It has been interesting watching all the coverage over the one-year anniversary of Bin Laden’s death.
About who should get credit, about “spiking the football,” or whether trumpeting his killing makes for good politics or not. But frankly I am sick of all of it.
I know what happened. I am glad it happened. I know it was a team effort. But it is time to move on and get to the next thing. There are other pressing issues that need to be addressed.
We struggle with this in business, sales, and marketing too.
We fight to get credit for a big win. Even though it is usually a team effort. And we spend too much time jockeying for position to benefit from the big win of yesterday…
…when there are things to do tomorrow.
In my experience, when it comes to the big wins in your organization, the people who need to know what happened, generally know what happened. You don’t have to waste valuable time shouting over all the chatter to tell people what they probably already know.
“If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.” Lou Holtz
Focus on tomorrow. Focus on innovation. Focus on creating the solution that will matter to tomorrow’s prospect.
The longer you try to ride the big win from yesterday, the less focus you are putting on the battle that is in front of you.
No, your prospects care about only two things: One, that you are capable of doing the job (which they probably already know if they are talking with you in the first place). And two, what your bold plans are for serving them down the road.
They don’t care about, and will only be distracted by, you spiking the football from yesterday’s glory.
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Drawing by Hugh MacLeod.
