Getting trapped by the latest buzz

If you follow pro-football, and if you don’t please don’t be scared off as this will make sense to you too, the latest buzz is the trend by the Miami Dolphins in using what is called a “Wild Cat” offense. This play is to swap out offense players in an unconventional way. It is working quite well for them right now and more teams are trying the same strategy. There has been vigorous debate as to whether or not this play is a gimmick and when it will stop working. One of the Sunday commentators on CBS’s NFL today football show made a statement that was so profound that I instantly knew it was the perfect analogy for this blog. He said that the Wild Cat is not a gimmick for the Miami Dolphins because they have the perfect combination of talent to make it successful. For other teams, it would be a gimmick because they didn’t have the proper talent to make it work.

“Combination of talent” - the same holds true to achieve business acumen! A significant part of business acumen is to know your players and how to best utilize them. We need to develop our business strategies based on the talent we have NOT the latest business buzz words.

Here is an example of how this happens in everyday business. Take a minute and think about the conferences or seminars you might have attended at some point in your career. It might have been an association event, like the Direct Marketing Association, or a software seminar or just a workshop on leadership. Do you remember walking out and thinking – WOW – we can try this or do that! It is an energizing feeling. You walk into your office ready to make sweeping changes based on the take-aways from the learning experience. You try to share your newly acquired knowledge with anyone you can trap into listening. It may go as far as to have meetings on setting the changes into motion.

Then, in many cases, the steam runs out. Problems arise, other priorities take hold and those sure-fire ideas flame out. It’s even worse when it is your supervisor or a higher-up. THEY come back all fired up and expect YOU to make it happen. Now, I am not saying these events aren’t important –they can be – but I want to focus on the take-aways. Those take-aways are like the Wild Cat offense. They will work for some but not for others. In order to achieve business acumen, you need to know the capabilities of your talent and judge whether or not you have the right combination to make it a successful strategy.

My goal for the next few weeks is to offer some ideas and strategies for knowing your capabilities and those within your business. It is the theme that I will focus on and until then I encourage you to read Strength Finders and to take the assessment. Check out the website at: http://strengths.gallup.com/110440/About-StrengthsFinder-2.aspx. I found this very enlightening about myself and will try to use it as the foundation for next week’s post.

As always please post your comments and tell your coworkers and friends about this blog. Let’s find our successes together!