Category Archives: Thinking Aloud

August 7, 2008 · 8:21 am

Confidence

The PGA Championship starts this morning and of course the most notable thing about it so far is who isn’t there. The scary thing is that you know that even a few weeks after ACL surgery, El Tigre would be competitive and there’s no doubt in my mind that if the Tour hadn’t fought golf carts in court (ironically vs. Casey Martin, one of Tiger’s Stanford teammates), they’d let him ride if that meant he could play.

What makes Tiger, and Annika for that matter (Lorena has to prove it over time, kids) so hard to beat?  Their confidence.  They believe in their souls that they are going to win every time they tee it up.  More importantly, they make YOU believe the same thing which is why their peers tend to go in the tank when they see either one making a charge.

Confidence is something every person in business needs to have.  There was a book written a few years ago on this by Rosabeth Moss Kantor.

In her view, success and failure are not events, they are self-fulfilling tendencies. “Confidence is the sweet spot between arrogance and despair–consisting of positive expectations for favorable outcomes.” says Kanter.

Bob Rotella, the preeminent golf psychologist, has a new book out as well called Your 15th Club (under the rules, one can only carry 14 at a time).

The 15th Club is the tool that golf stars like Tiger Woods use to block out negative thoughts, doubt, and fear. It is what allows champions to perform at their peak both in practice and during the game. Golfers who lack it find the game elusive and frustrating. Confident golfers play the game as they have always sensed they could play it.

How is your confidence level?  I’m a believer that part of my job as a manager was always to get people to perform at the highest level of which they were capable.  Mostly, that just meant giving them the guidance and tools they needed and staying out of their way.  One of the biggest tools we had was confidence – the belief that we could get great things done.  Do you believe?  If so, does the rest of your team?  If not, what are you doing to address it?

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August 5, 2008 · 7:12 pm

Context!

I received some books today as gifts (OK, it’s my birthday and that’s a subtle way of working it in!).  One of them is called Screen Doors and Sweet Tea.  It’s book with a ton of southern recipes which I’ll being cooking my way through ASAP.

Why is this of interest to you?  Because what’s so great about this book is the story that goes with nearly every recipe.  Rather than the traditional blurb at the beginning of the book which informs you of the chef’s fabulous experience and unimaginably great food, this book has a piece to go with nearly every page.  The stories are every bit as good as the food they discuss and make this book a worthwhile read even if you never cook anything out of it (or can’t cook at all).  The stories give the food context.

Context is something that’s often lost these days.  Companies seem very focused on the “how” or “what” but not often enough on the “why”.  How many presentations have you sat through that talk about a company and how they were funded, their great technology, their business but don’t hear a damn thing about how all this great stuff helps YOU, their customer?  Context is what takes “that’s nice” or “interesting” to “WOW – I NEED THIS.”  Context is relevance.  People like to know that you’re talking TO them, not AT them.

Check your context – it will make what’s good about what you’re doing great.  The recipes are good and interesting – the stories make them jump off the page.

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August 4, 2008 · 8:15 am

Patience

Big Brown won the Haskell Invitational yesterday.  For those of you not into horse racing, Big Brown won the first two legs of the Triple Crown this past May and failed miserably in the Belmont Stakes.  Yesterday’s win, while against a weaker field than the Belmont, was a win in a stakes race nevertheless and put to rest a good chunk of the doubts about this horse’s ability.

I bring this up because this is typical of what goes on in the sports world as well as the business world (maybe politics too but we don’t go there in this blog!).  An athlete or business person puts on some unbelievable performances and is elevated to “all time great” status immediately.  Maybe they repeat the performance for a little while at the same superlative level.  Then, they stumble.  The media, the public, maybe their peers give up on them.  They question if the prior performances were due to luck or drugs rather than ability.  Finally, like Big Brown, the former star puts on a good performance – maybe not at the superlative level of before but certainly good enough to demonstrate that the earlier performances were not flukes.  Big Brown is one example, Michelle Wie is another (although she really should have played in the Women’s British Open this past weekend and not against the men).  One can argue Dale Jr. is another.  I can cite a number of examples in business.

If you’ve read this blog before, you know that I believe in making rapid, informed decisions especially when dealing in areas such as digital that are constantly changing.  However, there is a difference between making a rapid decision and making a rash decision.  Rash decisions ignore prior facts and are delivered in a tone of “this is written in stone.”  Writing off anyone on the basis of a single poor performance is rash.

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