Most people settle for competence. Are you?
Earlier this fall I volunteered to be an announcer for Tiny Mite football games (my daughter is a cheerleader). Technically, my wife volunteered me because I’m a professional speaker and l love sports. Seems natural, right? Ok, I admit that I was excited about the whole thing. I forced us to get there early so I could “check out the room”. Since my daughter cheers for the smallest team that plays first every Saturday, “early” meant before most people were awake. My wife loved me for it.
Well, the room was about a 60-square-foot booth with one microphone and a scoreboard controller. Where’s the AV guy? How do I turn on the mic? Who is going to introduce me? Where is the bottled water to keep my throat from getting dry? By the way, what am I supposed to say? When my volunteer-partner showed up, I was relieved for about three seconds … my liberation ended when he said, “I don’t know man, I’ve never done this either.”
Then Ricky arrived. Ricky’s son has been playing in the league for a couple of years and he’s a pro at announcing. In fact, he facilitates trivia nights at random bars and restaurants during the week. Are you kidding me? He’s perfect for his job! Ricky took over, my heart rate dipped below 100, and we were all good. I learned everything I needed to know – how to be the spotter and tell Ricky who ran the ball and who made the tackle; how to stop and start the clock; and how to operate the microphone. Yep, Ricky was not only the best trivia night DJ in Florida, but he was a gentleman. He let me have the mic for much of the second half, and I didn’t do too badly.
Ricky didn’t show up for the next game, but who cares? I struggled through the second half of the first game and was pretty good by the end. I had this announcer thing down. By halftime of the second game, my confidence was so high that I was thinking about creating a fifth service for Vector Firm. I was killing it.
I walked to the third game like Tom Brady arriving at Gillette Stadium. As I was giving Jerry Maguire points and nods, I was thinking: “I can’t believe these people have ever played football before I was here to announce for them?” This game was mine. I took control of the mic, gave my spotter my binoculars with a fist pump, and went to work. I was nailing every play – clearly announcing the names of these five-year-old gladiators.
Then Ricky showed up.
As excited as Alexander must’ve been to greet his father, Phillip II, after conquering most of the world … I shouted: “Ricky, what’s happening buddy?” He looked at me with surprise that I knew his name. I think he forgot meeting me. No way, he was just feeling a little threatened by my announcing grace. After I finished the series, I handed the mic over to my mentor. That’s when I wrote this post in my head. Ricky grabbed the mic with tenderness and started …
“Folks, don’t forget to slip down to the concession stand to support our South Orlando Braves. Every dollar goes toward their program. While we wait for the Cougars offense to get set, look for Megan in the pink t-shirt – she’s running the 50-50 raffle this morning. Who is going home with some extra money this morning? Let’s have some fun and support your Braves. Ok, let me hear you … let’s go defense.”
All I ever said was something like “Jacob Smith on the run. Gain of three. Second and seven.”
I was competent, but I thought I was excellent. I was doing an average job, but didn’t realize I was average for two reasons:
- I started out being terrible, and the gap between terrible and average can seem vast.
- I had no one pushing or measuring me … until Ricky arrived in that third game.
Are you stuck in competence, but think you’re excellent? Are you the best sales person on a below-average team? Have you taken on a new role and improved drastically? Is anyone from the outside pushing you?
Take a step back and ask yourself these questions? You might be doing a fine job, but if you subscribe to this blog and have read this far, I have a feeling that staying in competence-mode will eventually bore you. Get out there. Forget about how far you’ve come and think about how much further you can go. Ask someone from the outside to assess your performance and help you see what excellence really is. Surround yourself with the Rickys of the world – don’t be the king of the derelicts.
