“Sometimes, good enough really is good enough.”

–     A mentor of mine

There are times, he would say, when good enough is the enemy of great.  And then, there are times, when good enough is, in fact, good enough.

When we’ve done the best we can do, there’s nothing wrong with standing down and letting whatever happens next happen next.

Dad liked to remind his white collar friends that he couldn’t make the crop grow faster, and he couldn’t make it rain, or stop raining.  All he could do was prep the soil, plant the seeds and then, for a while, it was out of his hands.

When it’s out of our hands, it doesn’t help to squeeze harder, or try to pick up three more items.

Sometimes, good enough really is good enough.

“Show your hand.  The art of life is to show your hand.  There is no diplomacy like candor.  You may lose by it now and then, but it will be a loss well-gained if you do so.  Nothing is so boring as having to keep up a deception.”

–     E. V. Lucas (1868 – 1938), English humorist, writer and editor

Keeping up a deception is not only boring, it’s exhausting, too.

Candor counts.

In a knowledge-based economy, our product matters less and less and relationships matters more and more — and candor is the foundation for strong, longer-lasting relationships.

In the 90’s, I worked for a company that didn’t negotiate price.  Ever.  We just didn’t.  Did prospective clients like that?  Probably not, although after the fact, many of them commented that it brought clarity to their decision process.  So, did they respect it?  You bet they did, because when it came time for them to decide, the “dance” wasn’t necessary, because they knew the music wasn’t going to start up.  By the way, we dominated our market, and did more with fewer people than any of our competitors.  Our engagements were shorter and the outcomes were more predictable earlier, because all parties pretty much knew what to expect.

“We have to start here, so we can negotiate down to here,” is the conventional wisdom.  Or, if we take a “candor can-do” approach, we just start where we need to be, and stay there, especially if it’s fair and reasonable.

It’s not just price, either.  Service levels, expectations, support procedures and (especially) what may go wrong.  Showing our hand gives a solid look into how the relationship will function after the ink is dry on the deal.

When we show our hand, candidly and diplomatically, we put in place cornerstones upon which trust rests, and trust is as fundamental a building-block as we can ever hope for in our businesses.

“Marginless is the disease of the new millennium; margin is its cure.”

–     Richard Swenson, MD (b. 1952), in his 2004 book “Margin; Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives”

In business, “margin” is a simple term, right?  In most of our internal conversations, margin is the difference between our costs and our revenue.  We paid 80 cents to produce that widget and we sold it for $1.12, so we made 32 cents of margin.

There are two other important applications we ought to keep at the front of our minds, though.

For the second one, let’s turn to dictionary.com;

3. a limit in condition, capacity, etc., beyond or below which something ceases to exist, be desirable, or be possible:the margin of endurance; the margin of sanity

In this case, we apply margin to our decisions, our presumptions and our calculated risks.  Our prediction that demand for our Widget will be “x” has to be considered within a range.  What if a major competitor launches a full-frontal attack?  What if a market shift occurs?  What if a disruptor changes the rules faster than we can respond?  What if someone in a position of power Tweets something negative about our Widget’s spokesperson?  (What?  It could happen!)

In summary, the amount of margin we earn is critically important, and the margin around the concepts we base our strategies upon must be discussed out loud.

They may not be the most important applications of the term, however.

What about the margins we build in to our day-to-day?  What about time to think?  Time to reflect?  Time to watch the kids’ choir without checking the phone?  What about time to throw the ball for the dog, take a walk with our spouse?  What about time to ask the person in the call center or on the floor of the factory what they think?  What about time to listen to their answer and time to just consider it — without an action bias, reactive steps or anything other than a “what if?” mindset?

In these times, it’s almost as if we’re allowing ourselves to be judged — or worse, judging ourselves — by how much we pack in to the day rather than what we get out of that same day.  More is not always more, and in a marginless world, more often leads to less.

Will more mind-margin in the here and now lead to more profit margin on the bottom line, and less risk-margin in our presumptions about our business?

On the margin, that’s a bet I am willing to make.  Are you?

“There is no such thing as a natural-born pilot.  Whatever my aptitude or talents, becoming a proficient pilot was hard work, really a lifetime’s learning experience.  The best pilots fly more than the others; that’s why they’re the best.”

–     Chuck Yeager (b. 1923), legendary pilot and subject of the 1983 movie, “The Right Stuff”

Ever been to a Broadway show?  If not, put that up there on your bucket list!  Ever been to a really great concert with one of “those” performers — the kind that just set you back in your seat for a couple hours?

Every time I walk away from one of those events, I am amazed by the performance.  What I should be amazed by is the preparation.  The number of rehearsals and repetitions required to make it “perfect” is mind-boggling.  Malcolm Gladwell refers to it in his great book, Outliers, with research that points out that 10,000 hours of preparation goes into complete mastery in most cases.  (I just grossly over-simplified that concept, by the way…get the book, you’ll be glad you did!)

The old saying, “practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect-practice makes perfect” comes to mind.  And, it begs the question, how much time do we spend preparing for our roles in our workaday lives?  There’s no such thing as a born CFO, CEO, salesperson, accountant, programmer or project manager either.  Those that do it more than others, those that rehearse and prepare for it more than others, those who spend time with quality coaches, role models, mentors and teachers are the best — because they’ve prepared for that moment when the lights come up and the conductor cues the lights, or that moment when the wheels leave the runway and we find ourselves flying.

It’s hard work.  And, it need never end.  A lifetime’s learning experience is worthwhile, and, when we commit to being life-learners, it becomes an incredibly exciting commitment, indeed.

The best do it more.  That’s how they make a difference.

“I bring you the gift of these four words; I believe in you.”

–     Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662), French mathematician

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”

–     John Lubbock (1834 – 1913), British banker, scientist and philanthropist

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

–     Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955), German-born American physicist

The final entry in a series on team…and yes, that’s three quotes — overkill even for me, but bear with me…

A team receives constant feedback from the market.  A deal is won, a deal is lost.  A client goes away, a new client comes on board.  Something good happens, something bad happens.  Remember, though, we usually don’t know in the moment if it’s long-term good, long-term bad, or whether it just “is.”  That’s why the gift is important for a leader to give the team.  Believe in them.

It’s also important to remember our biases.  If we’re constantly seeing the same things, we ought to ask what we’re looking for, because development comes from looking for, and really expecting new and better things from the team.

Finally, we have to be careful what we measure.  The scoreboard shows us what has already happened on the field.  It does not tell us why it has happened or what will happen next.  If we’re focused on the “Why?” — it requires us to look beneath the easy measures.  The medical analogy is getting to the cause, rather than just treating the symptom.

Believing in our teams, being exceptionally aware of our biases and measuring what matters — these are elements that lead to our teams winning more often, being more engaged and making a bigger difference, together.

“The important thing is this:  to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”

–     Charles Du Bos (1882 – 1939), French essayist and critic

Team.  Defined.

Teams sacrifice what they are for what they could become.

Drop the mic, um, er, I mean drop the keyboard.  Whatever.  The important thing is this — that’s what great teams do, for each other, with each other and sometimes in spite of each other.  In short, they make each other better, and they relish in the growth, even when it’s forced on them.

It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get us here, now.  And it will take something different to get us from here to there, wherever there may be.

One of the easiest traps for successful teams to fall into is complacency.  “Well, this is who we are!  Ain’t we something!?”  “Heck, we’ve won our last 34 bids!  We’ve got this licked!”  “We’re Blockbuster!  We’re the 800-pound gorilla.  We “own” the market…”

The problem with complacency is the needle moves every day, and if we’re not the ones moving it, then someone else, a competitor, a client, a new-market-entitiy is moving the needle and they move ahead of us on the path that determines what we will become.

This approach requires the team to have crystal clarity on two topics:  1) what we are, and 2) what we could become — and we have to agree on those two things to engage together on the path that gets us “there.”

Editor’s Note:  The planned 3-part series on “Team” will be a four-part series.  If you missed Monday’s post, here it is.  If you missed yesterday’s post, here it is, acknowledging that some e-mail delivery to subscribers was disrupted this week.  No word yet as to whether the Russians are implicit in any disruption…  

“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking!”

–     General George S. Patton (1885 – 1945)

There is a model of Patton on my desk, a reminder of his leadership, but also of his extraordinary team focus.

Patton spent more time at or near the front than any of his peers, before or since.  He cultivated input, knowledge and perspective from all levels of the theatre.  He leveraged intentional dissonance to reach better plans more quickly.  He acted on his informed instincts and he expected the teams he led to do the same.

Yesterday, we touched on our personal team of advisors.  Every day, we go to work with or leading a team in our own companies — and, as Lencioni calls it, that’s our First Team.

It’s not really a team, though, if we just get together to stroke each other’s feelings and to do what we’ve always done.  It’s not really a team if we’re all of the same experience set, mindset or skillset.  It’s not really a team unless there is some intentional disagreement, differing opinions and perspectives and a variety of ways to approach solving problems.

When those things come together, which the right environment and expectations — and when we’ve chosen the talent around us well — that’s where the spark meets the fuel, and the engine starts to really purr.

If groupthink is our status quo, we’re stagnant at best, and regressing or dying on the vine, at worst.

Choose to challenge one another, and watch the team, and its members begin to grow!

“Don’t just do something!  Stand there!”

–     Richard “Dick” Heston (1933 – 2002), my dad, an Iowa farmer and factory worker and the best business leader you could ever hope to have

We think of being surrounded as a bad thing.  And it can be. Maybe it’s the movies we watch; Butch and Sundance, Thelma and Louise or General Custer…  When we’re surrounded by the enemy with no chance of escape, it can be pretty daunting.

That’s one reason it’s pretty important to intentionally surround ourselves with people who can keep us from getting into a pickle like that in the first place.

As Dad admonishes, it’s also pretty important to take time to gather their insight as we consider what comes next, instead of just diving in.  Our nature might be to just do something, anything!  To see action instead of a course toward a specific outcome.  In those times, we want to be surrounded by the best possible advisors we can access, and we need to take time to consider our options and their input.  Yes, whom we select to keep closest, and have as advisors in times good, bad and neutral makes as big a difference as just about anything else we do.

We don’t have to give this group a name, but if we did, these might be good options:

–   Personal Accountability Board

–   Trusted Advisors

–   Advisors, Counselors and Teachers (I like the ACT acronym…)

–   My Team

Who will always be honest with us (and with themselves in supporting us)?  Who knows our strengths and our weaknesses as well or (preferably) better than we do?  Who understands our hopes and dreams, and is able to see our circumstances in the context of the future we seek?

Who takes the phone call at an odd / uncomfortable hour, listens and calmly engages with questions (more often than answers), context and communication that makes us better.

Why not surround ourselves with those people?  Keep them closer than close and consciously seek to put value in to their world, as well…

This week, as we consider the benefit of teaming let’s focus first on being surrounded, in the best possible way.

In the meantime, Jim, Drew, Chris, Phil, Peter and Mark — thank you!

“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force.  The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward.  When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.”

–     Unattributed

The quote lays a perfect blueprint for transforming listening from passive to active.  Listening is magnetic, a creative force.  It moves us toward one another.  It creates us, expands us.  It makes us unfold.

It could (and should) be argued that listening is the most dynamic force available to us.  And it’s available to all of us, in unlimited quantity and quality.  All we have to do is claim it and unleash its incredible power.

“When it all comes down we will
Still come through, In the long run
Ooh, I want to tell you, it’s a long run”

–     Lyric from “The Long Run,” by Eagles

It’s a short-term world, and everyone is trying to trick us into the short-term view.  It’s why I think if IPO is your answer, you’re asking the wrong question.

Yesterday, I got two reminders that we will still come through in the long run.

The most rewarding aspect of my career is the coaching and mentoring that I’ve been Blessed to do.  That’s the real reward, better than money, trips, etc.

Peter is a text-book example of investing in people for the long run.  I recently realized that what he sees as a relationship where I’m some kind of Jedi Master and he’s Luke Skywalker has changed.  For a couple years now, I’ve received at least as much benefit as I’ve put in — and I’d take a bullet for him.

The second example came around a table of very good people.  People I haven’t know for long, but whom I trust.  People with real problems to solve and a real intent to solve them.  That’s the differentiator.  Everyone has real problems to solve.  This team intends to solve them, for the long run.  Life is too short to work with people we can’t trust, or people whose long run doesn’t mirror ours.  And I mean clients, too.  When we have shared goals and a shared vision of where those goals lead us, we can handle some resistance, in the long run.

Clarity is a beautiful thing.  Yesterday, I got two energizing doses of clarity that remind me why I set out to make a difference.  Because when we do, we do so for the long run.