In my experience, the ability to anticipate is the mark of a great manager.
At the Epicor Insights 2013 Conference, some guy named Joe Montana helped me expand my idea about what “anticipation” means…
Forgive me but I’m going to mention some professional football stuff here.
It’s a subject I know virtually nothing about. (I’m from Cleveland, Ohio.) But I had the chance to listen to Joe Montana speak about perfection and everyone around me was cheering and oohing and ahhhing so I took some photos and I took some good notes.
Joe Montana made the point that “How we prepare”-(how we show up) has more to do with our success than our talent.
He convinced me to add ‘Preparation’ to ‘Anticipation’ as the sign of a great professional. That preparation and work ethic build trust.
Ok. You can stop rolling your eyes now. Pretty simple stuff. Pretty obvious. How come these famous guys always say these kinds of things?
Joe Montana’s points for perfection
- What can I do every day to make me better to make my team better? (I guess there really is an I in Team…)
- Master the fundamentals. You can’t acheive perfection with out them.
- Get the little details right. They will come back to help you.
- Live your work ethic. Having a work ethic builds trust. there can be no success without trust.
I think that he has these right.
If we model a work ethic, we will not only build trust but lead by example.
Mastering our craft- all of it, not just the big ideas- of course that will make us better craftsmen.
His question “What can I do every day to make me better to make my team better?” is astonishingly close to the one I learned from a turnaround expert many years ago “What can I do today to make my company the most money?”
I thought that these points from this winning football guy were certainly worth reflecting upon.
And ultimately worth sharing with you.
If we aren’t working on getting better every day?
If we don’t master the fundamentals?
If we don’t get the details right?
If we don’t live our work ethic?
Well?