It's hard to believe that so many people resist making the journey from good to great and an even more difficult task for me is trying to listen respectfully while people give their list of excuses.
First off, let me be clear that 'great' is not about a huge income or instant international recognition. Great is about doing what you love and loving what you do. It's about: *Diving in head first without first checking how cold the water is.
This week I spent some time with Joel, the regional manager for a large beverage company (ok it's Coca-Cola). Joel is a passionate guy. He's passionate about his work, his family, his wife, his kids. He loves ice fishing, baseball and he is a gifted singer.
Joel and I worked together creating a plan for 2005 that would set him up to express his creative spirit. The first thing we agreed-on was that he needed to find out what his competitors were doing and 'do something else'. You can never solve today's problems by staying within the current paradigm. You must break out of the pattern or be just another also ran (more on this later).
What could he do to be truly unique? What can you do to be truly unique?
The answer is within you. Go ahead. Look inside and in so doing shift the paradigm of your business and rise to a place where there is no competition.
For Joel the uniqueness is his charm and a great gift for humor. He needs to get out of the office and spend at least 50% of his time with:
Right now Joel is spending much too large a chunk of his time doing office work and responding to e-mails and as a result his team is producing at a rate that is average, maybe even slightly above average...but what fun is it to be average? But Joel isn't average in any other area of his life so why should he settle for mediocrity at work? Why should you and why should I?