3 Things I learned last week…11/30-12/6/2015

People like honesty only when they agree with it:  Last week I had two conversations where I watched this play out.  Picture this: we have all seen this scenario before.  A group of employees who are dependent on each other to be successful.  Wait a minute, this is all of us, if you work. Right!  We all need each other to be successful. You can’t be successful on your own.  A sales person needs marketing.  A shipping employee needs the receiving employee.  The conversation I had was one of those where one colleague was asking another where they stood on making their goals.  Seems realistic doesn’t it?  That conversation turns into the person who was being asked about their goals to feeling like they were being attacked because the colleague was pointing out that they were not making the desired outcomes.  In this case the numbers don’t lie.  So it was honest truth.  However, the person being asked had a variety of rebuttals and responses.  AKA (also know as) Excuses.  Most people say they want honesty, but when it isn’t what they want to hear, they want to disagree with it.  In most cases everything can be proven, there isn’t much gray area.  Especially with numbers.  Numbers don’t lie.

You have to be there, consistently: Cal Ripken Jr. holds one of Major League Baseballs unbreakable records.  Cal played in 2,632 consecutive games.  Which equates to about 16 years without missing a game.  In todays sports landscape it is hard to believe that someone would be able to endure that long without having some injury, sickness, or life event that would cause them to miss at least one game. Not to mention that some people believe that if they show up 30 days in a row, or show up on time a few times, they are entitled to taking a day off. Inevitably they will remind you that although they showed up late today, they were on time the previous two meetings.  Consistency is what leads to greatness.  Consistency is what leads to better relationships.  Consistency to showing up all of the time is what leads to success.

Your ability to influence is up to you: Last week I had a situation where someone I know wasn’t having the kind of influence that they thought they had or that they thought they had earned.  Instead of admitting this or moving on, they instead decided to criticize someone else’s influence.  How often have we seen this before?  “I don’t get what I want”, so I question your ability and how you got what you wanted.  This is a bad road to go down.  Instead of questioning someone else’s influence or abilities, you should take a look at yourself and determine what you can do differently to get what you want.  In life your ability to get what you want and have the influence you want to have on your friends, relatives, children, neighbors, colleagues, managers, team members, etc. is up to you. A statement that sums this up is this “Your reputation shows up before you do.”

What did you learn last week?

To your success and your future.