Tag Archives: luck

Mastery and Practice

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“And, how does the rest of your team see Carl?” I asked.

Carson smiled. “I get it. You are right. The rest of the team sees him as a brown noser. They laugh behind his back. Maybe secretly jealous.”

“Jealous of what,” I prodded.

“Carl gets some preferential treatment. If we can only send one person to training, we pick Carl, because we know Carl will come back and share what he learned.”

“Does the team see Carl as successful?” I wanted to know.

“Yes, they do, but they think it was all about luck. Sometimes, I have to step in and mitigate some of the taunting.”

“So, having someone competent, inquisitive and curious on the team can create a problem for you?”

“Yes,” Carson nodded. “As long as people see success as luck, it can be made fun of. As the manager, I have to be vigilant and communicate success as a mastery and practice of fundamentals, enthusiasm and support of the team.”

“Of course, it doesn’t hurt to be a little lucky.”

If It’s Not Luck

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“When you recruit a new person onto your team, what are you looking for?” I asked.

“I think we have dispensed with luck as a criteria,” Carson replied.

I smiled. “Yes, we can dispense with luck. What are you looking for in a new team member? In fact, let’s take a look at your current team. If you had to hold someone up as a model, what would I see in that person?”

Carson nodded. “Carl. It would be Carl.”

“And, what would I see in Carl?”

“Easy. Carl shows up a half-hour early, stays a half hour late, every day. In every training session, he always has his hand up asking questions. When he makes a mistake, he always owns up to it, then fixes it. I would like everybody to be like Carl.”

“So, here are four questions.

  • Do you trust him to make good decisions at his level of work?
  • Does he practice the skills required in his role, every day?
  • Do you observe commitment to the practice required in his role?
  • Does he meet the required behaviors in the work he does, for safety, for cooperation?

“It would be easier, if it was all about luck,” Carson said.

Are You Lucky?

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“What do you think it takes to be successful?” I asked.

“Luck,” Carson snapped. “Sometimes, pure dumb luck.”

“And, do you feel like you have been lucky?” I wanted to know.

“Not lucky enough,” Carson replied.

“If luck can’t get you where you want to be, then what is it? You see, Carson, everyone looks for the magic fairy dust, the secret formula that reveals the hat trick. But, if you’re not lucky enough, and most people aren’t, then what does it take to be successful?” I asked again.

Carson was silent, thinking.

“Let me change the question,” I said. “What does it take to become competent? I think you will find the answer is NOT luck.”

Do You Feel Lucky?

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More than 30 years ago, I was interviewed for a job and one of the interview questions was, “Tell me about a time when you were lucky?”

Since then, I have determined there are many things that occur outside of our control. Working with CEOs, there are many things that occur, which have direct impact on the outcome, yet, are outside the control of the CEO. “So, do you feel lucky?” said Inspector Callahan in the movie Dirty Harry.

Many decisions are made based on data, and many decisions are made based on intuition. The best decisions are made somewhere in the middle. Based on the data in front of me, what I know, do I feel lucky?

How do we take advantage of luck? Two things – preparation and mental fitness.

We do not know what will happen in the future, so we have to be prepared, not just for what we think will happen, but for all the possibilities of what could happen. Gideon Malherbe speaks directly about this preparation in his talk on Scenario Planning.

But, being prepared is only part of being lucky. Just because we might know what to do, does not mean we have the capability to do it. Do we have the mental fitness to see, analyze, adjust and execute. More importantly, have we practiced seeing, analyzing, adjusting and executing. What would happen if your volume suddenly doubled (being lucky)? Do you have the mental fitness to pick up the pace, reorganize your sequence, focus on strategic constraints?

Tell me about a time when you were lucky?

Are You Lucky?

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In 1995, Red Scott asked me if I was lucky. “Luckier than most,” I said.

Call it luck, call it fate, call it inevitable. Luck happens, good luck and bad luck. The real question, will you be prepared to handle luck when it comes your way, or will you squander it because you were not ready?  You cannot manage luck, you can only manage yourself in relation to luck.

Some people handle luck with ease, effortlessly navigating the twists and turns. It wasn’t because they were lucky. It was because they were prepared. Preparedness goes hand in hand with competence.