Better Than You Found It – Hall of Fame Follow-Up
If you were to leave your organization today, would you leave the organization in a better condition than when you started? If I were voting for a hall of fame nominee, a criterion I’d consider is whether or not they made their teams, organizations, or leagues better. Given the choice of voting for a player that dominated individually but made no marked improvements on the team(s) they were on or a player that dominated and made significant improvements to the team(s) they were on (and the people around them), I’d vote for the latter all day, every day.
Let’s consider Michael Jordan again. Before joining the Bulls, the organization was mediocre at best. Not just in the 1980s, but in general, since Chicago founded a team. The Bulls organization was middle of the pack in winning, attendance, marketing, and fan base. The NBA at the time primarily had a United States fanbase. Global interest in the sport was casual. Enter Michael Jordan. He changed the NBA and the game of basketball globally.
When people argue about who is the GOAT, Michael Jordan or Lebron James, the disagreement is laughable. Lebron dominates. He didn’t change the game. He didn’t change a city or a league nor spark global interest in basketball. Across the world today, basketball is building a talent base it never had before. Toni Kukoc and a few others were it back in the late 80s and early 90s. Not the case today.
Comparing Michael Jordan to anyone in any business is extreme. He wasn’t just a game-changer. He changed and created an entire global industry. He showed others how much is truly possible in the game of basketball. Warren Buffet did it in investments. Bezos did it in e-commerce. Musk is pushing the envelope on space exploration. The reach of man seems limited only by the interest and restrictions imposed by God. And if we tweak the perspective of our vision for how we fit in, we can leave things in far better conditions than we found them.
We tend to believe that the principle of leaving something better than we found them is exclusive to others. Many don’t even consider this concept. Settling in and doing the job is the safest path to retirement. But what if we challenged this mindset? If you are a photographer, you get to capture the moment in someone’s life that will last an eternity. If you are a teacher, teach as if you get to change the trajectory of a life. Make your school a better place than you found it. If you are a government contractor, what can you and your team do to leave the program you won in better condition than when you found it? We help make the military more ready and lethal – we help save lives. How about as a recruiter? Could you view your job as a life changer, not a position filler? You make organizations and lives better. You might be working with a potential employee waiting to land a job for over a year.
A tenet of my leadership desires, speaking style, and general business philosophy is to make things about others. I believe that if we can have the perspective of leaving things better than we found them, we will be more fulfilled and see people around us changed for the better. This is a Hall of Fame characteristic that transfers to any business, organization, or team.
