The Right Practice

Like many other sports fans, I watched the Heisman ceremony last weekend and was very impressed with all three candidates. They were all great ambassadors for sports and any one of them would have been a deserving winner. However, it was the response to a question by the eventual winner, Sam Bradford that caught my attention. The question was “how were you able to be so accurate in your passing, completing over 70 percent of your passes, this year? His response was “I worked on my technique and practiced it over and over”.

This response immediately brought back a life changing moment I had the opportunity to share with my daughter, Christina. It happened shortly after she made the decision to leave her successful gymnastics "career" and take up golf. We had been to the range a few times and she was doing pretty well. However, I was still a little skeptical she would stick with it. OK, I was very skeptical. My daughter was/(is) very social and loved the talk. These were not the traits I would expect to see as enhancers to becoming a successful golfer. Regardless, I was pleased that she wanted to try her hand at the game, so I encouraged her.

The moment happened when we were on a vacation in Florida. I noticed that the PGA pro at the course we were playing was filming a lesson. I asked her if she would be interested in getting an experts opinion on her potential and also receive a video of her lesson that she could keep. She was so excited. We set up the lesson for the next day.

When we arrived at the lesson, I immediately knew I was in for something special. Gary, the PGA pro made a special connection with Christina. It was obvious that he cared. Our lesson was for a half hour, but that didn't matter. He was working with a kid that showed some potential and a passion for the game. The lesson lasted for two hours and he never looked at his watch. My daughter had found one of her mentors.

The moment happened about half way through the lesson. Christina was hitting shots and Gary was taping. All of the sudden, he stopped and asked her to come over and view the tape. He asked her what caught her eye. She started reciting the things he had mentioned were wrong in her swing. He asked her to look past herself in the frame and look at the background. What we noticed was a group of “golfers” hitting balls with some of very bad swings. Balls were going everywhere but straight. It was actually very funny.

Now for the lesson:

Gary informed Christina that practice without a purpose was a waste of time. It is not the quantity of practice as much as it is the quality of practice. Many years ago, I read the definition of insanity is doing the same things we have always done and expecting different results. Exactly! Here was the perfect example. The members of this course were primarily very successful retired business men, but here they were paying money to practice a flawed golf swing. They could have just as easily have spent the money to go to a PGA professional to correct their swing.

My takeaways from this lesson are the following:

1. If you are going to take up a new interest, find a mentor or professional in the field to assist in shortening the learning curve and eliminating bad habits at the beginning.
2. As you proceed down the learning curve, stay in touch with that mentor to assure that you stay on the path to success.
3. Practice with a purpose. In the work environment, I see so many people that remind me of the golfers on the range. They come in and do today just what they did the day before.
4. Continually evaluate your performance and look for ways to improve.
5. Practice, practice, practice. Winners work hard when nobody is watching in order to perform when they are. When asked if Christina could be a good competitive golfer, Gary's response was it depends on how much she wants it and how hard she works.
6. Pay it forward. My daughter has a life long friend that has her best interest at heart. It is her responsibility to Gary and the game to pass on the knowledge.

Through the implementation of these takeaways, you will greatly increase your chances of staying in the groove.

The Groove

I was sitting in my office today and I could not get a Jeffrey Gitomer quote out of my head. Mr. Gitomer stated that, "the only difference between being in the groove and being in a rut is the depth of the hole." What? Why was this wacky quote sticking with me? I couldn't understand why it was resonating with me at that moment. I had to figure it out. When I first read this comment, I filed it as just another consultant cliché. So why was it now dominating my thoughts?

Then it hit me. I remembered when I was a teenager getting stuck in a snow bank I remembered that my solution was to put it in drive and hit the gas. When that didn't work, I did what every teenager does; I hit the gas again. The only thing I accomplished was turning a groove into an impassible rut. More importantly, I remember my dad's only comment, "if hitting the gas made the problem worse the first time, what made you think hitting it again would solve the problem."

There it was. A literal example of a metaphoric comment. I then thought back seven years to my first conversation with the Staff at Sign Craft. In this meeting, I made it clear that " satisfaction was strictly forbidden". I could see in their faces what they were thinking - "What a pompous jerk". In fact, some of the employees took this comment as a personal attack and accused me of threatening their jobs. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I was actually giving them the key to job security. The world is always changing and there are so many examples of leaders falling because they did not keep up with the changing landscape of business.

My job in 2001 was to move Sign Craft out of their rut and find a new groove. Being open to change was not good enough, Sign Craft needed to demand change. This does not mean that we did not celebrate our successes, it just meant that even in success, we looked for ways to improve. It also meant that we needed to evaluate everything we were doing and determine those that were not working and do something different.

That was seven years ago and the Company has come a long way. However, my message to the staff will still be "satisfaction is strictly forbidden." This has been my message every year. Our objective is to stay in the groove though the implementation of continual improvement. We recently completed our evaluation of the organization and staffing of the combined Sign Craft /Atlas. We completed this task in four steps. First we determined the best structure for the combined company. The next two steps were to determine the necessary skill set for each position and then to match the skill sets of our staff to those positions. The final step was to put the right people in the right positions.

To implement this process properly, we had to set aside our feelings towards our staff and concentrate on what was best for the business. This was difficult, but necessary. The final result we believe will be the foundation for a better and stronger Company going forward. Several people were moved into positions that better fit their capabilities and chances for success. The bottom line is we are better suited to meet or exceed our customers expectations.

My commitment to the Guardians of Sign Craft is that I will never be satisfied. I will continue to look for ways to improve the overall organization. Our focus in 2009 will be to on solving our customers pains with regards to signage. All of our efforts will be focused on continual improvement, primarily in the areas of communication and delivery. 2008 was a great year. We increased revenues in tough economic times, we completed two acquisitions, we strengthened the quality of our staff, we improved our IT capabilities and systems and added some very strong clients to our family of customers. I am certain that we all are aware that the economic climate for 2009 is not pretty. This does not give us a free excuse to accept mediocrity. By removing the word "satisfied" from our vocabulary and focusing on continued improvement, we will improve our products and services to our customers and increase our potential for growth.

I am proud of the accomplishments of our Guardians in 2008 and look forward to continued successes in 2009.