“Mediocre people don’t like high achievers and high achievers don’t like mediocre people so if you let those two things co-exist on your team it’s never going to work out right.” Nick Saban Want to demotivate someone who does an outstanding job for you? Pay little attention to them and pay more attention to your less than “A” players. It doesn’t matter if it is positive or negative attention, its attention. Pay them the same that you pay your less than “A” players, but give them less work because they aren’t performing. Give that work to your “A” players. I
I will never forget the conversation in the car on the way back from a meeting in Montgomery with my then boss. I had been accepted into the graduate school program of my choice and was working full-time in economic development. The graduate program was full-time and a two-hour drive away, but I didn’t want to give up the job. I waited until about half-way into in to the two and a half hour car ride home, to say. “I want to go back to graduate school.” “Okay,” my boss said. “I got accepted.” “Where?” He said. “Middle Tennessee State”
WHAT NICK SABAN HAS TO SAY ABOUT DOING THE LITTLE THINGS RIGHT With football season fast approaching, my house is all-abuzz with excitement. You would think my husband (and my dad, and my brother, and well, most of men in my life) were five year olds anxiously awaiting Santa coming down the chimney. With the all the buzz, my husband’s inbox, twitter feed, and texts have been dinging football talk, and I get forwarded anything that he feels is a “must know” for this season. Every good wife in the state of Alabama surely needs to know what high school
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A CAREER EXPLORATION STRATEGY Information Interviews, Job Shadowing and Internships are all a great way to learn more about your career interests. If you want to put your career exploration in full throttle, consider working for yourself in high school or college in an area that interests you as well as where you can provide a marketable service or product. An Example: While interviewing students for a highly competitive ambassadors program at a high school, the interview panel came across a student that ended up being at the top of the heap of candidates. Why? She demonstrated
“The most important thing: Get to know and care about the people you are leading/managing. Who are they, what they like and don’t like, what they are most proud of, what their strengths and weaknesses are, how they see themselves contributing to the overall success of the organization, etc. Leaders make more leaders and realize that results are achieved through people, not task lists. If you don’t know your people, they won’t do their best for you. Read Leadership and Self-Deception for more food for thought on seeing people as people.