andrew kingery

Rationalization is the friend of complacency. Complacency breeds mediocrity.  Mediocrity loses market share, but doesn’t realize it until it’s too late.

Act now and take your team to the next level… stop rationalizing why the current situation is acceptable or required.

1. Clearly define the goals. You know where you are going, but do your people?
2. Clearly define the roles. Yes, in detail.  Decision by committee doesn’t work fast enough for business.  Appoint your owners.
3. Remove the bottom performing people. The best way to reward your top performers is by removing the bottom ones.
4. Focus. In fact, be willing to walk away from business in order to remain thus.
5. Measure. That which is measured gets changed.

You don’t get paid for what you know, you get paid for what you do.  Get out there and fight mediocrity.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941

If I said you could run a marathon. What is your initial reaction?

The most common reaction to the concept of running a marathon – even by good runners – is usually one of the following:

A – “I could never do that.”
B – “Why?”
C – “I’ll stick my 4 miles a day.”
D – “I don’t run unless I’m being chased.”

Growing up I ran 5 miles once. I hated distance running. I stuck to the 100m sprints, they were intense and over quickly. Running distance was boring, dogs tried to chase you and it made my brain freak, my lungs burn and legs feel like a heavy metal. When I started running again as a workaholic professional later in life, I could only run 7 minutes before stopping to put my hands on my knees for a breather. The first 2 months of running made my head and lungs hurt so bad my legs never got sore because I ran so slowly.

This year I’m going to smash my 3:32 marathon PR (game face). In May my father will run his first half marathon at age 58 and my daughter her second at age 14. Another friend (one of whom made the statement several years ago “I’ll stick to my 4 miles a day.”) is running marathon number 2 in Boston this April.

So before you scoff at running long distance, let me show you a few things running has taught me about life.

Here are the top 5 things I’ve learned from running.

1. People habitually compare their current condition to the desired end state without the consideration of time and practice. The statement “I could never run 26.2 miles” is often made and believed without real comprehension of what time and practice can do for you. Read Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin or Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

Learning: Practice matters.

2. We discredit our own ability to change and underestimate the value of a plan in the change process. When I saw the first Hal Higdon training program and read his words of advice on getting started. I realized if I could finish the first week of the marathon training program, I could finish the entire program.

Learning: Don’t get discouraged by the distance to your goal, each day has enough worry of its own. Get a proven plan and then focus on the plan.

3. Running is boring. Two things. First, boredom is a choice not a circumstance. Second, contentedness is learned. If you want to stop being bored practice choosing to be content. With practice you’ll soon find it’s easier to exist with yourself over longer periods of time. And, perhaps, you might find more time to actually think clearly once you eliminate the mindless babble most of us habitually spew in the empty space of conversations.

Learning: Get un-bored (contented) by practicing. It’s a choice.

4. Being a good marathoner means consistently getting in your long runs, which means prioritizing your life so the consistency can be maintained.

Learning: Consistency matters in running and in leadership. People are valued by what they do consistently.

5. It was a lot easier to get out of bed at 5:15 to make a run when I knew I committed to doing so to someone else. I’m an expert at rationalizing why I shouldn’t run. Accountability partners make a difference.

Learning: Find others who will realize the value of overcoming your rationalization to get you on to your goals.

So, find a plan, get your shoes out of the closet and point yourself into the wind for a good run. I think you’ll like what it does to you.

1. Life won’t engage you…you must engage life. (me to my teenage daughter)

2. Separate the feeling from the response. (me to my wife about my teenage daughters)

3. The best companies are those that live and breathe the brand. (George Nauman at Chute Gerdeman)

4. Nothing satisfies like results.

5. You aren’t measured by what you know or feel, but by what you do.

6. I want you to care, just not that much. (Dr. Roger Hall at Compass Consultation)

7. Education without an execution plan is just entertainment. (Dr. Roger Hall at Compass Consultation)

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.