La crise, quelle crise ?

Catégorie : Leadership

  • People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things

    Day 543. Below is the mail I sent yesterday to my team to help deliver their best in the last mile of the fiscal year. The title is a quote from Sir Edmund Hillary and the picture from an unknown source, but I found it beautiful. Enjoy!

     

    Friends,

    I woke up this morning with butterflies in the belly. Are we going to make it? The first thought that came to mind was the last 2 kilometers of any marathon I ran. Those two kilometers are hard, your muscles ache, your whole body aches, and your mind asks you to quit. It’s ironic to know that most quitters quit in these last two kilometers, so close to the finish line. But it’s understandable, you have to shut down the little voice inside your brain who asks you to stop, you have to look beyond the finish line, and you have to decide to cross the line.

    I leave you with the below picture and quote from Sir Edmund Hillary who first climbed Mount Everest. We are three days away of an extraordinary year! Decision is ours!

    Hillary

    Oh, did I mention we are in the making of an extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary year for Office 365? Butterflies are flying away!

    Thank you and let’s bank a HUGE EXTRAORDINARY year. All cents count!

    marc

  • Day 497 – Commitment and consequences

    When you commit, you need to deliver.

    If you do not believe you can deliver, do not commit.

    And if you do not commit, question your belonging to the organization that requires you to commit.

    Failing to commit and failing to deliver have consequences.

  • Day 462 – When to pull the plug?

    Day 462Success is the result of many failures. Many stories have been told around successes and failures. One salient point is generally about persistence. But persistence is a two-edge sword. Persisting while you know you’ll get through the hurdles is good and necessary. However persisting beyond the point of complete failure is mad. How many businesses have persisted and bankrupted their owners and investors? Probably too many.

    It’s interesting to discuss with professional traders and derive some learning. Successful traders are cold-blood human beings. They can weather storms, and we know there are violent storms in the stock exchange, but more than anybody else, they know when to get rid of a losing position> they will cut their losses before it’s too deep, for a simple reason: it’s better to lose one arm than both! But how do they do it? They follow a simple rule: they set a target and fire the action when the target is reached. There’s no emotion, just action!

    The same should happen with any project you pursue! Set a limit, persist until you reach it and if you reach it, pull the plug! It may happen you never reach your limit so you may persist until you reach success. But the lesson here is to avoid being stupid in face of adversity. In each and every project, there is risk. Risk ties to our fears and fear is an emotion you need to go beyond. With a limit, you do not kill the risk nor the fear, you inoculate the emotion. It’s like a vaccine: you may catch the disease, but it will not be deadly! So to answer the question I asked in the title is fairly simple: set a limit and pull the plug when you reach it!

  • Day 456 – Are you doing things because they’re easy or because they’re hard?

    Day 456As we were closing the first quarter of the calendar year 2015 yesterday, a colleague of mine came up with the fact that selling is not always easy, but we need to give our best to close deals. This made me think of the speech that JFK gave when he announced that the USA has engaged into going to the moon, and doing « these things not because they are easy but because they are hard ». Anybody can do easy things, a few can do hard things. Are you willing to go one step further or settle when things get tough?

    There is a difference between being happy doing something hard and suffering doing something hard. We do something hard to grow, to expand our limits, to past our fears. The current world is teaching people to avoid risks, to insure everything including our lives, to avoid effort. The current world is creating the gap between people who get satisfied by doing easy things and people who get satisfied by doing hard things. And the current world, paranoid as it is, make people who are doing easy things angry against people who are doing hard things because they succeed.

    Success is not about doing things because they’re easy, but because they’re hard. If you’re not doing hard things, things that challenge you, things that make you uncomfortable, things that force you to face your fears and win over them, then you are not pushing hard enough. Don’t get mad against others because they succeed more or faster, learn from them, look for what makes their success and work hard to enjoy the same success. Enough complaining and whining, act and win!

  • Good job – Bon travail

    Good job – Bon travail

    « There are no two words in the English language more harmul than good job! » Those are the words of actor JK Simmons as he played Terence Fletcher in the movie Whiplash. The movie is great and if you have not yet seen it, run! But it’s not about the movie I want to write but about this quote from Fletcher. Good job! How many times have we heard or said those words? So, why are they harmful?

    They are harmful because they limit your capaibility to deliver great things. Good job is average, great job is awesome. In the movie, Fletcher references Charlie Parker. If Charlie Parker would have settled for good, it would never have been the musician he used to be, he chose great. In the movie, Fletcher harasses Andrew, or we may say he harresses Andrew if we settle for good. But as Andrew said, he wants to be great. And to be great, you need to be pushed, beyond the limits! This is not harassment, this is search for greatness.

    At the same moment, in France, Joel Robuchon, one of the most famous three-star chefs is sued for harassement. The one who sued the chef does not deserve to be in a three-star restaurant kitchen. A three-star Michelin restaurant is not good, it’s great, in each and every aspect and details. And if the chef wants to keep his/her three starts, he/she needs to push the team for greatness.

    Now, I am not judging is good is better than great. It’s a choice, your choice, my choice, our choice. Sometimes, we think we have given all to be good, but deep inside, there is still energy to deliver the great. Shall we then settle for the good? No! The world, we, I, you, deserve greatness. Without greatness the world is just good, and good is barely the average!

    « Il n’y a pas deux mots français plus nocif que Bon travail ! » Ainsi parle l’acteur JK Simmons alors qu’il joue le rôle de Terence Fletcher dans le film Whiplash. Le film est fantastique et si vous ne l’avez pas vu, courez-y ! Mais ce n’est pas à propos du film que je veux écrire mais à propos de cette citation de Fletcher. Bon travail ! Combien de fois avons nous dit ou entendu ses deux mots ? Pourquoi sont-ils nocifs ?

    Ils sont nocifs car ils limitent nos capacités à faire de grandes choses. Bon travail est moyen, Superbe travail est magnifique. Dans le film, Fletcher fait référence à Charlie Parker. Si Charlie Parker avait choisi le Bon travail, il n’aurait sans doute jamais été le musicien qu’il fut. Il choisi le Superbe. Dans le film, Fletcher harcèle Andrew, ou nous pensons qu’il le harcèle si nous nous arrêtons au Bon travail. Mais Andrew le dit, il veut être un des grands. Et pour cela, il faut aller au delà de ses propres limites. Ce n’est plus du harcèlement, c’est la recherche de la grandeur.

    Au même moment, en France, Joël Robuchon, un des chefs trois étoiles est poursuivi pour harcèlement. Celui qui le poursuit ne mérite pas d’être dans une cuisine trois étoiles. Un restaurant trois étoiles Michelin n’est pas bon, il est superbe, dans tous ses moindres détails. Et si le chef veut garder ses trois étoiles, il doit pousser ses équipes à être superbes !

    Je ne juge pas si le bon est meilleur que le grand. C’est un choix, votre choix, mon choix, notre choix. Parfois, nous pensons que nous avons tout donné pour être bon, mais tout au fond, il reste de l’énergie pour devenir grand. Devons-nous nous arrêter au bon ? Non ! Le monde, nous, moi, vous, méritons la grandeur. Sans grandeur, le monde serait juste bon, et bon est à peine la moyenne !