Posthumous Goal

A commercial on TV: the young boy walked up to home plate on an empty ball field with his bat, a ball, and a smile as he was prattling on about the world's best hitter.

He settles in at the plate and, with one more verse of world's best hitter, tosses the ball into the air. After the swish of a haymaker swing and no thunk of the bat, he looks down to see the ball lying quietly at his feet.

Undaunted, still smiling, the boy again settles at the plate, recites world's best hitter again, tosses up the ball, takes his swing. When he looked down, there's the ball at his feet once again. His smile fading with each attempt, he tries several more times - unsuccessfully - to hit the ball, his world's best hitter becoming less enthusiastic with each miss.

With a 0 for many tries record, the boy's face is set in a frown, clearly disappointed, and his head is hung – then it snaps up, the smile is back, and he steps back up to the plate to take his stance. With a megawatt smile, he tosses the ball up while saying the world's greatest pitcher.

A posthumous goal offers some feel-good for the boy, but it creates a detrimental result in other situations.

A manager says just do your best for the project output but adds 10% more to 'goal' when critiquing the disappointing project results.

Or, a project is due by the end of the week, but at noon on Thursday, the supervisor says he wants it by the end of the day.

A goal communicates intent. What does a posthumous goal accomplish?

The Doer- A Key To Lasting Achievement

Rainmaker 19 - Foam Ball

Have you ever looked at electrical conduit (pipe) inside the walls of a building?

Do you know how electricians snake the wires through it?

They can’t push it. The wires bend and kink.

What they do is take a foam ball, the same size as the pipe, tie some fishing line to it, put a vacuum on the other end and suck the foam ball and fishing line through the pipe.

Then they attach metal tape, like a tape measure, to the fishing line and pull it back through the pipe.

Finally, they attach electrical wires to the tape and pull that back through the pipe, and that’s how you install electrical wires in conduit. If you think you are going to have to snake more wires through at a later date, you can include a run of fishing line with the electrical wires and leave it inside.

Communicating is a lot like pulling wires through conduit.

When I try to just ram my message through, it tends to bind and kink. Several unsuccessful attempts makes my message ugly and worn, maybe even breaks it.

Instead of pushing, a gentle pull to start the process is appreciated. Then a couple of easy back and forths gives us all confidence we can succeed.

Succeeding the first time takes a lot less time and effort than continually failing.

Previous Rainmakers

Sales Lab’s Rainmaker 19, Foam Ball is 300 seconds of sheer enlightenment at The Capital Technology Management Hub, 6:30 pm on Tuesday, April 9 at Teqcorner, 1616 Anderson Road, Third Floor, McLean, VA 22102. Rainmaker 19 Foam Ball will be immediately followed by our headliner presentation, Tom Cooper, BrightHill Group, Are You Too Busy To Plan?

The Difference Between Promised And Produced

I keep getting glimpses that there is a difference between promised and produced. At the most basic level that may be a broken promise. But what if there is something more?

Did you ever hear, “But you promised...” Probably not good.

I’ve also heard, “This is SO much better than what I was expecting!” That’s a way rememberer.

Sometimes you agree to something because you don’t understand what you are agreeing to. Ask the Native Americans about that.

Are customers not allowed to mature, to develop, to learn more while you are producing? That’s a hard rule to enforce. Hard on you, hard on them. Not to mention futile.

I enjoy when customers learn something new on my watch. They tend to enjoy the experience and ask me back again.

Promise what will initiate the transaction. Deliver what will delight the customer. The good guys make that look easy.

Any stories that might support my contention?

Doing the Impossible – The War Horse Lesson

With the holiday celebration over, the eggnog finished, and dinner a very pleasant memory, we went to see War Horse (liked it).

Early in the movie, the boy and the horse took on the monumental challenge of plowing a field of thick deep-rooted grass and stone for the first time. They succeeded.

What we watched was the accomplishment of a virtually impossible task by sheer will-power, refusing to quit, and learning to work together.

This scene serves as a powerful reminder to leaders that inspiration, focus, and working together can overcome huge obstacles to achieve results.

Kennedy and landing on the moon is another example...can you recall others?

January 10^th Sales Lab’s next Rainmaker is Designing Your Work To Take Advantage Of The Internet at the Capital Technology Management Hub on Tuesday, January 10^th. The featured CTMH speaker will be Hector Del Castillo on the topic of Why a Product Strategy is Essential to Drive Your Company’s Revenue Growth. More Info