A professionally and personally rewarding formula for leaders
For more than 30 years, I’ve applied a simple plan to ensure that each day was both professionally productive and personally rewarding. The formula is simple: Three Things Each Day!
Compete. I’m a true believer that it’s not “just OK” to play to win. You can, and should, enter each day with the objective of going to battle with the absolute intent of beating your competition. Both in business and in life, one can and should get out of bed each morning with the objective of winning the day. In this world we live in, not everybody gets a trophy. Earn yours.
It’s important that we play each day to win. Know yourself and your competitors. Have a plan that leverages your strengths against their weaknesses. Execute with violent precision. Most important, though, is to do so against the correct foe. You don’t compete against yourself, a peer, another division of your company or past results. It’s the other logo, brand and team that you should battle against.
Winning isn’t winning if you don’t do it the right way. In playing to win, we must be able to close each day with the knowledge that we’ve held firm to sound personal values. There are no shortcuts on the road to long-term success. We must be able to look ourselves in the mirror and each member of our family in the eye at the end of every day, knowing that we held firm to ethical values that stand the test of time. It sounds so simple, and yet we’ve seen many examples over time of those who have paid the price for compromise. Values and ethics matter. None of us should ever forget this. In the game of life, you’ll never regret having committed to win the right way.
Each and every day, we have to take advantage of the opportunity to help someone. It’s not a complete day unless we’ve truly shared and given of ourselves. And, if you look for them, these opportunities are all around us. This one is truly the easiest of the three things. Picking up the office phone that’s ringing, offering a simple word of encouragement, handing your umbrella to a stranger … Investing in another is much more than writing a check to a philanthropic cause. It’s real. It’s tangible. It’s personal. And the best part is that you will get more in return than what you’ve given. Start by sharing a smile.
Play to win, win the right way and help someone. Three things. Every day. Follow this simple formula as a leader and you’ll be rewarded both professionally and personally.
Fellow leaders, here’s my challenge: Put these three things on your to-do list each day and great things will happen for you. More important, your teams will follow and flourish and accomplish things you might never have expected.
Jerry L. Kelsheimer, president of Medic Management Group LLC, leads and oversees daily business operations at MMG, a national health care consulting firm with a broad solution offering, including revenue cycle management and advisory services. A retired bank executive, he remains founder and principal of Exodus Capital Partners Ltd. and serves on various boards, including as a director of Rudolph Libbe Group.
