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The Truth About Bored of being the best: five back to basics tips to help you create a culture of greatness (and power through the Recession)

The Truth About Drilling Being the best: five back to basics "Tips to help you create a culture of greatness (and the power by recession)

Being the best is no secret. The power to make the small, ordinary, dull stuff right again and again.

By Jon Gordon

What if everyone in your company worked tirelessly to be the best? The best seller … the best professional customer service … the best coach … the best (say) cake decorator and business non-profit fundraising blogger or industry? It's a simple idea, but with profound implications. After all, a company formed by the best people in the business itself is the best in the business, and while there is no safe bets, be the best is the closest you ever been to a meeting outside the card-free recession.

Any company can create a culture of greatness. Why not? Probably because they do not know how. People tend to think that there is any magic solution or formula secret to be the best, but not true.

For a person, greatness has to do with fundamentals. It's about getting the basics right, again and again every day of the week. For a company trying to make all employees. It is not that complicated, really, "and if anything we learned from the recession is companies that focus on the basics are the ones who survive when times are tough.

There are eleven traits and habits that separate "the Best "from" the rest ", and I would emerge from my new book Training Camp: Best do it better than others (Wiley, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-470-46208-9, $ 22.95). Get all your employees to absorb and practice them, soon you will have a team that is unstoppable, yes, even in a stagnant economy.

Anyone can succeed if they have focus, initiative, dedication and positive energy needed to do so.

The ideas in the field of training is based on my work with teams like the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars and class organizations world, such as Campbell Soup, Northwestern Mutual, Publix Super Markets, JP Morgan, Texas Children's Hospital, and the FBI. Despite their environment, everyone-loves-a-good-story approach full of practical information that gets results.

Training camp is about what it takes to live up to the top of your game, whatever that game may be. These are the habits of the best of the best in all professions have in common. Leaders who can settle these habits in culture will find the slow and steady tortoise approach really works.

Here are some tips for getting back to basics:

Be willing to work at home all the others. You might think that the best thing is an accident of birth, some people are endowed with superior genes or are being children of parents living in the right zip code. Not true. You become the best through hard work and "zoom focus" on the (often little ordinary and boring) fundamentals of your particular job until they master.

I read a story in which Will Smith attributes his success as an actor to his strong work ethic. He told an interviewer, "I'm not afraid to die on a tape. Not outworked. You may be more talented than me. You may be more smarter than me. And you can be better looking than me. But if we have to tape together, going down first, or I will die. It's that simple. I will not be outworked. "

I love that phrase! And I think the lesson for companies is twofold. One, make sure your employees are workers willing to upgrade their skills individual work until the master. Talent matters, of course, but perseverance matters further. Two, make sure your company stays the course long enough to become the best at what you do. If you keep changing their strategies or market approach, that can not happen.

Get the little things right. Remember, there is a secret recipe for the best. The art is in putting together recipe ingredients. Best to take action every day and make common tasks-back phone calls, filling out reports, capturing customer information, preparation of meetings, with an unusual approach, dedication, and commitment excellence.

To give an example, the big sellers do the same things to mediocre sales. They just do it with greater care and consistency. And companies large are composed of employees who do what they are supposed to do, every day of the week.

Do not lower your standards when no one is looking. I like to tell the story of a CEO who insisted that his company mailroom, no client ever visited, is kept clean and tidy at all times. Its point? The best thing about doing the right thing even when no one can see them, and the mail room is a symbol of it. The same could be said of behaviors such as web browsing when the boss is in a meeting or speak ill clients behind their backs.

Remember, be the best has to do with the formation of good habits. If employees do the right thing all the time, the right thing will be the second nature when necessary.

Do not focus on results. Instead, focus on process that takes you there. You know how motivational gurus are always saying "visualize your goal? I disagree with this philosophy. In the same way that great athletes stay in the moment rather than obsessing about the outcome of the game, the big companies keep their collective nose of stone sharpen, zoom focusing on the tasks of everyday life that made them great in the first place.

A great example is Organic Valley, a dairy products distributor organic produce, meats and other natural foods. Each year are growing dramatically and yet will not have a "goal in mind. They focus well on its purpose and process, and this feeds their growth.

Whatever you do, do not rest on their proverbial laurels. Despite belief popular success does not actually breed success. It breeds complacency. The coaches and business leaders often fear success more than failure dread. Too often, a team will have a successful season or a player will have a great year and return the following season when they think all they have to do is presented and will enjoy the same results, not to mention was the hard work, focus, and the process that helped create their success.

Well, that happens in business, too. The moment you think you've reached the door of greatness is when it crashed in the face. The key is to always innovate, offering new products and services, improving customer service, and staying one step ahead of your competition. The solution is to stay humble and hungry.

Such Once you are concerned that the times are so difficult and the competition is so fierce to be the best company in its industry is beyond their reach. That is a misconception. The truth is that the gap between "best" and "the rest" is very, very small.

In baseball, taking into account the difference between a .250 hitter and a .350 hitter. If one calculates 162 games per year, 4 or 5 sticks for the game, the difference between a .250 hitter and a .350 hitter is only 1.7 hits per week. It's the little things that separate the best from the rest. If you can make those important little things that only 10 percent better than the competition, can to the top of their field.

But it is the kind of thing can not happen by decree. You must come from within the workers themselves. They have to know what exercises are and you want to do the training. Once those conditions are met, the sky is the limit.

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About the author:

Jon Gordon is a speaker, consultant and author of international bestseller The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to feed your life, team work and positive energy and not complain Rule: Positive ways to deal with negativity at work. Jon's new book, Training Camp: What the best do better than anyone, was released in May 2009.

The message in Jon's books and speaking presentations is such that NFL coaches such as Jack Del Rio, Mike Smith, the PGA Tour, and the FBI have asked Jon to inspire and benefit their teams. Jon and his books have appeared on CNN, NBC Today Show and in Forbes, Fast Company, the magazine O, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times Customer Him as the Atlanta Falcons, Campbell Soup Northwestern Mutual Publix Markets Super, and JPMorgan Chase also call on Jon to bring out the best in their leaders and teams.

Jon is a graduate of Cornell University and an MBA in teaching from Emory University. When not talking to companies or schools, you can find him playing lacrosse or basketball with his wife and two "high energy" children.

For more information, please visit www.jongordon.com.

About the book:

Camp training: Best do it better than others (Wiley, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-470-46208-9, $ 22.95) is available at bookstores nationwide, major online booksellers, or directly from the publisher by calling 800-225-5945. In Canada, call 800-567-4797.

Features Best of the Best Eleven

Excerpted from Training Camp: What better do better than others (Wiley, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-470-46208-9, $ 22.95), by Jon Gordon

1. The best know what they really want. At some point in their lives, the best have a "Eureka!" when your vision becomes clear. Suddenly realize what you really, really want to achieve. Find your passion. When that happens they are ready to fight for greatness. They are ready to pay the price.

2. Maybe they want more. We all want to be great. But only the best of the best are willing to do what it takes to be great. I think better not only their desire for greatness, acting on it. They have a great work capacity. They do things that others do not, and spend more time doing it. When everyone is sleeping, the best are the thought and practice and improvement.

3. The best thing we always strive for improvement. They are always looking for ways to learn, apply, improve and grow. They stay humble and hungry. They are lifelong learners. They never think they have "arrived" because they know that once they think they will start to fall back into place whence they came.

4. Best to do ordinary things better than everyone else. Despite its grandeur, the good is not much better than others. Son just a little better in a lot of things. Everyone thinks that success is complicated but is really easy. In fact, what better to do nothing different. Only do ordinary things better.

5. The best focus zoom. The success has to do with the fundamentals and basic concepts are little and regular and often boring. It is not just practice, but focused practice. It is not just about taking action, but the zoom action focused. It comes to practice and master the basics.

6. Maybe they are mentally stronger. The world today is no longer a sprint or a marathon. It is a series of sprints combined with a boxing match. You're not only running, going to hit the road. The are best able to meet and exceed all this mental and emotional strength. They are able to tune out distractions and stay calm, focused and full of energy when needed.

7. The best to overcome his fear. All the world has fears. The best of the best of all the fear, but overcoming it. To defeat your enemy is to know the enemy. Average people escape their fears. Or ignore or hide of them. However, the best look and encounters with the intention of conquering.

8. The best seize the moment. When the best are at the heart of its activities is not thinking "What if I win?" Or "What happens if I lose?" They are not thinking "What if I make a mistake or miss the shot?" They are not interested in what we produce now, but only care about what they produce at the time. When all eyes are watching, they rise to the occasion. As a result, the best defined the moment rather than letting the defining moment.

9. The best take advantage of a power greater than themselves. The best drivers are not, resistance. Do not generate their own power, but act as conduits for the source of greatest power in the world. It is not always politically correct, but you can not talk without speaking of the greatness of God. It would be like talking about breathing, without mention the importance of air.

10. Better to leave a legacy.'s Better to live and work with a larger purpose. Leave a legacy in making its life much more than them. This larger purpose is what inspires them to be better and strive for greatness in the long term. It helps them move from success to it.

11. The best thing everyone around them better. They do so through their own search for excellence and excellence that will inspire others. A person pursuit of excellence in improving the quality of everyone around them. And they do both at work and life … The point is to try to be your best and inspire others to be the best cases, because it is the effort where greatness lies not in the result.

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About the Author

Jon Gordon is a speaker, consultant, and author of the international bestseller The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy and The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work. Jon’s new book, Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else, was released in May of 2009.