Everybody
Wants To Go To Heaven....
But
nobody wants to die. If you
want total perfect utter peace and happiness for all eternity*, you're
going to have to pay a high price, right? Heaven has put a fair price
on its goods.
What
does this have to do with managing, and being a professional? If
you
want to be good at it - REALLY good at it - you're going to have to
work damn hard at it.
Far too many of us managers want a silver bullet,
something easy, something simple, something fast. But there's nothing.
I often
tell managers that watching professional sports is a good lesson for
us. How do those folks get so good at things? They work hard,
repeatedly, over and over again, on small things, perfecting things
that need to be perfect for when they matter. I'm a baseball fan, and
it's said that hitting a major league pitcher is the hardest thing to
do in sport (if you do it successfully one THIRD of the time, you'll be
one of the only 1% of players that make the hall of fame!).
Think
about it - the best professional baseball players go to spring training
every year for a month or two and practice every day over and over
again on things they are paid millions of dollars to do. They are the
best in the world, and they still practice - hundreds of times, over
and over again, every year.
Here's
a bit (from my writing hero Peter King) about a football team winning a
game based on practice: "the Saints practice Brees' cadence..every week
in practice." Even though
they may use this particular play only every
4th or fifth game, they practice it every week.
"We work on that every
week" King says, "it's the kind of incredibly miniscule, boring piece
of practice that every player dreads. But on Sunday...it won the Saints
a game."
Want to
be a world champion manager? Think about it, and work at it,
even the boring parts, every week. DIG to get better.
True
Story
Got a
note from a professional today right before a flight: "Dude - today is
my performance review and suddenly I have a new boss? And the way I
learn that is the invite list on my review meeting request?"
This is
such unprofessional management it feels criminal.
A
reminder of why we're here, how hard WE need to work at Manager Tools,
and how much further there is to go.
*
Remember what the Irish say: Be happy while you're living because
you're a long time dead. When you say it like that, it makes you
realize how long eternity IS! :-)
Podcast
Awards - Please Vote
Several
weeks ago we asked you to nominate our podcasts in the
People's Choice Podcast Awards. We're thrilled that Career Tools has
made the slate in the People's Choice and Business sections, thanks to
your nominations.
The
actual voting started on 1 December. You'll be able to vote once
each day at http://podcastawards.com/
for each of the categories.
We'd be delighted if you continue your support by voting for us every
day until the 15th of December.
Whilst
we have room on our shelves for another trophy, that's not why
we ask. We're privileged to serve you and humbled by your support,
but that's not why we ask either. The reason we ask, is that with
this exposure, even more individual contributors and managers will
hear of Career Tools and Manager Tools. We hope to make the
difference in their work lives, the way we hope we've made a
difference in yours.
Please
Forward This Newsletter
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of you who have premium content know that use of that content is only
for that particular member. This newsletter is not premium content, and
we'd love for you to forward it to anyone who would find it interesting
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It's free!
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