Lessons from a Legend
The world has been gripped by Super Bowl mania for the last few weeks. As such, it would probably be fairly simple (and maybe even valuable) to write about the communications lessons that could be learned from Marshawn Lynch’s press conference during Media Day where he famously answered every single question (more than 30 of them) with “I’m here so I don’t get fined.”
However, I recently came across a Forbes Lessons learned from baseball legend, Ernie Banks about lessons learned from a legend of another sport …baseball great Ernie Banks, better known as “Mr. Cub,” who passed away last week. These lessons supersede football, baseball and every other sport, and can (and should) be applied to our work lives.
Enjoy What You Do: The daily pressures and stresses of our jobs as communicators can sometimes overshadow the enjoyment we get from successfully completing a project, helping a company through a painful period or learning something new. Take time to remember why you do what you do and to appreciate it.
Don’t Begrudge Others’ Success: Comparing your successes to those of others is unproductive. Celebrate in colleagues’ accomplishments and give credit where it’s due. We are all after the same end result, so regardless of how you arrive there, enjoy the victory together.
Embrace Change: This is a big one. Change can be difficult for some and generally affects all. Is your company being acquired? Did you recently lose a client? Does your CEO want to stop providing guidance to the Street when you know it’s the wrong thing to do? Whatever the change, keep an open mind, be part of the solution and use the experience in future endeavors.
Thank you Mr. Cub for your endless optimism. And thank you Geoff Loftis, the Forbes contributor who wrote the original article, for sharing these insights.
— Laurie Berman, lberman@pondel.com
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