Picture a quarterback throwing a pass to one of his receivers. He typically throws the ball to where he expects the receiver to be and not where the receiver is at that instant. Defensive players, who have high statistics with interceptions, try to think like the quarterback as well so they can take control of that thrown pass and run in the opposite direction.
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky always said he skates “to where the puck in going to be” and not to where it is now. Again, the defense is always looming large over the play to disrupt it, take control and skate the other way.
So it goes in business. If you are not prepared to move to a direction or location in the growth process that is forward, then you are moving backwards. As manager(s), owner(s), executive(s), sales teams you are probably painfully aware of some entity or person always ready to intercept the pass and foil the plan(s).
Spend a few minutes thinking back over your professional career. Reflect over the research, marketing, selling, engagements, client conversations, employee to employee conversations, analyses, interviews, publicity events presenting findings and recommendations and being called back to provide additional products, services or mentoring. What were the one or two most satisfying and rewarding events or moments you have experienced?
Was it when a team received applause at a board meeting for your work they performed under your direction? Was it winning an engagement or a sale you had been pursuing for some time? Was it reaching a unique conclusion or insight after a long period of analysis? Was it the times you spent with a valued colleague working on a difficult problem? What about being able to speak to audiences about your work or about your profession in general? Or is it the flexibility of lifestyle business and/or sales management can afford you?
Ask yourself, is there a pattern? What were you doing when you experienced your favorite moment? If you think about a few of your favorite moments, is there a pattern? Are they all related to selling your services or wining an engagement, or are they mostly about doing the work? Are the winning moments all of one type? Why shouldn't you focus your efforts on living a professional life full of joy?
Conversely, what were some of the worst moments of your professional career? Is there a pattern? Can you restructure your business practice to eliminate or at least mitigate them?
Look down the playing field, get the vision, pick the spot and lead the team. The control is in your hands, the responsibility is yours and the rewards belong to all who participate.
Regards,
George F. Mancuso, CPC
Client Growth Consultants
Nationally recognized Retained Executive Search and Employee Retention Specialist.
For Wayne Gretzky or anyone else to be in that position he must be able to guess correctly or if it is longer term use futurology or clairvoyance to accurately predict where to be and how to be positioned.
ReplyDelete50% f events and changes are now unquantifiable and unpredictable and most people,s brains are not shaped in the right way to allow them to be clairvoyant.
This is why most people are not champions and most people cannot be tycoons.
You can improve hunching skills ,read widely ,learn about trends and practice futurology techniques as I do,but it will not make you clairvoyant and it will not make you a champion.
The truth is we are not all created equal,90% of people can only go into an alpha brainwave state when they have been triggered by an advertiser usind a reverberant m and o prior to showing the product,or by looking at a beautiful sunset,listening to particular types of music,making love or having been trained to do so.
10% of all people can do this at will.
A smaller proportion of people have pre and post cognition or can easily know what others are thinking.
The trick is understanding what you are,recognising your limitations as Clint Eastwood put so well in one of the "Dirty Harry" films and then improving on those attributes that your creator(if you happen to believe in one),that you have.