Back when I was coaching Little League I needed to find a way for my team to understand the fundamentals; the basics. We were struggling, but I had an idea. I brought in some autographed baseballs and Pokémon cards. I said,"Guys, do you want some of this stuff?"
Of course they all said yes.
I put a big garbage can on home plate and I lined them up all around the infield.
“Hit this and you win (item XYZ)."
Well, the kids were pretty motivated, but we started this at 4:30 with practice ending at 5 o' clock. By the time 6 o' clock rolled around, no one had hit the can yet...but they wanted those cards and baseballs. We had to pull the parents cars up to put the lights on the field.
After almost 2 hours they finally started to hit the can, but I think they understood the importance and accuracy.
How does that relate to you? So much of what we do in business is based on one thing, yet we tend to take for granted some of the biggest fundamentals in business and in life.
Now, what happened with the team? We became one of the best fielding teams that year and it all stemmed from this one practice. The kids understood the importance of accuracy, a key fundamental in baseball.
There’s a lot of things we probably do over the course of the day, but there is always probably one fundamental thing that you have to do to make or break your job or your relationship. As we get set to start a new year, think about this: are you really working on the fine points of what’s most important to you?
What’s the main thing that you do at your job that separates you from everyone else? Are you the best at it or do you just assume that you’re just really good and that’s just good enough?
