Who are you fighting?

While it is extremely rare that I will watch the Larry King Live show, something caught my attention as I was flipping through the channels on a recent night.  He was interviewing the Maloof family.  If you don’t know, and I didn’t either, the Maloof’s are five siblings who are very successful in various business ventures including entertainment and sports.  Now I am not going to profess to know enough about the Maloof’s to comment about them.  What I am going to feature is something they said during their interview.  The question was regarding internal family relations – basically do they fight with each other about business decisions.  One of the brothers quickly responded to the question by stating that they can’t focus on fighting each other because they really need to focus on fighting the competition. 

Wow, that one comment really made me take notice!  “We can’t focus on fighting each other because we have to focus on fighting the competition.”  Clearly that statement is an excellent example of business acumen.  Think back to various projects you might have been a part of.  How many times did your meetings dissolve into bickering or hurt feelings on someone’s part?  People stubbornly dig their heels in and refuse to budge.  It becomes an endless cycle of trying to one-up your peers.  I know it happens because I have been in more than my fair share of those situations.  The organization spins its wheels as various departments have issues with other departments.  Senior management gets involved and now they have issues with each other.  It really is a scene that probably plays out every day in businesses across the world.

Instead, what if we tried to focus less on our personal pride and territories and more on pulling together? We might actually have the time and energy to prepare for the onslaught of outside threats!  Those threats are not just about fighting the competition.  They are about fighting economic conditions, addressing government regulations and legal issues and many more topics that are vital to business acumen. 

As business people we are already doing more with less.  Resources are stretched thin and people are working harder than ever. Why should we add to it?  Stop fighting each other and instead focus on fighting for your business.   Doing that will bring a sense of unity and purpose.  This will not only help the business succeed, it will also help you to succeed.    

While I couldn’t find the actual Larry King Live interview, here is a link to the CNN Larry King Live page: http://larrykinglive.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/18/tonight-on-larry-king-live-172/

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