Practice? We talkin' practice?

“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."  Yogi Berra

I got into one of those great discussions with a friend the other day.  It was about strategy vs. execution.  It was fun because we were in violent agreement with each other.  The consensus was that as important as strategy is, and there can be infinite debates on HOW important, it’s pretty worthless without proper execution.

The problem is strategy is fun.  Execution is tedious.  Strategy is blue sky, white clouds, crystal water, and sun-soaked beaches.  Execution is smoke-filled windowless rooms that are both too hot and too drafty.

Strategy is Saturday afternoon kickoff.  Execution is two months of two-a-day practices in 90 degree, 90 percent humidity weather.

Strategy is a 10K run.  Execution is the repeated 5:30AM runs to prepare for it.

OK, I’ll stop.  You get it.

The point is, too many people sell strategy.  We look for it in candidates to hire.  We sell it to potential employers.  Everyone wants everyone to be strategic.  Everyone wants everybody to think strategy, talk strategy and walk strategy.  Fine, but who’s going to put that strategy into practice.  Who’s going to make the inevitable changes to the strategy when low-and –behold the strategy doesn’t actually work in practice the way it was drawn up to work.

I was once talking to a highly successful business guy.  He told me that compared to many of his colleagues over the years that he came up with one good strategy to their 10 or 12.  The only difference was he executed nearly every one of his few while they seldom if ever executed even one of theirs.

So, to answer the question Allen Iverson famously posed to the media one day.  “Yeah, we talkin’ practice!

The Capital of Talent

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’” Erma Bombeck

I love Thursday nights. Thursday is when, more often than not, I meet up with a few local buddies and have a couple of drinks and a cigar. They’re a great group, all local business people with long ties to the community. They’re funny and passionate about life and just a real pleasure to be around.

It’s not unusual that one of my quotes comes out of these little therapy sessions but the other night I got a real gem.

Since we’d already solved most of the big life problems we were on to more mundane things like entertainers. During this my friend George said, “You know, talent is a funny thing. You use it, people pay for it, and then you still have it”.

What?

Let's play that again, "You use it, people pay for it, and then you still have it".

 

Since then, without success, I’ve been trying to come up with any piece of capital that can proclaim this.

Use, receive, keep”
Wow.

So, let me try to get my feeble little mind around this. The most important asset you can possess is talent because the more you use it the more you realize the capital of it and the more you still have it.

So then, the key is to develop your talent – whatever that talent is – to the fullest extent. The more talent – or collection of talents – you have the more capital you can obtain but you still have it afterwards.

Where was this class in school?????

Talent, in my opinion, is what our country should be focusing on. Talent is what your state should be focusing on. Talent is what your business should be focusing on.

Talent is absolutely what you should be focusing on.

The sounds of silence

“Hello darkness my old friend….” Paul Simon
They say you don’t see the punch that knocks you out. I'm sure this guy didn't.

They say you don't hear the bullet that gets you. The silence must be deafening.

People hate being criticized, dressed down, yelled at, publicly embarrassed, scolded, written up, et al. And it is terrible and often depressing. We’ve all worked for the maniac who had no decorum when it came to criticizing, they’d do it anytime, anywhere, in front of anybody. Very motivating.

But, you want to know something worse? Silence.

Have you ever been on the inside of a RIF or had knowledge of a colleague who was about to be terminated? It’s the purest form of seeing dead people, except they don’t know it. But have you also noticed how invariably someone will ask “is everything ok with me?” They don’t know, but they know because no one is talking to them. Their peers aren’t joking with them and their managers aren’t managing them. Silence.

Now, have you ever been on the outside? Did you look back on things and realize you could have and should have seen it coming because of the silence?

Rarely if you’re being beat on – even improperly or unfairly – is it because you have an X on your forehead. And that is the time to make some fight or flight decisions. If the criticism is well-intentioned and designed to help make you better then it’s worth paying attention to even if it’s poorly performed. If it’s unjust and basically cruel then it may well be a shot across the bow.

Either way – Pay Attention!!