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BeLikeMike

SteveSmith talks about a good manager he's worked with under EffectiveBosses. That's an example of a strategy for both learning and leading: BeLikeMike.

Do you remembe the Nike commercials featuring MichaelJordon? One series had him doing what he does, inspiring kids to BeLikeMike. While the man had (and has) incredible raw talent, when you look into his story he also had incredible drive, focus, practiced his brains out and insisted on personal performance. There are worse ways for a person to work.

So, the strategy is BeLikeMike, with two parts.

• Find people who do stuff, and you don't get how they do it. Get next to them, and try to BeLikeMike. Sometimes insight follows action vs. the other way around. So sometimes just try it. (That one is hard for us big-brain, strategizer types. So learn how to just try it, sometimes.)
• If you would lead, BeLikeMike. Not so much the specfics (talent, competitiveness) but model what you would like in others. Model in yourself what you want out of them. First it shows it is possible. Second it may show them how if they don't know how. (And once people are engaged, aligned and trying not getting it done has got do be . . . skills, right? What else?)

I would love to hear BeLikeMike stories. Given my biases, more operational than Opra, more people you got next to personally than Icons. We'll get some on EffectiveBosses. I'm also curious about the startling ones, the times when you tripped over some hidden skill or integrity in someone where you didn't expect to find it.

-- JimBullock 2006.10.03