If you read the title of this entry and you read my last blog entry you could get the impression that this one will still deal with the book “Winning” written by Jack Welch. In a way it does, but just the other way around. I will write about what I missed in the book. Actually I can’t understand how the content of this article could be missed as it is maybe the most important factor: This blog entry will tell you how to become a winner. Not more not less.
Over the last 15 years I had the great luck being able to work for a lot of very different companies. Small ones, huge ones, software companies, banks, consulting companies and so on. This might actually be my hugest personal asset. And in retrospective there were winning companies and losing companies. Actually the winning and losing factor in some of them was pretty extreme. Some of the companies don’t exist anymore; others prosper and rush from success to success. If I look back, with all the now existing time and mental distance in between what differentiated the winners from the losers?
First of all, it was not that the people in the winning companies were that much better or more intelligent or had an by far better education. Actually they were better in average but the difference is not that huge. It was not that they had a brilliant product idea no one other ever had or couldn’t copy. It was not a function of size or money from inside or outside. It was not some brilliant management method, process or methodology. And I could make the list a lot longer than it is. The companies were very different in every imaginable aspect you could think of. But the winners had one thing in common: they had a culture of winning! If I look back they just won, won and won. If I look back at the losers, quite the opposite: they lost, lost and again lost.
The funny thing is, this is not true. The winning companies also had their share of catastrophes. They had failed projects. And one winning company I worked for even didn’t recover from one disaster and died. But in a winning company you see successes. The problems are seen to, but they can be solved and will be solved. It is how you percept your work. In losing companies you just see the problems. They have their successes too, but no one actually cares. And the crazy thing is, both views work self amplifying. If you don’t believe by heart you are a winner, you will never win! If you only talk about problems you will always fail. It is that simple!
Ok, I literally hear your disagreement, sentiment and disbelieve. This sounds like stupid “Chaka” management motivation bla-bla. And maybe the principle that all these motivation trainers use is the same, I don’t know. But actually I don’t care as I know the principle is correct and works. The difficult thing is, that this is not a thing that works because you hear about it. You have to believe it, breath it, be it. It is so f**ing simple and stupid, that it is almost unbelievable. It is this classic “the glass is half full or half empty” thing.
In winning companies if there is a problem, you try to fix it. If someone else has a problem you try to help him. In losing companies you have various options to react: bad mouthing, ignoring, saying “I knew it from the beginning”… But helping out is the least probable. In winning companies if you see you are late you do everything you can to fix it. In losing you just don’t care and ignore it, you try to hide the fact or you search for someone else who is guilty for. In losing companies you always talk about “them” as they made some mistakes, in winning companies you talk about “our success”. I swear you, it is so much more fun to work in a winning company, it is just unbelievable.
And no, this is not about “motivation” in the sense of “how hard you work”. It is about how you see your world and therefore how you motivate others (or the opposite of course). You might work day and night and therefore be highly motivated but destroy someone else motivation for weeks with just one sentence. But if you are out to win, you will fight for your success, and not just play not to lose. Winning teams are always in “fight mode”.
I am not sure what impression you have now if you read everything up to this point. If you right now work in a winning company, I guess you nod in agreement. If you are in a losing company you might disagree or not. But if you are in a losing company think about how much more fun your life would be if you would become a winner. What if I am right? What could you possibly lose if you would try?
How about a simple test? Take a piece of paper. Now write the 10 last catastrophes, killer problems or troubles your company has on the paper.
Did you do it? Please try before reading on….
…So, was it easy? How did you feel while writing? Now turn the paper and write the 10 most recent successes of your company or your team on the paper. Where you able to find 10? Not? Why not? Where did you emotionally react stronger? On the problem page or the success page? Maybe you now should read this blog entry again.
Lets sum it up. Winning is foremost a matter of attitude (of course it is not the only factor but the predominant). There is just one person in the world that can make you a winner. YOU. Nobody else but you. If you get into winner mode and your colleagues will, you and your company will win! If you don’t believe me try it. You will see, you will be able to do things no one ever would have thought you ever could.
Alex
