This past weekend our family was in Indianapolis for the Bands of America Grand Nationals where our son's band competed against 90 high school marching units from across the nation.  This year, Centerville High School advanced to the semifinal round before being eliminated.

What I appreciated was his band director's comments at the year-end brunch on Sunday.  He made the point that while we didn't win, it was an honor to compete alongside the top bands and to continue learning from what others brought to their shows.

You are competing.  Sometimes my not-for-profit clients prefer not to think of themselves as competing with others, but they are.  Schools are working to attract the best students and athletes, churches, at the very least, are competing for people's attention, and hospitals, well no one who listens to all of the radio commercials for heart or cancer centers could possibly doubt that hospitals are competing for patients. My for-profit clients, like the many financial advisors with whom I work, are keenly aware that they are competing each and every day.

You don't have to come in first to be a winner.  No, I am not some advocate of score-free soccer games, I just believe that winning doesn't always involve being in first place.  There is a longer perspective to life in which continuous learning and improvement are the goal.  You can win by competing against the best and pushing yourself to be better.

You need to compare yourself with the proper reference group.  One mistake many people make is to compare themselves against the wrong competitors.  If you are a rural high school with 300 students, your reference group is probably not the urban schools of thousands - for a number of reasons.  In golf, Phil Mickelson does himself no good by comparing himself to the average high school golfer.  Likewise the weekend duffer shouldn't use members of the Ryder Cup team as his reference group.  It's too easy to be a winner or a loser if you aren't looking to the right people as your competition.  Choose a reference group that challenges you to grow and to perform at your highest level without leaving you demoralized.

Year-end planning is a great opportunity to evaluate your performance to make sure you are engaged in continuous learning and improvement, and that you are competing against the proper reference group.  Julian Consulting helps leaders gain the most from this process.

(My thanks to Brandon Barrometti and Josh Baker for their tireless commitment to competing against the best, to continuous learning, and unending improvement.  You are great role models for my son's lifetime of competition.)