“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”
That's more than a lyrical, old English proverb. It's a call to action. “Wish all you want, but understand this: No one's going to solve your problems for you,” it says. “Get off your ass and solve them yourself.”
It's obvious that change and complexity are rocking our world and “business as usual” doesn't cut it anymore. As our old friend, Emmanuel Gobillot says, “What got you here won't get you there.” We need new skills and more knowledge to conquer change.
Jeff Magee says it's up to each of us to find those skills and knowledge, because God knows they're not going to find us.
“Successful people are always growing and developing their knowledge set. They're always looking for ways to improve their performance,” said Magee, a renowned performance coach and thought leader with the Business Learning Institute. “People who take only the prerequisite 40 minimum hours of CPE each year are typically mediocre to mid-level individuals. There is a significant degree of greater success, ability, productivity, and proficiency that they can attain individually and organizationally, but they're not pushing themselves to do so.”
I know what you're thinking: Is he really telling us we need to take more CPE than we're required to?
In a word, yes.
“The reality is that in today's workplace, we've learned that just being average is acceptable,” said Magee. “We've created a society in which everybody points fingers at problems but nobody gets into the game to fix them. The worst part is that we have clients and customers who are paying us to be trusted advisors. They want us to be the plus in the conversation. How can we help someone if we're bringing a minus to the equation?”
Our clients and customers aren't the only ones who benefit, either. Research has hinted that people devoted to lifelong learning live longer, are healthier, have fewer medical problems, and are more resilient.
“Benjamin Franklin famously once said, 'If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest,'” said Magee. “You can lose your car, your house, your clothes, but if you have the intellectual capacity to grow and go, you can always bounce back.”
Magee and I talked at length via Skype recently about performance management. Listen to our conversation in its entirety.
You can learn even more by watching Magee's recent BLI Live talk here:
More from the Business Learning Institute
Jeff Magee offers a number of related programs through the Business Learning Institute, including:
- Coaching for Impact: Generational Diversity
- Fundamentals of Strategic Management
- Performance Execution: Long-Term Planning in a Short-Term World
- Performance Execution: Succession Planning and Mentoring
For details, contact Pam Devine at pam@macpa.org or visit BizLearning.net.