Category: Clarity

Defining Success (or how to gamble the right way)

I was watching Storage Wars the other night (don’t judge me) and one of the featured buyers/characters made the comment that the day was a bust because he didn’t get any of the lockers.  And it struck me that this person (“the gambler”) was looking at it from completely the wrong perspective.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the world of Storage Wars, a brief tutorial – when people don’t pay their fees on a storage locker for a certain amount of time, these lockers are considered abandoned and are offered up for auction.  The bidders are not allowed to enter the locker or touch any contents – they get about 2 minutes to look inside and make a snap decision about bidding.

As you might have guessed, not all of these storage units are “winners”.  Units that look like they are full of high quality boxes have been known to be filled with old newspapers.  Occasionally there is a gem found among the lockers (old baseball cards, jewelry, rare books), but more often than not the bidders may only make $100 or even lose money on the deal.

gamblingwiththedevilSo, back to “the gambler’s” comment that bothered me so much.   Like most businesses, the storage racket would appear to live by the “buy low – sell high” philosophy, only in this situation, the buying is a very chancy proposition, indeed.  In that particular episode, a number of the lockers went for $2,000+ – pretty tight margins for someone who relies on buying other people’s abandoned stuff.  So wouldn’t you think that you might define success as making smart buying decisions and knowing when to NOT buy something?

A lot of leaders think like “the gambler” (and yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to be singing the song to yourself at this point).  They define success as having a finished product, whether it’s a PowerPoint deck, software roll out, or a company-wide reorg – even if one of these is a bad idea.  Or they define success as “winning” a conversation, shouting down the whole room and having the last word – even if it means abandoning the game plan.  Sometimes success means NOT taking action – but you wouldn’t know that if you haven’t taken the time to think about it.

Leadership is a bit of a gamble at times.  You don’t always know how your decisions will turn out.   Good analysis may suggest a course of action, but then you find out the data was inaccurate.  Depending on your hiring process, those candidates may look like a promising storage unit that you bid on, only to find out the fancy storage trunk hid a bunch of mold.  We stay in it, though, for that occasional hidden treasure that experience and research tells us should be a good bet.  The key is defining success the right way and sticking to it.  A few thoughts:

  • If you’re gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right: Have you REALLY defined what success looks like, or are you relying on a flash of insight, a vague pie chart, or a dream you had last night?  Do your homework, conduct some analysis, and define what success means…and stick to it!
  • You gotta know when to hold ‘em: Sometimes things start as clunkers (employees, projects, lunch plans).  But if your plan is sound and you keep the long-term goal in mind (success!), it’s worth waiting it out a little bit.  Don’t give up because you hit one road block.
  • Know when to fold ‘em: Conversely, don’t keep throwing good money after bad.  This really is gambling and typically doesn’t end well for anyone. (Click here for a recent post about knowing when to pull the plug).
  • Never count your money when you’re sitting at the table: Okay, I really just wanted to use all the lyrics, but hear me out.  Don’t assume you’re a success just because you had a good week, just as you shouldn’t assume you failed because you had a bad day.  Stick to the plan and remember your definition of success.  Wait until all the cards on the table before declaring something was a waste of time.

Listen, if everything was a sure bet, it wouldn’t be any fun.  Just be careful that you don’t substitute smart thinking with chasing the “gambler’s high”, remembering that ONE time that your gut was right.  Whether you’re a CEO, an entry-level analyst, or a dude who makes money buying abandoned storage units, your long term prosperity and general well-being relies on your ability to define success in a way that’s right for the business…and remembering it in times of frustration.

And THAT’S an ace that you can keep*.

*With apologies to Kenny Rogers

Ev’ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin’
Is knowin’ what to throw away and knowing what to keep.
‘Cause ev’ry hand’s a winner and ev’ry hand’s a loser,
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.

You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike…

My husband has been playing Zork recently on his iPad, happily marching his way through the world, drawing his map as he goes.  I hate Zork and all its friends – smug little text adventures that don’t allow for creativity and a free spirit.  Sometimes it totally makes sense to feed the bird to the snake!  And yes, I DO want to try to kill the dragon with my bare hands, thank you very much.

Okay, let me back up and provide some context.  When I was a kid, my father brought home the mighty Osborne 2 Executive computer (the OCC-2 for purists).  It was splendiferous –  5″ x 5″ monochrome CRT screen, integrated keyboard, side-by-side 5-inch floppies…oh, it was a masterpiece, my friends.   Add an orange magnifying screen and hook that baby up to a dot matrix, and we were set for hours.  One of the more popular programs that took up our time was Adventure, a text-base game in which the protagonist (you) wandered around picking up clues and objects with the goal of navigating a network of caves in order to…do something.  I honestly don’t remember.  I don’t remember because I never seemed to get further than distracting the snake with the bird to open the door with the key, thus entering the caves…where I immediately get stuck.  From that point on, the game became me wandering about aimlessly, trying to escape the computer telling me, “You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike….”  No matter what direction I typed in, the computer just kept telling me, “You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike….” I think that experience was the beginning of my sarcasm skills – I kept trying to figure out a way to get the computer to respond in a creative way.  It never did, but I sure had fun trying.

So why is she telling us this, you may ask?  Because many times, our leaders become the Adventure computer game.  THEY know the best path through the network of caves.  THEY know what those random clues and objects mean – of course you should have picked up that staff you happened upon 2 hours ago.  Duh.  Even worse, some leaders assume there is only one path through the maze.  No matter how creatively you think about the situation, or what flashes of insight you might have that could allow you to instantly solve the issue, your leader insists that every step must be taken in a specific order – no step-skipping, no creativity.  Rather than provide us with clarity and help, our leaders often play the role of the computer, sitting back while you fumble your way through the workplace, claiming “I’m offering you development” when all you hear is, “You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike…”  And no matter what you say to your leader, he/she just keeps coming back with “You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.”

The resultant frustration experienced during such an “adventure” is enough to make even the most ardent among us want to reboot the game and start somewhere else.  Sometimes you might need to, but before you take that step, you can learn from the world of text adventure games to try and finish the journey:

  1. Know what you’re getting into: The first time I played Adventure, I had no idea what it was.  It was a computer game (what’s that?!) and it seemed cool.  So I gave it a try.  But I didn’t know that it was a slow moving, text-only “game” that relied heavily on the mythology of D&D.  If I had, I may not have been so eager to try…or I might have been more patient with the process.  Find out as much as you can about your leader (think of it as reading the back of the box for the summary).  That way you know a little more about what you can expect from this person.
  2. Take notes and learn from your mistakes: One of the rare benefits of a game like Adventure (and a leader who thinks that way) is that you can start to figure out the patterns of behavior that lead to bad results…and change them.  Took a wrong turn and ended up lost?  Write down what you did and then next time, do something else.  Failed to present your ideas to your boss in a way she likes and the proposal was shot down?  Write that down and next time, adapt your message to your audience. Eventually, you learn to anticipate moves because you’ve learned to recognize the pattern.
  3. Be specific in your communication: Nothing like FORTRAN programming to force you to be very specific and intentional in what you say.  Computers are so literal…and so are some leaders.  Take the time to really think about what you need from your boss – be specific, be clear, and be succinct.  You may be surprised by how well that leader responds to you.
  4. Use the invisi-clues: Okay, those are Zork-specific, but it still applies.  Invisi-clues were sections in the book that let you slowly reveal hints to help you past the tough spots in the game.  Your peers, and your leader’s peers, are your invisi-clues.  Don’t try to navigate every tough spot on your own.  Yes, it DOES help you learn, but sometimes you just need to figure out what the next steps are.
  5. Remember, it’s okay to shut down the game every once in awhile: Do you feel like you’ve been banging your head against the wall over and over, and you STILL don’t know what to do with that stupid scroll…er, document?  That’s what vacation is for – a chance to walk away for a little while.  If you can’t do a vacation, switch to something else for a little bit.  Give your brain a chance to think about something other than the twisty passages for a spell.  Your brain has an amazing capacity for finding the answers when you’re NOT consciously thinking about it.  Give it an opportunity to do so.

Whatever you do to get through your maze of twisty passages, just remember that it’s work – important, but just another part of your life.  Maybe you get frustrated, but find the elements that make you happy and keep trying to break the code.  No, I never seemed to make it out of that stupid maze, but I played that game for years, happily exploring the different paths that might lead me to…whatever the goal of Adventure was.  Each time, I got a little further before getting lost.  And I swear, once after hours of trying, the computer was proud of me…and said, “You are in a little maze of twisting passages…” – just to throw me a bone.

osbourne

The mighty Osborne 2 Executive (OCC2). Oh yeah….