"Give me a chance and I will show you"... wait, that's not it.

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

This may ultimately just become a semantical mess, but hey, let's just take a bit of a chance here and see what we get - And no, the irony will not be lost on me.

 A while back I was reminded of the time a group of colleagues and myself became involved in a hearty discussion regarding the saying, "Give me a chance and I will show you" (or its various iterations) that ask you to do something despite an uncertain outcome or unpredictable result... all based on an "unknown reassurance that it will all work out".  As the discussion finally came to an end, the consensus around the table seemed to be that the saying was simply backwards, and should be, "If I show you, can you give me a chance".

Wordsmithing the original saying inherently minimized risk, addressed the air of entitlement that sometimes can come with the request, and illustrates a proactiveness required when asking someone to make a decision that involves chance. We parted ways comfortable in the knowledge that yet again we had solved one of the worlds more challenging problems.

But the question now becomes, "What does 'If I show you, can you give me a chance' look like?" You can't simply walk away from the table with a smug, knowing air of satisfaction and not tell anyone... well I guess you can, but that really isn't very constructive.

• Understand the chances you are looking for - There are an infinite number of chances in this big ol' world of ours available to you, so to be practical, you need to narrow down the ones you are interested in.
• Understand your competencies - In its simplest form, this refers to your ability to do something successfully or efficiently. Effective written communication is an easy example.
•  Alignment of your competencies with the chances you may be looking for and vice versa - This will allow you to identify competency gaps that may impact your ability to be given a chance or even identify chances your current competencies my afford you. As an example, if you want to be given the chance to start a career in sales these are the competencies you would need to develop or show an aptitude towards... increasing your "ability to be given a chance"
  • Planning
  • Territory/Customer Management
  • Selling Skills and Knowledge
  • Product Knowledge
  • System Knowledge
  • Business Cadence
  • Business Acumen
  • Financial Performance  
• Develop the competencies that will afford you the chances you are looking for - Many competencies will be common to many types of chances but some my be very specific, which comes back to understanding the chances you are looking for.

And finally, with the competency foundations set, the aspect of illustration or "If I show you" can come into play, which is, more than any other time in history, easy to set in motion - Thank you Internet:

• Want to illustrate your understanding of concepts and competencies write a blog.
• Want to illustrate your ability to communicate and show leadership create a video blog series.
• What to illustrate your personal brand, concepts of planning and execution, develop a web site and utilize the appropriate social media channels to illustrate your competencies.
• Take on projects outside your current roles and responsibilities or join a charity to develop needed competencies, as well as develop content for your above activities.

And if you are not sure how to get started, just "Google it" or go to YouTube and watch all kinds of people illustrating their competencies.

Reducing the "unknown reassurance that it will all work out" comes with showing your competencies up front and it's also a tangible illustration you can make things happen - And that's what people really want when they give someone a chance.

iamgpe

A healthy obsession to stay relevant...

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

For no particular reason and out of blue, I thought of a brief conversation I had with a leader a couple of years back. We hadn't seen each other in a while and as we were quickly catching up, he asked me what I was doing now - My response was simply, "Trying to stay relevant".

He looked at me for a second and said, "Me too". 

A slight (but relevant) deviation from the topic at hand takes us to Andy Grove, the legendary CEO of Intel, who had a healthy obsession regarding paranoia and wrote about it in his book Only the Paranoid Survive - In part, this is explained in the preface of the book:  

Sooner or later, something fundamental in your business world will change.

I'm often credited with the motto, "Only the paranoid survive." I have no idea when I first said this, but the fact remains that, when it comes to business, I believe in the value of paranoia. Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. The more successful you are, the more people want a chunk of your business and then another chunk and then another until there is nothing left. I believe that the prime responsibility of a manager is to guard constantly against other people's attacks and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the people under his or her management...

Similar to Andy's healthy obsession with paranoia, I know of at least two people who see the importance of having a healthy obsession to stay relevant, which brings us full circle to the quick conversation that started all of this. Since it seems I have a propensity for definitions, I thought I would start with this:

Rel·e·vant \ˈre-lə-vənt\: closely connected or appropriate to what is being done or considered.

So with that said, and in its simplest terms, "to stay relevant" is to stay closely connected or appropriate to what is being done or considered. Straight forward enough, but similar to what Andy Grove eluded to, sooner or later, what is being done or considered will change... and what was once relevant can quickly become irrelevant (I don't think a definition is needed here).

For the sake of being overly thought provoking, let's say this obsession to stay relevant is for everything - jobs, skills, views, philosophies, relationships, education, politics, the arts, etc. etc. etc.;  pretty much LIFE, give or take a few things. Here is what I have gleaned about the subject so far as I work through my obsession:

• Change, as the popular saying goes, is the only constant and puts you forever at risk of becoming irrelevant - Get comfortable with it.
• In a rather impactful way, you will become irrelevant more than once in your life. In short, it's going to happen to you, and you will have to work through it.
• What you want to be relevant with, is you choice ... staying relevant may not be.
• As much as you can become irrelevant, you can equally become relevant. Only you can decide if you want to stay where you are.
• Not accepting or adapting to change is one of the faster routes to being irrelevant.
• The universe doesn't care if you believe your way of doing things is the best way. Sometimes you will get lucky and be aligned, but know it is fleeting.

As you look at staying relevant, be it in the narrow scope of a job or to staying vibrant with as many aspects of your life as you can, it is ultimately about evolving with the environment around you, seeing what's coming and adjusting accordingly: 

• Have you taken a course of some sort in the last 12 months?
• Do you have a smartphone that is less than two and a half years old?
• Do you have a web site?
• Do you know how to write code?
• Do you have more than two social media channels you actively use?
• Do you actively blog?
• Do you actively video blog?
• Do you read more than five books a year?
• Do you travel?
• Do you socialize with people that are at least ten years older and younger than you?
• Do you actively network?
• Do you ensure your office door is not closed all the time?
• Do you have an overwhelming urge to be curious?
• Etc.

 Truth be told, I can't answer yes to all of the above, but my obsession has me working on it.

gpe

Sometimes the only appropriate response is to laugh... a good reminder.

It all happened in a split second... like with many things it seems.

An incident happened about three hours into a short road trip with Syd and Big Red. As I was making a lane change, I had to veer back to the safety of my original lane as another car quickly sped by. Everyone was a little startled but there were no injuries or coffee split.

Seconds later there was an onslaught of comments, corrections and instructions regarding how I could improve my driving.

• "What are you doing, trying to get into an accident?"
• "Aren't you using your mirrors?"
• "You are supposed to look over your shoulder before you change lanes?"
• "We could have been in an accident... are you sure you can drive all the way?"
• "You aren't just supposed to use your mirror, but actually look over your shoulder." (There seemed to be some disagreement with this point among my critics)

As my tolerance started to wane and it became apparent neither of them where going to self correct, I just started to laugh, rather loudly I should add.

As they quieted I asked, " So you two are lecturing me because I did everything correctly?"

I went on to say, "There was a car in my blind spot; by using the mirrors and then looking over my shoulder I was able to see the car and turned away before I side swiped it". I ended with, "Didn't I do everything you two were saying I should be doing and avoided an accident?"

Almost in unison they said, "Yes". I laughed some more.

As I look back at this smiling, I am reminded of some lessons I've earned over the years.

1. People generally do not like surprises... constant and predictable is the way they want it. A General Manager once offered me sage insight telling me that leaders do not like surprises; bad news may be hard to deliver, but surprises are disastrous.  
2. There are many people who are waiting for the opportunity to tell you what you are doing wrong. Constructive criticism should be welcomed and encouraged; it serves everyone well - Simple criticism serves only the few.
3. When something happens, it is best to start with the question, "What just happened?" Or some derivative of this, depending on the situation and context.
4. Laughter is a natural "attention grabber". In one form or another, people will ask, "What's so funny?" - And then you can tell them. Granted, depending on the situation and who is asking, it may be a tense conversation.
5. Laughter and doing serious business are not mutually exclusive; in fact laughter may just be the only thing to get you through the difficult times.

As an aside, my ability to drive didn't come up the rest of the road trip.

Keep on laughin'.

gpe