My recent "head buried in the sand" epiphany is that parenting isn't easy. The wife will chuckle and say "no $*@!" when she reads this, as her challenge of running our household is one I could never undertake. But I don't mean not easy in the sense of dealing with crying kids, cleaning up messes, school pick-up and drop off, etc. We knew that would be difficult going in. Instead, what drove this recent epiphany is the realization that I have to accept the genuine best effort my kids give to school, sports and household chores at face value. Praise them for trying their best, help them get better where possible, and live with the results - no matter how frustrating they may sometimes be.
In business, however, "your best effort" doesn't always cut it. Wins and losses are black and white. A campaign works or it doesn't. You win the business or you don't. You get the job or you don't. While, in spirit, doing your best will generally produce better results, it doesn't guarantee success, client satisfaction or job security. Kinda like the old adage about horseshoes and hand grenades.
If you are leading a team or at least managing others, "your best effort" is actually one of the best measurement tools you have available.
"Your best effort" for one person can mean greatness, while for someone else can mean relative mediocrity. If someone's best isn't good enough, you need to have a hard discussion as a manager and either redirect their talents more appropriately, or let them go.
If your agency's best isn't good enough for your client, you'll either be let go or you'll have the opportunity to shore up weak areas and get better. You generally don't get the opportunity for the latter.
We all should have a keen understanding of where our "best effort" is at an individual, team and agency level. Calibrating such a gauge involves an extremely honest, disrobing examination. Peer reviews, work audits, industry audits, client reviews of the agency. These are all great tools.
The most important concept to grasp, however, is that "your best effort" should not ever be a defined place. Successful people understand it's an ever-moving target. The key is to always make sure you're moving towards the target.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
"Your Best Effort"
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1 comments:
Great connection between parenting and managing. Both are rewarding, and both can be a whip. The good thing is that you don't have to let your kids go until they're 18. The bad thing is that you still have to pay for them. I think it's tougher to let an employee go for that simple reason...they're on their own with nobody paying their way until they find something new. It's not fun, but it's necessary sometimes because you have to look at the bigger...a team full of people, not just one individual, whose livelihood depends on everyone's best efforts being good enough, and sustainable. As a manager, it's a tough decision but among the most important that you make.
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