Thursday, February 7, 2008

Winners can learn from winners

Twenty five years ago I had a boss with a sign on his wall reading "Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser". At the time, I thought it was terrible and just bad sportmanship from a guy who routinely competed in triathalons. Running with him and his bad attitude towards losing made me a significantly better runner. But later I learned, it's really important to win.

There are some issues - especially legal, legislative and regulatory ones - that are so big that losing can't be an option. There are other contests that are competitive for the sake of improving performance. A recent example was winning a competition that involved percentage of member involvement in measurable legislative participation.

It was hard to win. And virtually unrecognized. And when a group was formed to improve the performance of others in that same arena, the person mainly responsible for the win wasn't included. Now back when I was a runner with Mr. Show Me a Good Loser I learned the way to improve is to always run against someone faster than you.

Today's advice: Show me a good winner and I'll show you a winner. When putting together a winning strategy, might be helpful to include the input of those who win?

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