It Takes One To Know One
In a clean, prosperous, middle-class community boys and girls playing soccer, baseball, basketball, out on the fields or in school, all of them hear two words they will hear a lot as they continue to grow: Good job. They will hear those words because parents and teachers and coaches want to be supportive, they don’t want to discourage any of the youngsters from engaging in whatever activity they want to engage in. They will hear them because their parents and teachers want to reward them just for trying. When they get to college, those same kids start to find the ‘Good job’s harder to come by. Their peers and their professors aren’t just handing those out for just trying. College can be a competitive environment where professors need to bring a piece of reality into the life of the young women and men they are charged with preparing for the world. Because they know that when their charges leave and have to face the real world in all its splendor they will have to understand that ‘Good job’ can be a very detrimental pair of words. A pair of words that can skew how they will perform for the rest of their lives. A pair of words that can keep them from becoming their best self, from understanding that there is a level above, a level where ‘Good job’ is thought of more as a quaint platitude than an actual reflection of performance.
To get to this higher level, to be able to become who they are meant to become, the real words of encouragement need to be coming from inside of them. It is their honest assessment of their performance that should really matter, and they have to be their own hardest critics. Now is when it becomes clear that standing still leads to stagnation, to falling behind. And when that happens the syren’s song of mediocrity starts to become more appealing. So it becomes clear, that to rise above they will need to keep learning, keep training, and keep listening to those who are already on their way. They will need to invest in themselves and experience what it’s like for those who have made the journey, the whole journey, and are willing to show you what it takes to do that, make the whole journey.
It looks and sounds easy when it’s down on paper like that. But it is incredibly hard when it comes to actually making it happen. It is much easier to accept the ‘good job’ that comes your way when you do just enough, it is much easier to be adequate, to do just what you’re asked to do. Do it well, do it appropriately, do it right, do a ‘good job’. And there is nothing wrong with living a life like that, where you are comfortable, things are predictable, and where you’re not wondering if there’s anything more, if this is it when it comes to what the future holds. Many, in fact, most, families and communities are built around that option, the easy option. But when it comes to today’s, AI-powered, real-time-data-driven, ever-shifting business world, is that what we look for when we’re thinking about building a team? When we’re looking to get a complex scenario resolved? When we’re looking for someone to lead others, to mentor them to get to that other place, the hard place, the place you have to rise to? I bet it isn’t. I bet we’re looking for that one in one hundred, one in one thousand, really, who decided to make themselves something more. The ones that may be young, who don’t have ten years of experience, but who are hungry, who have the passion, the vision, and the drive to rise, to become the best version of themselves. The proven leaders who do have the years of experience, who have risen to become, and are willing to mentor teams to also rise above, to become. And the ones who’ve overcome, who have been thrown a curve ball by life and come out the other end stronger, willing to do what it takes to be a cut above and who are willing to share their resiliency with others.
These are the people we look for, or should be, the people who will grab those technology-driven innovations and turn them into a big ROI, the ones who will see around the corner, anticipate and resolve a problem before it happens. Yes, these are the people we should be looking for and once we find them, retain them. But guess what? Guess what it takes to find and retain people like that? What it takes is for us to also be willing to rise, to become, willing to put in the time, and have the gumption to look for more out of ourselves. It takes people who have been there, who have been hungry for more, who have looked to reach the best version of themselves, and who are well on their way to becoming precisely that. Because to find people like the ones we want, we need to be people like the ones we want.
