That title got your attention, didn’t it? Well, the word that I’m talking about is “fun.” In the coaching world, you see this a lot when a new coach takes over a team that has had some success. They talk about bringing more fun to practice and to game prep. The same holds true in business. I’m sure you’ve all seen the articles about companies trying to emulate the Silicon Valley tech scene with foosball tables in the office and bring-your-dog-to-work days. “Fun” seems to be the new buzzword.
It sounds good at first – who wouldn’t want their office to be more fun? But these types of leaders rarely experience sustained success. Winning is fun. But all the stuff that goes into winning is, quite frankly, not. In order to get to the top, you first have to get through the day-to-day grind, doing the same tasks over and over again with as much consistent effort as you can muster. Oh, and you have to maintain a positive outlook and keep working at it despite the many setbacks you will encounter along the way. As if that’s not tough enough, the manager/coach has the additional responsibilities of showing their team respect and encouragement so that they will continue to buy into the mission on a daily basis.
As I have said before, the difference between the good and the great lies between their ears – and their attitude is much more important than their general intelligence. The great ones bear down and continue working hard at the least-fun parts of their job. In the case of the sales industry, these would generally be cold-calling; banging on doors; and/or having tough qualifying calls with potential clients. The great salespeople simply keep going where others stop, and keep doing the things that others can’t or wont do.
A top-producing broker told me recently that he had lunch with one of the absolute best brokers in our region. “Can you believe this guy still makes cold calls?” he asked me. “A guy who’s that big in the industry, and he still carefully plans out cold calls and gets involved with the marketing details like how his property fliers will look?” He seemed surprised, but I wasn’t. It was this broker’s commitment to those mundane, small tasks that had propelled him to the top in our region – and kept him there.
When I think of top performers, a different “F” word comes to mind: “focus.” Concentrate on learning your business by working hard at the small but important daily tasks, and eventually you’ll get to the fun part when you see the fruits of all your labor. And you will savor them so much more knowing the hard work that went into it.
Have a great weekend,
Ro