be presented to me with sincere passion and conviction, my position allows me the perspective of knowing how decisions and circumstances can be intertwined with other cause and effects. Conversely, as time goes on, I may begin to loose the prospective of my front line people since I am further removed from what their daily reality is. Ironically, like most leaders, I am judged by the daily performance of my front line people instead of my over-arching vision. Therefore, a default response of mine to the front line frustrations can never be "they just don't understand." It is imperative that I never loose awareness of just how impactful my decisions can be to the front line since such power distance implications of vantage point can be the root of underachievement and organizational dysfunction. I have to keep my interpretive context  full of fresh insight from the top and the bottom.
 


Application of this principle within the context of the grass roots, vantage point can be the root of family and relational dysfunction. You see, depending where you are on the mountain, your frame of reference, your criticism, your reactions and your decisions are critically influenced by the vantage point you hold. At every level, everyone wants to win, this is why we can be so passionate about our personal positions and opinions. Our position can be  functional, or dysfunctional based on our perception. While a parent has the vantage point to restrict their teen from a potentially detrimental social situation, all the "rebellious" teen has to work off of is their vantage point that places tremendous value on the social currency implications of not going. Such a difference in vantage points can produce a lack of empathy between leaders and followers since they do not experience each other's consequential line of sight (see Vantage Point Index).


To win today, lets give room for the vantage point principle. As leaders, push for fresh perspective of the front line. Your macro directives may be right for the greater good, but will rely on the buy-in of your front line people. As followers, push to empathize with the responsibility demands effecting the greater good that leadership is accountable for. A follower's behavioral agenda may be short sighted in light of the grand scheme. 

In terms of communication, it is the responsibility of everyone to resolve the end by means of relying on the maximum line of sight that we have, while appreciating the line of sight that others bring to the table. By doing so on the daily, your relational unit around you will reciprocate some incredible nuggets that add value to your envisioned reality. Nonaka and Hirotaka state it this way, "When leaders cultivate such knowledge throughout the organization, they will be able to not only create fresh knowledge but also to make enlightened decisions (HBR, May 2011)." Practicing the vantage point principle fosters an environment of openness and trust since we recognize each other's vantage point reality.  As organizational leaders, the strong warning to not applying this principle is that we can tend to think too much of ourselves and our own opinions, essentially flipping the index upside down, resulting in severe organizational dysfunction and collateral damage. In the end, our desire and abilities are useless if we can't find that secret fishing spot in the valley!

Win Today!

Victor

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The enemies of the penny principle

Last Friday night I attended an event to honor a few professionals in my field that have achieved tremendous success. I was particularly impacted by a statement of one of the recipients who stated in his acceptance speech, "I know I'm not the smartest guy, but I do know that most people do not work hard. So, I used that as my strategic advantage to get where I am today." This statement is true, however what does working hard really mean? 

As I drove home late Friday night, a rush of conviction came over me to conduct my personal and professional matters with a stronger work ethic! The problem is that there isn't 25 hours in the day. Just then, reality hit me...I already have a great deal on my plate. A plan to "just work harder" is a little like using a shotgun to win a marble shooting contest.  We all can do more, however doing more may just mean creating more chaos. Even more, in the hectic world we live in, it seems that we've witnessed enough collateral damage in-terms of bank failures and broken relationships that those liable can say were all in the spirit of working hard. This statement, combined with my recent post "The Penny Principle," prompted me to think about how simple, but profound this paradigm can be in terms of bringing clarity to what working hard means.  

In light of the penny principle, working hard means paying attention to the activities at hand is such a way that your presence and input will elevate the situation one step closer to a better envisioned reality. In other words, it is a matter of process. Which is exactly what the penny principle is all about.  Why does such a simple principle so easily slip by our daily activities sine we all know that great processes are the root of great successes. Moreover, we know that a great process can be identified by a detailed orientated and systematic approach to problem solving. With that said, I suggest to you that a fundamental culprit to the penny principle isn't necessarily the external circumstances, but rather the individual's internal ability to lead themselves. As I like to tell my players, "Manage the moment and the future will take care of itself." Here are three enemies to the penny principle that we all may have hidden within. 

1. Pace - In the rush of life we all strive to achieve more. For some achiever's there's nothing greater than the feeling of checking off a to do list! But, the pace of life or our efforts can actually be creating more cost than profit. I learned this lesson the hard way as a teenager while working on a construction job. Since I strived to finish the job by the day's end, my pace of work caused me to overlook the details. The next day my supervisor explained to me that he had to go back and re-do the work with greater detailed. This caused him a loss in pay which then caused me to lose money. Check your pace. Are you moving to fast to pick up a penny? It may even be so fast that you are actually dropping pennies. 

2. Laziness - Yes, there are many times when we need to be honest with ourselves. We could do more, however we just choose not to. I heard it once said "Three O'Clock is too early and too late to do anything." How are you managing your day? I don't want to guilt trip anyone, however let's be honest, there are times that we know that we are just not being productive enough.

3. Ego - I once worked on a staff of a very successful leader.  As a young professional, I was grateful for the opportunity. A month into the job, I was let in on an inside joke of some of the other young people on the staff who would purposefully drop pennies or nickels on the floor of the office just to see our boss pick them up. The supposed humor to the younger guys was that our boss couldn't resist to the urge to pick up the penny. In actuality, the joke was on the younger people. Our successful boss was successful because he practiced the penny principle! When let in on the joke, our boss just chuckled, but never wavered in his conviction. Is your ego causing you to step over the penny due to the supposed risk of being laughed at? 

Today, let's humble our mindset and begin to operate at a pace that doesn't forbid us from paying attention to the details, while keeping in balance the tension between laziness and working hard. By daily checking our sphere of influence for these three enemies, we are actually picking up pennies. 

Win Today!

Victor

Sunday, May 15, 2011

The penny principle

Yesterday, my son had poured out his penny jar to find enough money to buy a new video game. He asked me the question "why do people like to have the paper money instead of all of these pennies?" I began to explain to him the convenience of carrying the paper money instead of all the pennies. He then went on to ask, "Isn't it still money?" Yes it is my son..yes it is.



In life, how many times do we ignore this fact that a penny is still money? There are countless times that we have all walked over pennies throughout our day because our mindset has been dilluted by convenience. The value of the penny is much greater than 1 cent!  There is a priceless principle to be found in the penny.  I call it the penny principle.

Every dollar is fundamentally built by the stacking of 100 pennies.  Every $100 is fundamentally the stacking of 1000 pennies. Take away the penny and you take away the fundamental starting point of the entire US Dollar financial system!  The same goes with the littlest details of a business venture or relationship endeavor. Every realized business or relationship success that we read about was built upon a proverbial penny.

For example, the finalization of a lucrative sales contract can be traced back to that first marketing call or contact that most likely was a part of a series of faithful marketing attempts to countless other client targets. More over, it may have been a contact that came from the "one last call" of the day after the sales associate experienced a full day of frustration. Yet, because making that one more call is a penny in the entire system of realizing and maturing an account, it cannot be over-looked.

The ego loves the external validation of success. Who doesn't. But the true measure of a champ is whether or not they will pick up pennies while others refused to be inconvenienced and step over it. Pick the penny up and you can know that at the very least you are one cent closer than the other pedestrians to realizing that dollar. This is why success is rare and the club "average" is full of members.

Win today!

Victor

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Winning today...the ever present opportunity

Each of us posses dreams and visions for an idealized future. Dreams and visions that can include a certain career, a relationship, a destination, a state of wealth, or a victory that we hunger for. While we may be able to visualize ourselves in that better situation, the distance from here to there can be more frustrating than the process itself. This is where the saying "WIN TODAY" comes into play.

We all know someone that could talk about a big vision they would like to achieve, however time has gone by and they are another day further from their dream. In my life I've had the opportunity to listen to a variety of dreams that eager people aspire to, ranging from making an entrepreneurial splash in the clothing industry to being the first person in their family to get a college degree. Even more, You and I have met countless Uncle Rico's who talk about the dreams that could have been if the circumstances would have been different...I'm not going to understate the unfortunate happenings where we are truly faultless, yet there are those other happenings that have not, nor will not happen until we take responsiblity for the precious gift of today. The six inches in front of our face can be the most intimidating of opposition, because it is where ideas meet reality. 

Winning today is about changing our mindset from "I need to get that done" to "I took a step today towards that!" Or, "If only this could happen," to "I'll control what I can control today."

I once heard a man say, "What you are today is exactly what you will be tomorrow." If I want to be a loving father tomorrow, I had better humble myself to be a loving father today. An even more simple scenario, if I don't want tomorrow's commute to be frustrated and delayed by having to put the trash cans out, I'll take the pain and put them out the night before, instead of making it "tomorrow guy's" problem.

I want to encourage us all to dare to dream, but don't forget that realizing our future dreams only comes through our humble diligence to the everyday opportunities six inches in front of our face.

WIN TODAY!