Preparing Through Research and Practice
Apr 13th 2010adminAdvertising & Business & Marketing & Signage & Sports
Get Ready….
I read an interesting article in a running magazine the other day by a sports psychologist. He was talking about how top athletes deal with stress and how they stay calm under pressure. He compared the athletes’ stories to high performing business people, sales people in particular, and how they deal with pressure.
As it turns out, both groups deal with stress and pressure the same way – preparation. Athletes prepare through training (physical and mental) plus cross training to keep themselves balanced. Business people prepare through research and practice.
A man was walking in New York trying to find Carnegie Hall. “Excuse me,” he asked a stranger walking beside him, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?”
Came the reply, “Practice! Practice! Practice!”
Yes, an oldie but still current.
Business people who are prepared for a big meeting and practice answers for all possible questions, go into presentations confident and calm. They would only be under stress if they were unprepared. No athlete would dream of facing a major challenge without proper training. They all want a track record of wins, not defeats. Middle of the pack athletes don’t go to the Olympics. Only those who consistently win, receive that privilege. Athletes and business people who consistently practice, train, prepare and research, rise to the top and are sought after as team members and team leaders.
I know I’ve made many comparisons between sports and business in my blogs and I believe the same disciplines apply to both enterprises. I’ll never be a top athlete – it’s too late for me to achieve anything so grand! But I can lead my team of sign making staff to heights of accomplishments they didn’t think possible. I believe that with the right training, the right amount of encouragement, challenges and regular praise and rewards, when justified, will spark them to achieve great things. Every day I see new things happening in our shop that put a smile on my face. Today, a customer came in to pay for a job we installed a few days ago. He wanted to shake the hand of the person who installed his sign and thank him for doing such a fine job. Such praise from a customer meant a lot to the person who did the installation. This was one more accomplishment for this person who has risen in our company and is taking on more and more responsibility.
Likewise, our sales team is taking on new challenges and achieving great results. Our production team is creating better and better signs with less waste. We are all athletes in the world of sign making. We’ve been practicing, training and achieving. We are a well-oiled machine! And it feels GOOD!
How well prepared are you? I’d love to get your comments. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. For any bloggers out there, when you leave a comment, you can leave a link back to your own blog. How great is that? But, you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment, I love hearing from everyone.
Happy Signing,
Drew
