Greetings!
Welcome to our first Thursday edition of Mack’s INNER CIRCLE. I’ll post here for free for a few weeks and then just keep this for paid subscribers. Blogs are different than stories. Stories show transition. You’ve noticed this I’m sure on the Tuesday edition. Blog posts are shorter and just pass along thoughts and information. Thursday will be blogs.
Fun fact: Blog is short for Web Log.
I hope you enjoy it! If you do, please reply to the email or in the comments if you have th Substack app.
And now…Unleash Your Inner Ninja Warrior
The other night while flipping channels on the TV, I came across the American Ninja Warrior TV show. If you've not seen it before it involves some very physically fit individuals who run on a timed obstacle course. The course requires balance, stamina, and most of all upper body strength. I was amazed at watching some of these people and then even a 65-year-old who managed to finish several of the obstacles before falling off and losing his dentures in the water. I thought about what it would be like to be on this program but at my age and with my hip replacements and bad back, just bending over to tie my shoe is enough of a warrior challenge.
For all of us non-athletes, I believe there still are some Ninja challenges we can do when it comes to our professional development. It's easy to admire those in our field who are committed to excellence, who give great presentations, do amazing analytical work, or solve complicated problems. The good news is that all of us have the potential to be in that class. It simply involves your commitment to personal and professional development.
I don't know what these Ninja athletes do but I can imagine it involves several types of training, many of which are not directly related to the obstacles they must overcome in the challenge.
What that means is that not only do they need to know how to climb on parallel bars, but they also need to develop the upper body strength and the hand strength to hold their grip. It doesn't always involve just cardio as we might think about it via long distance running, it might be short interval sprints. This means that transferable physical strength and agility must be made to be the focus of competitive strength and agility. In other words, you must train for more than just the actual competition.
We need to do the same in our professional lives too. While we might be good at our jobs, there are some ancillary skills we might not be good at. I must admit I was pretty good in what I did as an organizational and management development consultant, but where I came up very short was in sales. That may not seem like a logical business skill for me to have but if I couldn't sell what I did then I wouldn’t be able to do it. Because of that I spent hours reading everything I could get my hands on about sales. I contracted a business coach to help me with my marketing. Boosting that skill led to more sales and success when I ran Boss Builders.
But what about you?
Right now, are there other skills that would help you be more successful? You might be good at making a presentation but how are you at navigating the politics of your organization? You might be great at solving a complicated problem but how good are you at preventing that problem in the first place? All of us have a responsibility to be the best in our field. Since only a few of us can be elite athletes, why not be excellent in the everyday playing field that is our professional lives?
Have an AWEsome week!
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