From Military/Family/Sports to Business - Winning Habits

Neil Voorsanger


Ever wonder why business seeks winners in academia, military, sports, and even family? Each has skills, attitudes, and values that transfer to success in every business. Although times are changing one of the deep secrets of executive promotion is given two equal candidates for promotion the candidate who is married/with kids often has the winning edge. Why these values are important (and for the other disciplines) is explained below.

FAMILY
Sacrifice is not an option; a child cannot be ignored at 3 AM.
Compromise is unethical; committing to anything other than the tough decision eventually leads to failure (e.g. do your homework, brush your teeth, save money).
Responsibility matches capability; a parent doesn’t expect a five-year old to develop a family budget. In the same way, a manager matches accountability to the capacity of the employee but never accepts inferior performance.

SPORTS
Perfect practice, makes perfect - The old adage “practice makes perfect” is nonsense. Practice, unless it is perfect, means bad habits remain as powerful as the good habits, and always surface at the worst times. How many executives practice before their presentation to their board? How many sales people practice to win the $3 million contract? I wish I had a dollar for every professional who told me, “Oh come on, Neil, there isn’t time to practice. I will be fine.” The outcome: Always inferior performance, or disaster.
The tougher the practice, the greater chance of winning - Over and over in business, I have seen preparation as poof-balls (don't embarrass anyone). Rarely in practice does the person playing the customer scream in the executive’s face, “I don't understand one thing you have said! Why can’t you give me the same outcome for half the cost! Why can’t you deliver the same outcome in half the time? Why can’t you double the value to me for the same price?” These are the real challenges thrown by customers and prospects but they are never practiced because it’s safer to assume a perfect outcome. Make the practice truly fearsome and you may have a chance.
Will my quarterback make my ten other players better? Every NFL coach knows that after the perfect pass, the quarterback must make all his players better. Will my sales supervisor/manager/executive make his/her people 30% better?
When all is lost will he/she keep trying? We all know the employees and executives when things are going great give their all; when things go bad, oops, where are they? The true measure is when sales are down 60%, will the employee give his/her best or sneak aboard the lifeboat? The toughest part of any effort is the last 20%. It takes guts and integrity to make it succeed.

ACADEMICS
The truths of academic success:
The best work at 120% every week for four years - Every gold medalist I knew (straight A for four years of college) studied until midnight every night. A recent study of homework habits revealed that at the University of Arizona the average student studies no more than 3½ hours a week.
Learn how to learn - Master how to learn, not just how to take the test. Recently I talked to the head of HR for one of the two winningest brokerage firms in NY and asked what training is she using? She told me the firm gave up on training programs; they now only hire the top 8% graduates because no matter what you throw at them, they succeed.
Consistency is a habit - When working with a Dean at a postgraduate school, I asked what is the best predictor of academic success? He told me the school found ‘consistency of performance’ is the best predictor of future success. Consistency of success, not just for one semester but for every semester, year after year.

MILITARY
Excellence replaces fear
I had the extraordinary good fortune to meet a World War II veteran of the landing at Normandy, Omaha Beach. He was about 85 years old and after his talk, it was my turn to ask him a question. “Sir, when you first set foot on the beach with shells exploding all around you, soldiers dying, what was going through your mind?”
He had been answering questions sitting in a chair but after hearing my question he stood up slowly. You could see him go back in time, back and back to that very moment 60 years ago, wanting to give me his most honest answer.
Thinking for over a minute he said, “I thought only about my job. I was so well trained that all I thought of was doing my job. I was never afraid.”
He was the naval officer responsible for the beach landing.

ARE VALUES REALLY IMPORTANT?
... When McDonalds first entered Japan many years ago, the Japanese threw out the American trainer and insisted every Japanese server master twelve ways of saying, “Thank you.”
... A famous tennis player observed, when I don’t practice for a day, I know it. When I don’t practice for two days, my coach knows it. When I don’t practice for three days, my opponent knows it.

The lesson: Practice excellence every day for the rest of your life.

© 2007. Neil Voorsanger. All Rights Reserved.