September 29, 2013

Measuring Your Personal Gas Gauge

In a matter of two weeks I heard the same message.

In Kansas City we talked about poker. You have two players, both with a pair of 7’s. One player is down to their last $10, the other has $1000s in chips. Who plays with more confidence?

When he was here in Halifax, Mike Lipkin talked about a gas gauge: there are two drivers, with one the needle is on Empty, the other the needle is on Full. Who drives with more confidence?

Here is the hard question: on a daily basis, what are you measuring? What is your gas/poker chips that define your confidence, your success? Not your bosses or your co-workers measure, your measure. You are in control of defining (and measuring) your success.

Years ago I had a director who left work every day promptly at 4:30 because he had a young family at home. Some people measured that as a fault; luckily, his family gauge, his key measure of success, was full when he left.

Hindsight is 20-20. Maybe running out of chips gets you first in line at the buffet, or maybe you are still using the old “Ran out of Gas” routine. But then again, maybe not. Go fill 'er up.