I recently squared off with a friend on a tennis court to play a match.  I have a strange disease that you may identify with that manifests itself only in athletic events.  The clinician experts have labeled it, "mustwinitus".  Well, I won the first set 6-3 which fed and satisfied my disease. 

After the set my friend offered me some advise to improve my game.  My pride deep within my chest was shouting internally, "what?!?, I won, you are offering ME advise?!?"  Yet, I went along with him.  He demonstrated a very different method for my serve that required me to change my stance and my addressing of the ball.  It was awkward to say the least as I practiced a few serves with him as my coach.  Yikes, 90% of my serves using the new method were now resting in the net!

Well, it was now time to compete again with the second set upon us.  Decisions needed to be made.  Do I continue using the old method that secured my first win or do I learn, gamble with short term results, with hopes of elevating my game to a higher place?  My disease arrested for a moment and I decided, maybe illogically, to use the new serve method.  I chose to learn, maybe even to grow.  You will not be surprised to hear that I lost the set, 6-3.  My serve was pretty bad.  Even worse than the actual loss was when my friend reported the victory to our wives later that day.  Ouch!  However the negative emotion from the loss was more than offset by the positive emotions that came with learning and now playing with a new skill.  In fact, the next day I went out and practiced the new skill and realized a dramatic improvement to my serve with an even higher percentage of first serves "in" than from my old methodology!  Keep this quiet: I am now looking for my friend to get him out on the court for a sound beating, a "friendly" beating, of course.

Leader, can you think of an old skill or practice that you are leaning on, trusting in, that is likely core to your MO that may need to be updated, improved, or flat out changed?  The practice may have been good in the past, gave you real wins, and provided the foundation to your career advancement and sense of professional identity.  Yet, changes have come your way, changes that demand new thinking with new behaviors and new skills. Changes include a new and heightened level of market competition, new and constantly evolving technology, a new generation in our businesses, new and elevated customer demands, and new workplace expectations that require leadership of the kind most of us have never experienced.

And, after identifying an old "service" methodology, are you willing to take a loss, likely a temporary loss, to improve your game, elevate your leadership, boost your overall effectiveness? 

I have observed that the most effective and alive leaders are the ones who are more focused on continual learning than winning.  Further, these same life long learning leaders do acquire more wins than losses, more wins than those who are focused on winning.

Quick Wins:

1. Reflect: "what methods or behaviors no longer serve me well and must be abandoned?"

2. Plan: "what new thinking and skills must I acquire to become more effective?"

3. Resource: "what course, coaching, training can I secure to accomplish my plan?"

4. Commit: "by what date will I take action to learn and who will I make myself accountable to?"

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