Category Archives: Uncategorized

 “You are a child of God,” according to a passage from a popular quote attributed to Nelson Mandela.  “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.  [You] were born to manifest the glory of God that is within [you].”  In other words, we serve neither ourselves nor the world when we allow ourselves to wallow in mediocrity.  We were instead created to pursue excellence. 

There was a time during my college years when my life seemed to have gotten off track.  It was not that I was doing anything bad like getting in trouble or flunking out of school, but neither was I doing much good in school or my personal life, just mediocre.  I remember feeling sort of blah about life in general, unsure of my goals and with little passion for anything.  Then one day I received a small envelope in the mail containing a tiny note card with a handwritten message scribbled on it that was no more than three sentences long.  So illegible was the handwriting that there were certain words I never did decipher.  But the message was clear and concise. “You’re better than what you’re doing,” it essentially said.  The note came from an old neighbor back home who had been quietly observing my mediocrity from afar and felt compelled to give me a gentle and loving nudge, for he knew me and the potential I had – better than I knew myself at the time. 

While that little note did not immediately snap me out of the funk I was in, it did make me painfully aware of my mediocrity until over time I began to pull myself out of the doldrums.  I have treasured it all these years for all the wisdom it contained, but especially for the man who cared enough about me to take the time to write it.  

May we all be thankful for those in our lives who recognize our potential, and care enough to give us a nudge when we get off track, who remind us that mediocrity and playing small don’t serve the world.  We are children of God, after all, born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.  That’s what we’re here for.

Have you bought a roll of film in past year?  If your answer is yes you are among a small minority.  During a workshop I attended this past week at the annual conference of the International Coach Federation (ICF) that same question was asked in a room of about two hundred people and only one man raised hand.  Surprised?  Of course not, we all have digital cameras nowadays, don’t we?  Film’s gone the way of the buggy-whip. 

More fascinating than the question, though, is the one who asked it, Jeff Hayzlett who recently served as Chief Marketing Officer at none other than Kodak the world’s most famous and largest producer of film.  Hayzlett who led the workshop had been one of the leaders instrumental in saving Kodak in what some have called the biggest turn-around in business history, and here’s one of his secrets.  “No one is going to die,” he kept reminding the people working in his division, inspiring them to take risks, be creative and innovative, to experiment; and when mistakes are made, “no one is going to die.” 

Jeff Hayzlett’s leadership style is a great example of what Liz Wiseman refers to as a “multiplier” in her book, Multipliers:  How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter.  Here’s what she observed about them:  “They applied their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capability of people around them . . . Ideas grew, challenges were surmounted, hard problems solved.  When these leaders walked into a room, light bulbs started going off over people’s heads. . . These leaders seemed to make everyone around them better and more capable. . .”  In contrast some leaders are “diminishers” who “. . . drain intelligence and capability out of the people around them.  Their focus on their own intelligence and their resolve to be the smartest person in the room had a diminishing effect on everyone else,” explains Wiseman. 

The bottom line is this, according to Wiseman’s research:  people who work for multipliers are statistically 2.1 times more productive than those who work for diminishers – over twice as productive in other words.  So if this is true, and if it worked to turn around a company like Kodak, just imagine what “multiplier” leadership can do for your organization!  Even better, “no one is going to die.”

In going through my dad’s belongings after he passed away several years ago we found a copy of a letter he had written to a judge on behalf of a young man he had once employed in his business who had gotten into some trouble.  The letter did not dispute the young man’s alleged wrongdoing; rather it was a plea for leniency for someone my dad believed was basically honest, dependable, hard-working, and a good person at heart.  As he explained to the judge in his letter, “I think he just got mixed up with the wrong people.” 

Choose your friends carefully, we advise our teenage children, for hanging out with the wrong crowd can lead to trouble as it did the young man my dad was trying to help.  But who we hang out with is not just about good and bad or right and wrong as is our usual concern with young people.  It also pertains to the “good is the enemy of great” theme we’ve been discussing these past weeks.  In other words, do we associate with people who are satisfied with “good enough” results or do we choose friends who strive for excellence in all they do? 

I’ve been fortunate these past several years to be part of a group of Christian men who meet every Tuesday morning for the purpose of sharing our experiences in trying to live a Godly life, encouraging one another, and holding each other accountable.  They are the type people it is a privilege to hang out with, not just because of their values and beliefs, but these men are highly successful, motivated, and movers-and-shakers in the community and their professions, men who inspire each other to strive for excellence – men who have inspired me to do the same.  

Choose your friends carefully is good advice for all of us.  Getting “mixed up with the wrong people” as my dad pointed out can lead to trouble.  But more importantly hanging out with the right people can inspire us to pursue excellence rather than accepting “good enough” results; for “good is the enemy of great.”  Mediocrity is the enemy of excellence.  And we need more people striving for excellence – in every aspect of our society.

A Washington dignitary while touring NASA headquarters many years ago paused to greet a janitor who was sweeping the hallway.  In the course of their brief conversation the VIP asked the man with the broom to describe his official function at NASA to which the janitor proudly responded, “I’m helping send someone to the moon!” 

The past two weeks we have explored the idea that “good is the enemy of great” as Jim Collins points out in his book, Good to Great, and one reason for this is described in the word “satisficing”, meaning the intentional aim to achieve only satisfactory results.  That is to say that “good enough” is simply good enough rather than striving for excellence.  “Good is the enemy of great” is further explained by the word “sense-making” which is how we justify being content or satisfied with results that are good but not great. 

Yet, as I stated a couple of weeks ago, there are people who DO excel beyond mere satisfactory performance, and organizations that achieve extraordinary results.  What is it that motivates some to greatness while others remain content to perform good enough?  One loyal reader responded with this:  “. . . Motivating people to be great rather than good can be challenging because I believe it comes from inside and we have to touch that God within to attain greatness.  I believe to attain greatness in our work, the work has to satisfy and fulfill our soul as much or more than our pocketbook. . .” 

This past week the whole world witnessed both personal and organizational greatness as the rescue efforts of the miners in Chile who had been trapped underground for over two months reached its emotional and successful climax.  Those men’s lives were not saved by “satisficing” or “good enough” efforts but by striving for greatness at every level.  Nor would man have ever reached the moon except for people like the janitor striving for excellence at something even as seemingly mundane as sweeping the floors.   But, “. . . it comes from inside and we have to touch that God within to attain greatness,” as the reader pointed out, and that I think is exactly what we were created to strive for – each and every one of us.

When I worked as a bond trader, which I did for many years, one of my first tasks each morning was to touch base by phone with other traders in the “street” as the marketplace is called, to see what they were up to.  And we would continue to converse off and on throughout the day in what sometimes appeared to be idle chit-chat, but it was our way of sharing and gathering information that affected the business decisions we made during trading hours.  For the most part this dialogue served us well by keeping us focused, informed and stimulating ideas.  There were times, though, when that camaraderie became an obstacle to our success rather than inspiring it.  That was particularly true when the bond market turned sour and our positions were under water.  During such times our conversations tended to digress into rationalizing our predicaments rather than how to resolve them, resulting in a misery-loves-company mindset. 

If “saisficing”, the term we discussed last week which means aiming “to achieve only satisfactory results”, then “sensemaking” is how we justify being content or satisfied with results that are good but not great, of achieving less than our full potential.  My friend and business scholar who I mentioned last week describes “sensemaking” as “the way people rationalize after-the-fact their choices and behaviors by giving these decisions and behaviors purpose, intention, justification, etc., some of which was not conceived beforehand.”  Sensemaking like satisficing further explains how and why “good is the enemy of great”. 

In bond trading, as in any endeavor, the difference between good and great is not determined by one’s ability to avoid difficult circumstances such as sour markets, rather it is the ability to avoid the pitfalls of “satisficing” and “sensemaking” – being content to achieve only satisfactory or good enough results instead of striving to reach one’s full potential, then rationalizing such mediocre performance. 

“Good is the enemy of great” as Jim Collins proclaims and there is definitely a war waged between the two.  So, how can great overcome good?  Let’s pursue it further next week.