Don was one of those bright fellows whom everyone figured fit into the “most likely to succeed” category. Graduating in the top 15% of his class from university, he quickly found himself ensconced in a position that would eventually put him on a fast track him to the top.
But such wasn’t the case. For four years, he toiled away with no promotions, scant raises and the only bonuses he saw was the obligatory Christmas bonus that the company dutifully doled out to all its’ employees. Fortunately for Don (or unfortunately as circumstances proved) everyone liked him…as a person. Throughout his life, Don had been the type of person who could charm, cozy-up to, and win the approval of others. In fact, his immediate manager had tried to get him large raises (based on personality not performance), but those efforts were vetoed by senior managers who, not knowing Don personally looked only at what he was accomplishing for the bottomline.
Long story short, senior management decided that a restructuring was necessary and, you guessed it…the old manager whom Don had cultivated was summarily discharged. And, you guessed it again, the woman who replaced him wasn’t influenced by Don’s smile or charmed by his personality and Don found himself standing in the parking lot with his personal stuff in a banker’s box.
While this true story may seem extreme, variations of it are played out weekly in companies all around the country. Like so many people, Don had the foundation of skills that indicated the possibility of a great career. But something went wrong between possibility and potential. Here’s a couple of things I think we can learn from Don’s story:
But such wasn’t the case. For four years, he toiled away with no promotions, scant raises and the only bonuses he saw was the obligatory Christmas bonus that the company dutifully doled out to all its’ employees. Fortunately for Don (or unfortunately as circumstances proved) everyone liked him…as a person. Throughout his life, Don had been the type of person who could charm, cozy-up to, and win the approval of others. In fact, his immediate manager had tried to get him large raises (based on personality not performance), but those efforts were vetoed by senior managers who, not knowing Don personally looked only at what he was accomplishing for the bottomline.
Long story short, senior management decided that a restructuring was necessary and, you guessed it…the old manager whom Don had cultivated was summarily discharged. And, you guessed it again, the woman who replaced him wasn’t influenced by Don’s smile or charmed by his personality and Don found himself standing in the parking lot with his personal stuff in a banker’s box.
While this true story may seem extreme, variations of it are played out weekly in companies all around the country. Like so many people, Don had the foundation of skills that indicated the possibility of a great career. But something went wrong between possibility and potential. Here’s a couple of things I think we can learn from Don’s story:
Determined Effort, Not Just Desire Makes Winners. Almost everyday someone calls me wanting me to go to work to find them a better job with better pay and a less hectic work week. I usually respond by saying, “That’s great! But, how long have you wanted to make this change and what have you done this past week to make it happen?” The typical answer reveals that the individual has had the desire for several months (or even years) but has taken only sporadic, perfunctory steps, if any to turn desire into reality.
Since we were old enough to be conscious of better things, we’ve all experienced myriad desires. In some cases they were childish and passed quickly. In the case of others, they intensified enough that we acted on them, at least for a while. Some we outgrew, others we discarded and in a very few instances we actually took solid steps to make the a reality, we paid the price in self-discipline, self-mastery and self-sacrifice to turn desire into a dream, then the dream into a destiny.
Remember the old motivational speaker’s story about the woman who gushed up to the concert pianist following a performance “I’d give anything to play like you do!” To which he replied, “Madame, I sincerely doubt it, because it that were true you would play like I do.” An obvious reference to having the determination to put in grueling hours of practice needed to become a master pianist.
Performance, Not Potential Positions Us For Greater Things. Remember the fable about the tortoise and the hare? Can’t you hear the talk as the crowd gathered before that famed race; “The tortoise doesn’t have a chance against that hare!” “With those long legs and agility, the rabbit will leave that turtle at the starting line!” “You’d think a tortoise would know his place and not try to compete with the big boys!” Well, we know how that turned out, don’t we? The hare had the potential to win—hands down, and knew it. So he slacked off, took a little rest. The tortoise, on the other hand knew he had to perform, to stretch to keep plodding along if he was to have a chance to achieve his goal.
After a few weeks or months on the job, it can be very easy to slack off the pace we started out with. What was challenging has become routine. The things that seemed exciting and new have become common place. Everyone wants to be like by their peers, and it didn’t take long to get the non-verbal message from our underachieving coworkers that they expected us to stop showing them up with our performance.
When we were hired for the position, the managers saw the potential you brought to the job. Our number one job on any job is to keep finding ways to make our work interesting and challenging—to continue to challenge ourselves to top performance.
When I met Don, he had gone through three jobs in less than six years. Don, like just about everybody else thought he had been dealt an unfair hand, and figured I would be happy to find him a new job. I let him down as gently as possible, explaining that my firm doesn’t find jobs for people, we find people to fill positions for our clients. I didn’t tell him that I welcome resumes from those who through determined effort prove themselves to be top performers.
This Week’s Positive Point: Always put forth the determined effort required to produce peak performance.
Have a GREAT and PROFITABLE WEEK!
Since we were old enough to be conscious of better things, we’ve all experienced myriad desires. In some cases they were childish and passed quickly. In the case of others, they intensified enough that we acted on them, at least for a while. Some we outgrew, others we discarded and in a very few instances we actually took solid steps to make the a reality, we paid the price in self-discipline, self-mastery and self-sacrifice to turn desire into a dream, then the dream into a destiny.
Remember the old motivational speaker’s story about the woman who gushed up to the concert pianist following a performance “I’d give anything to play like you do!” To which he replied, “Madame, I sincerely doubt it, because it that were true you would play like I do.” An obvious reference to having the determination to put in grueling hours of practice needed to become a master pianist.
Performance, Not Potential Positions Us For Greater Things. Remember the fable about the tortoise and the hare? Can’t you hear the talk as the crowd gathered before that famed race; “The tortoise doesn’t have a chance against that hare!” “With those long legs and agility, the rabbit will leave that turtle at the starting line!” “You’d think a tortoise would know his place and not try to compete with the big boys!” Well, we know how that turned out, don’t we? The hare had the potential to win—hands down, and knew it. So he slacked off, took a little rest. The tortoise, on the other hand knew he had to perform, to stretch to keep plodding along if he was to have a chance to achieve his goal.
After a few weeks or months on the job, it can be very easy to slack off the pace we started out with. What was challenging has become routine. The things that seemed exciting and new have become common place. Everyone wants to be like by their peers, and it didn’t take long to get the non-verbal message from our underachieving coworkers that they expected us to stop showing them up with our performance.
When we were hired for the position, the managers saw the potential you brought to the job. Our number one job on any job is to keep finding ways to make our work interesting and challenging—to continue to challenge ourselves to top performance.
When I met Don, he had gone through three jobs in less than six years. Don, like just about everybody else thought he had been dealt an unfair hand, and figured I would be happy to find him a new job. I let him down as gently as possible, explaining that my firm doesn’t find jobs for people, we find people to fill positions for our clients. I didn’t tell him that I welcome resumes from those who through determined effort prove themselves to be top performers.
This Week’s Positive Point: Always put forth the determined effort required to produce peak performance.
Have a GREAT and PROFITABLE WEEK!
Robert Hidde
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