Fundamentals First
Nearly everything can be boiled down to some core task, some essential component, that must be mastered if you truly want to be good at it.
Vince Lombardi… one of the greatest sports coaches of all time approached the sport from a perspective of “fundamentals first.”
John Wooden and Phil Jackson – other amazing coaches – were known for having a similar obsession with the fundamentals. Wooden even went so far as to teach his players at the start of each season how to put on their socks and tie their shoes. These are professional athletes at the highest level of performance. His objective – care for the players and reduce the variety of minor injuries.
Gentlemen… this is a football!
Lombardi and team took nothing for granted. They began a tradition of starting from scratch, assuming that the players were blank slates who carried over no knowledge from the year before… they began with the most elemental statement of all: “Gentlemen,” he said, holding a pigskin in his right hand, “this is a football.” Each player reviewed how to block and tackle. They opened up the playbook and started from page one. And they won more than any other team.
Aren’t you glad pilots have checklists? Even after hours and hours of detailed training and years and years of practical experience before every takeoff, before every landing and during every flight pilots & crew follow a #checklist.
Checklists are “job aids” to reduce failure… to reduce variation in a process. A method of leaving nothing to chance.
Checklists ensure you get your daily, weekly and monthly tasks done on time, helps you keep track of projects on deadline and ensures you’re organized throughout the day.
Are you leaving your goals, your business to run by chance by “winging it?”
Mastery in nearly any endeavor is the result of deeply understanding simple ideas.
Your Business Is Like A Rowing Team
I spent some time this week in our Austin, Texas market where one of our REALTOR® team leaders is also a “coxswain” and a rowing coach. He was telling me a story about a new rower, who was placed on a boat with 8 others… he noticed she appeared to be working very hard and sweating profusely, yet her technique was so off it wasn’t helping the team.
Can you relate to a time where you’ve been working hard and not getting the result you intended?
A rowing team – and your business – needs more than just quality, skilled resources. You also need all your resources in the right seats, doing the right things.
Here’s the thing I learned about rowing: in an eight-person boat, each rower has one oar—four on port and four on starboard. If one side pulls harder that the other side, the boat turns. If one side’s oars are raised higher than the other side, the boat tips. In order to find the set and create swing, everyone must work together to balance the boat and have exact timing. Your hands must be at exactly the right height as you slide up to the catch. Every oar has to drop into the water at the exact same time. Everyone needs to pull at equal pressure. All the blades need to come out of the water and release in unison. Any deviation disrupts the boat.
So, what can we learn?
First, have a clear direction, but an easy hand on the steering
The “coxswain” job is to keep the boat on course and steer the straightest line possible. Steering too much means zig-zagging over the course and rowing far more than 2,000 meters, which adds to time. The trick is to keep the end in sight and steer to a center point far down course, not trying to keep coming back to the center every stroke. To do this, the coxswain calls out increased pressure for a few strokes on one side of the boat or the other to correct the course rather than use the rudder, which slows down the boat.
Learning: High-performance teams always keep the end in sight and know the ultimate objectives of their work. Without a clear picture of the goal, teams thrash with process and fail to achieve proper alignment in their activities. Going in the wrong direction as fast as you can doesn’t get you any closer to the finish.
Second, it’s not how hard you work, it’s how hard you work together
It turns out that pulling as hard as you can, without pulling together, actually slows the boat down. Imbalanced power will veer the boat one direction and throw off the timing of the catch and the release. Uncontrolled straining at the oar can tip your weight left or right and toss the boat side to side. A successful team pulls in perfect balance and with perfect timing.
Learning: Successful teams know that performance is a function of collaboration and coordination, not a sum of individual effort. Knowing how your contribution is affecting the final outcome and staying highly aware of what others are doing while staying in sync is critical to delivering results. Reacting quickly, deliberately and in a coordinated fashion allows teams to adapt to changes, handle new information, and stay on target.
Make it a powerful week and looking forward to hearing your success stories.
PS: Are you looking for a playbook that is guaranteed to help up your personal mastery, business mastery or marketing mastery? If so reach out to us at [email protected]
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Resolutions Can Suck
A few weeks from now, you might be asked, “So, how are those New Year’s resolutions working out for you? The dream is that our goals and resolutions lead us to a higher ground, to new horizons. They can give our eyes a focus, our mind an aim, and our strength a purpose. Without the positive pull forward of a goal, we could risk remaining forever stagnant, or even worse sucked into a backward spiral.
So why is it so hard to keep and reach some resolutions, some goals?
We have all felt the excitement that comes with setting a new goal, but then, as time progresses, excitement can morph into anxiety. This is because we are facing the reality that we are so far from our goal and have no framework or strategy of how to get there.
So how do you overcome life’s hurdles and personal mental roadblocks to reach your BIG goals?
Well, first, a blinding flash of the obvious: When you set goals for yourself, it is important that they motivate you: this means making sure that they are important to you, and that there is value in achieving them. Motivation is key to achieving goals. Set goals that relate to the high priorities in your life. If the goal is truly not important to you and you can’t tie it back to why it’s meaningful, your chances of success diminish. Yet wait, there’s more:
The reality is, there’s a SCIENCE to goal setting
In over 650 studies completed with over 50,000 participants, scientists analyzed what worked best when goal setting. Overall, individuals who focused on Process Goals had more success in reaching their goals than those who simply set Performance or Outcome Goals.
So, what is the difference between an outcome goal, a performance goal, and a process goal?
An outcome goal is one that isn’t really under your control. Instead, it’s based on outside circumstances. For example, if your goal is to the #1 selling agent in your market, that’s a goal that’s not only based on your numbers but also the numbers from other agents in your market too.
Performance goals are personal achievement goals. They are the building blocks that help you reach your outcome goal. A good performance goal example is to “beat my personal record of 21 homes sold in a year.
Process goals are completely under your control and are composed of the things you do on a daily basis like habits and routines. Think of these as the small steps you take to get to your performance and outcome goals every single day. An example of a process goal would be to “spend 60 minutes prospecting daily” or “40 minutes of cardio work.”
So, there you have it, the science behind more effective goal setting. Create a goal that is important to you and one you can be reminded frequently as to why you are pursuing it. Then, break those outcome goals down to the daily activities, the daily processes. Now your likelihood of achievement is dramatically improved.
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