By Norman Bodek, President, PCS Press

Imagine all your employees are self-motivated, highly skilled artisans who are self-reliant and self-directed. At conferences, when I ask the audience to try to imagine that type of workforce, some look excited, while others cringe. From the cringers, I always hear the same question, “But who would do the boring, repetitive work? We can’t have everyone educated and in charge of their work and careers.”

To the cringers I respond, “Why not?” To those who look excited, I say, “Tell me about your company. It must be very progressive and a great place to work.”

No More Mediocrity

In the global economy, the age of unskilled people doing repetitive and boring work is dying. In the last few years, American manufacturing has lost 6 million jobs to offshore labor. The future of industry depends on producing high-end products using highly skilled workers. To stay competitive and improve quality, all industries should be focusing on skill building, training, and self-reliance.

What does self-reliance mean? Takashi Harada, a management consultant and trainer in Japan, developed a new training method based on making individuals more self-reliant. He defines it as someone who is: successful, reliable, trustworthy, highly skilled, and able to make the best decisions for themselves, their family, their associates, and for the organization they work for.

It’s an impressive list of attributes, and not many people can click off everything, but with the right training and ongoing support, anyone can become self-reliant and a valued and needed member of their organization. But the question is: How do people become self-reliant and, more importantly, how can management encourage this kind of personal and professional growth for employees at every level of the company?

In the 1800s, many people were artisans. Young people had to go through an apprenticeship for many years with a master craftsperson, and they ended up with a valuable skill. Between 1880 and 1900, Frederick Taylor developed the concept of the “division of labor” and the “simplification of work.” Henry Ford used the concept of de-skilling, putting people onto an assembly line, and having them repeat simple tasks.

If you worked for Ford in those days, your job might be to tighten eight screws on an automobile, the same eight screws on each automobile, for eight to 10 hours a day, every day. The work was so boring that Ford had to hire 963 people to get 100 to stay on the job and had to double their wages. Ford’s system was effective, and his company became the richest in America. Many companies emulated his model, which was great for shareholders but not so good for workers.

Repetition with Focus and Skill

Over the years, I have visited more than 250 plants, both in the U.S. and Japan. On one of my recent visits to Japan, I visited Kokusan Denki, a Hitachi group plant, and watched a middle-aged man in the factory doing simple, repetitive work. To me, it was deadly. He put a small metal part into a machine and hit a button. The machine then worked on the part. The man then took the part out and replaced it with another one. While I watched him, suddenly, he slammed his hands against the machine, shouted loudly and looked as if he was crazy. He looked just the way I would have felt if I had to do that job over and over again, every day of the week. After screaming, he calmly went back to work doing the same repetitive task.

A few minutes later, I walked down the line and watched a woman holding a small motor in one hand, carefully soldering wires to the motor. It took her a few minutes to solder each motor. She then picked up another motor and did the same thing again. She looked different from the previous man. Her job required great focus and concentration, and she was skilled at what she was doing.

Like the first worker, the woman also was doing repetitive work. Unlike the first worker, she seemed to be at peace with her work. It was obvious to me the difference between the two jobs. I even asked the woman, “How do you like your job?” She answered that she was happy with what she was doing. I knew it was true. The man’s job was boring, but the women’s job required great concentration and dexterity.

This was a great lesson for me—to see both people in the factory doing repetitive work. The woman’s job required a high degree of skill and, thus, had meaning and gave dignity to her, while the man’s job was not designed for a human being. This illustrates how giving employees the tools to be self-reliant makes the difference.

Build Great People to Build Great Products

One of the main focal points in Japan today is for workers to become masters in some discipline. Since Japan cannot compete against the low labor rate in China, India, and elsewhere in Asia, Japanese companies must produce high value-added products with highly skilled workers. In a number of companies, you hear the words, “monozukuri” (build great products) and “hitozukuri” (build great people to build those great products).

With the method Takashi Harada developed (called the Harada Method), he created a specific step-by-step process employees and management can follow, eventually leading to not only more self-reliant employees, but higher-quality products and greater overall success for the organization. It’s based on the idea of everyone individually setting a clear goal they want to achieve and then designing and developing what they need to do to reach their goal, with the guidance and help of a mentor. Their mentor could be their boss, but it also could be someone else within the organization or even from outside. It just needs to be someone who will take the time and has the experience to help guide the employee toward reaching his or her goal.

These are not short-term, easy-to-reach goals. The goals people are setting are large, life-changing goals: “I want to become an engineer.” “I want to have the highest sales for the company this year.” “I want to go from being a factory worker to plant supervisor within the next five years.” These goals are not just big dreams, they are backed up by the exact steps needed to reach each and every goal.

When someone has a work or life goal, it’s amazing what happens. They become focused on what they need to do to achieve their goal. It is sad how many people have no idea what they really want to do. I teach a class at Portland State University in Portland, OR. I always ask my students to tell me what they want to do when they finish their degrees (some are graduating that semester). Nine times out of 10, I hear that they want to get a good job and make a lot of money. Most can’t tell me what kind of a job they want, the type of work they would like to be doing, or even the field. They figure they just need to get a job, which hopefully they’ll like.

They might find a job, and they may even like it, but the odds are against them. Without a clear goal and a defined set of steps to reach that goal, most people flounder and end up doing things they don’t enjoy. My students have told me that they can figure out what they want to do at their new job, and the company will teach them what they need to know. I tell them that clear, specific goals and a spirit of self-reliance will get them not just a job but a career they can be passionate about.

Coaching Foundation

When I met Takashi Harada a few years back and learned about his method for developing self-reliance, he told me that his method is based on sports and coaching. That’s not surprising considering he started out as a track and field coach many years ago. If you think about it, developing great athletics is the same as developing great employees. Athletes have specific personal goals they set for themselves; they want to jump the highest, run the fastest, throw the longest. Once they have their goals, they develop the steps they need to take to eventually reach their goals. And they rely on the help and guidance of a strong, supportive coach.

Takashi Harada did come by his method in a very unique way—by trying to help disadvantaged children in an inner city middle school in Osaka, Japan, become better athletes and stay in school. These children came from the worst possible backgrounds, and for many years, Harada struggled to find a way to get the children to care about anything. Over time, he developed his method based on the idea that each person needs to focus on four things.

As Harada explains in his first book in English, “The Harada Method – the Spirit of Self-Reliance” (PCS Press), “From years of trial and error, the truth finally came to me. By harmonizing spirit, skill, physical condition, and daily life (the four aspects), you are enabled to manage your life by yourself. This is what being self-reliant is all about.” Fortunately, Takashi Harada did not just come up with motivational slogans and new exercise routines to turn his students around. He developed specific steps, complete with specially designed forms the students needed to complete, to move them closer and closer to achieving their goals. Eventually, Harada’s school became the best in track and field out of 380 schools, and his students won 13 gold medals. Many also went on to graduate high school and go on to universities and good careers—something they had never thought possible.

No Regrets

Yes, some employees prefer to be told exactly what to do and will balk at the idea of working toward self-reliance, but they will be in the minority. From my experience, most people are thrilled at the chance of taking charge of their life and having the opportunity to improve and grow. As professionals working in the training field, it’s our responsibility to encourage this type of growth and to be mentors and coaches to as many employees as possible.

No one wants to go every day to a job they don’t enjoy or where they feel unappreciated, and they definitely do not want to do work that is repetitive, boring, and easily done by a machine. I’ve dedicated the last 20 years to helping businesses discover the creative talents within each and every employee—because it really is there. By focusing on making employees self-reliant, that talent will flow out. Employees will be more self-motivated, self-directed, better trained, and skilled, and, more importantly, happier—leading to greater overall success for all.

A recently retired CEO traveled with me on one of my study missions to Japan. After touring a plant, he said something powerful that has always stayed with me: “I had a major opportunity to help make my employees’ lives better. I could have invested in building my people’s skills. I used to think, ‘Why should I invest in people when they will one day get up and leave the company?’ I messed up. Their success would have been our success. I am truly sorry now.”

If you can help to give your employees the tools they need to become self-reliant and the opportunity to reach their goals, you will never have to look back and feel the same sense of regret that the CEO felt that day in Japan.

Norman Bodek is president of PCS Press, a consulting, training, and publishing company located in Vancouver, WA. He is also an adjunct professor at Portland State University in Portland, OR. In 1979, Bodek started Productivity Inc. and Productivity Press, which published hundreds of manufacturing books and held conferences, seminars, and plant tours across the country. Bodek—who has been called “Mr. Productivity” by Industry WeekMagazine and in 2010 inducted into its Manufacturing Hall of Fame, “Mr. Lean” by Quality ProgressMagazine, and has been awarded the Shingo Prize—says his most powerful discovery was the way Toyota and other Japanese companies opened the infinite creative potential often lying dormant inside every single worker. During the last 10 years, he has written seven books, the most recent co-authored with Takashi Harada called “The Harada Method: The Spirit of Self-Reliance.”

By Michael Ninness, Senior Vice President, Product and Content, lynda.com

Too often training goes unused. It’s not relevant to the learner or fails to address a specific concern in a moment of need.

Even when training is consumed, learning does not always occur. And because technology and information are rapidly evolving, content used in training quickly becomes outdated.

I’ve seen these failures play out time and again. The implications are huge. Organizations in the United States spent an estimated $1,059 per employee on learning and development in 2011-2012, according to Training magazine’s 2012 Training Industry Report.

To help employees build software, creative, and business skills, it’s time to shift the focus. It’s time to stop training. It’s time to start learning.

An Era of Abundance

At an August 2010 conference, outgoing Google CEO Eric Schmidt shared an amazing statistic. “Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003” (MG Siegler, “Eric Schmidt: Every 2 Days We Create As Much Information As We Did Up To 2003,” TechCrunch, August 4, 2010; http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/schmidt-data/ retrieved 9/6/12).

The rapid rise of information and technology makes it nearly impossible to sustain traditional training models (Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, A New Culture of Learning, 2011, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform). On the contrary, today’s world requires continuous learning (Lynne C. Lancaster, When Generations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work, 2003, HarperBusiness).          

In the past, new technologies emerged every few years. Organizations embraced seminars and classroom sessions. But these are no longer practical due to cost, time, and the fact that they aren’t tailored to the needs and skill level of the individual professional.

These days, technologies emerge more quickly—driven largely by the Internet. But most Websites are designed to be quick reads, promoting hurried thought. And individuals now are creating content as they consume it, updating social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These factors make it tough for people to sustain focus on any given topic or task.    

It’s no longer enough to simply absorb occasional training. And it’s not necessarily advantageous to be intimately familiar with any given topic. With so much information coming our way, it’s often better to skim information so we are aware of its existence, and then use it later when we actually need it (Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic, July/August 2008; http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/ retrieved 9/24/12; and The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, 2010 (W. W. Norton & Company).

Telecommuting is another trend fueling the need for continuous learning. As more employees work remotely, organizations need to deliver efficient and cost-effective professional development to dispersed workers.

Many organizations do not have money for instructor-led education. They need to effectively leverage budgets. They select a training solution, reviewing its course list, pricing, product features, and functionality. But few employers ask whether or how it supports the goal of learning, and the solution goes unused.

Some training professionals call that a marketing problem. They say employees fail to take advantage of training courses because they simply aren’t made aware that they exist. But it’s not a lack of promotion; rather, it’s a lack of relevance that keeps employees from participating.

It’s difficult to entice workers to embrace training if the content is mediocre, uninteresting, irrelevant, or offered at times when they don’t have freedom to focus.

Effective and Engaging Content

To get the most value from educational initiatives, organizations need to focus on the individual learner. Prioritizing a few key concepts can successfully shape a professional development program.

• Content must resonate: When content is compelling, engaging, aspirational, or inspirational, it is more likely to be used. Offer content that truly meets the needs of employees.  
• Technology does not trump amazing teachers: Talented instructors share a few key traits. They are compassionate. They do not patronize. They teach with conviction and convey information so it is easily understood. And they choreograph lessons in ways that support linear and nonlinear learners.
• One size does not fit all: Serve learners who need assistance solving a particular challenge. Offer short courses that quickly provide the information learners require. For example, an employee familiar with Excel may not commit to an entire course but might benefit from a 60-second video clip on how to perform a function that changed with the latest upgrade. Some learners think in a more linear fashion, preferring a more comprehensive program and the ability to return to a particular lesson in a moment of need.
• Production quality matters: Training doesn’t need to “go Hollywood.” But it should captivate learners. Rather than relying on flat text to tell a story, incorporate graphics, animation, audio, and video to make content resonate. Dynamic presentations are more likely to hold interest and create deeper engagement.

Looking ahead, and as you consider new ways to meet the needs of today’s workforce, embracing these strategies can help ensure that training content is not just consumed, but appreciated. Get the most from your investment. Deliver on the goal of learning. And give employees professional development they will love.

Michael Ninness is senior vice president of Product and Content at lynda.com. Members receive unlimited access to an online library of instructional videos that help anyone learn software, creative, and business skills to achieve personal and professional goals.

Edited by Edward T. Reilly

Delegation allows another individual or group to work on a project or task that offers motivation and rewards on its successful completion. It also offers the manager the opportunity to grow and develop individuals who then can be recognized as high-level contributors in the organization. Begin your close look into the practice of delegating with a self-assessment of your comfort level with delegation.

Two-Way Benefits of Delegating

Managers can and should delegate to employees who have the necessary skills and enthusiasm to take on an additional project or task and who see it as an opportunity. Coaching employees to improve their skill and knowledge levels can be accomplished through effective delegation.

Managers who delegate effectively have direct reports who are more capable and enthusiastic because of their delegation experience. They are seen as competent and committed to taking on more projects or tasks, thereby freeing up the manager’s time to work on tasks that cannot be delegated.

Managers who either do not delegate or do so halfheartedly or haphazardly run a high risk of having a demoralized and demotivated workforce who will not improve their skill or knowledge levels. Keep in mind that accomplishing work through others is the manager’s primary job; therefore, delegation is a key performance management tool.

Until you involve others, you probably will struggle with your role as a manager. You will feel like you have more tasks than time to do them. You may feel overwhelmed by the workload and responsibilities. You may even hate coming into work because facing the day is so difficult.

Regardless of the strong personal reasons to share the workload with your competent and committed employees, there are also many business reasons to learn to delegate. Among them:

• More work can be accomplished.
• Direct reports become more involved.
• Remote locations can be more effectively managed.
• Development of direct reports occurs as part of the process.
• It is cost-effective for the company.

In spite of these compelling arguments to delegate, a surprising number of new managers avoid it. They fear that delegating will put the glory of the accomplishment on someone other than them, or worry that they are the only ones who really know how to do the job, so it would be “wrong” to hand it over to another person. Corollary reasons are that they don’t have faith in their employees’ abilities or simply don’t have the patience to describe the task requirements to other people and figure it’s easier to do it themselves. Another common reason is simple lack of experience in delegating. They just do not know how to get started.

5 Steps to Delegation Success

The following steps may help you overcome any resistance you have to delegation because the process itself is foreign.

1. Analyze the task.
2. Select a delegatee.
3. Assign the task.
4. Execute the task.
5. Conduct regularly scheduled feedback sessions.

When to Delegate—and When Not To

Just because you know the process of delegating does not mean you should jump into it. Differentiating between tasks that can and should be delegated and tasks that require personal handling is just as important as knowing how to delegate. Consider the contrasts between examples of work that can effectively be given to others and work that needs to remain on your turf:

Assignments That Probably Can Be Delegated

• Tasks closely related to the work employees already are doing.
• Tasks with clearly defined procedures and end results.
• Repetitive tasks that fit into the normal workflow.
• Tasks that enable employees to develop themselves.

Any one of these examples could turn into a task that probably should not be delegated, however, if the time frame for completion puts extreme pressure on the individual. Some personality types thrive under that kind of pressure. Many others do not. As a manager, you need to pay attention to how your direct reports respond to the tasks you delegate.

Circumstances When Delegation May Be Inappropriate

• Tasks are of a highly sensitive nature (e.g., salary reviews, disciplinary actions).
• Tasks are not clearly defined or some uncertainty about a task exists.
• When tasks involve decision-making, higher-up management expects the manager to handle them.
• Resources are severely limited, whether they are human resources, equipment, or funding.

A task that managers commonly delegate, which may or may not be appropriate to have a surrogate handle, is the “thanks for a job well done.” You always should take the time to express gratitude yourself to the individual or the group of people who performed well. However, when the expression of gratitude comes in the form of a party, for example, delegating is a reasonable option.

Adapted from“AMA Business Boot Camp” edited by Ed Reilly, CEO of the American Management Association (AMA).

Edward T. Reillyis the 17th president and CEO of the American Management Association International (AMA). Prior to joining AMA in 2001, he was president and CEO of Big Flower Holdings, Inc., a provider of integrated marketing and advertising services. He also served as president of The McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Company, among various executive positions during his more than 25 years with The McGraw-Hill Companies.

By Sandra Davis, Ph.D.

Pearl 1: The Leader You Will Be Tomorrow Is Not the Leader You Are Today

Great leaders are on a “leadership journey.” They learn, grow, evolve, develop, and find new ways to lead in an ever-evolving leadership environment. While the oft-heard expression, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” may subtly tempt us to opt out of active learning, we have an enormous capacity to change and develop. Becoming a better leader tomorrow means proactively striving to do so.

Ideas for Action

While it may seem tough to find time to be intentional about learning, we know practice makes perfect for leadership effectiveness, just as it does for anything worth doing well. Every day we have the chance to learn, if we just take it. Look at the events, interactions, conversations, and meetings you will encounter in the next week. How can you tackle them in a new way, rather than just relying on what may have worked (or not) in the past?

Consider creating a meaningful and compelling leadership development plan, focused on one or two areas for growth. Base one of the areas on a strength and find new ways to use it; make the second area something outside of your “comfort zone” that will help you stretch and grow. Write down and share your goals to increase your likelihood of success. One leader we know consistently writes down what she has leaned and how she will apply it in the future.  

You can advance your leadership journey by making your learning intentional and opportunistic. Here’s to the leader you will be tomorrow!

Pearl 20: Practice Makes Perfect

Are great leaders born or made? While we know that some aspects of personality, drive, and intellectual ability are hardwired and a prerequisite to great leadership, in reality no one becomes a great leader without experience and practice. Just as athletic or artistic talent comes alive with practice, so, too, does leadership. I have seen many executives advance their careers by making significant changes in their leadership approaches. Conversely, I’ve watched other executives grow stagnant by relying solely on what’s worked in the past. But given the increasing complexity of our business world, every leader needs to embrace ongoing development and practice.

Ideas for Action

Leadership practice begins with intentionality and a commitment to improve on a regular basis. I recall hearing from Steve Uzzell, a former National Geographic photographer, how capturing the ultimate nature image requires preparation, research, and opportunity. He quoted Louis Pasteur: “Chance favors the prepared mind.” Like many things in life, unless you prepare, you won’t know what to do when opportunity knocks.

As reported in the European Journal of Social Psychology, researchers at University College London found that it took, on average, 66 days of daily practice before a desired behavior became automatic. While they found that skipping single days wasn’t detrimental in the long run, early repetitions delivered the greatest boost in automaticity, before it eventually leveled off and became a habit.

To improve your odds of enhancing your leadership abilities through practice, create a personalized development plan. Divide it into sections: individual goals (self-improvement), team goals (relationship improvement), and organizational goals (organizational impact). Then, determine what you’ll practice to achieve your goals. For instance: “I will be more open to new ideas and ask for more details before making a decision,” or “I will contribute a new idea at each division meeting.” You get the idea.

Solicit ideas for practice from your manager, peers, and direct reports. They will have ideas you may not have thought of and simply asking engages them in your ongoing development. As you progress, routinely ask the same people for feedback to ensure you’re on the right track in what you are practicing. The surest way to repeat bad habits is to assume you don’t need any help learning new habits.

Pearl 30: The Rewards of Reflection

If I were to say to you, “Tell me about a time when you learned the most about leadership,” you likely would relate an experience. It might be a “first” or a “best” or a “worst,” but you would have a story to tell.

Your stories and your experiences create your own pearls of leadership wisdom. Yet these pearls remain hidden until you think about them. “We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience,” said the late psychologist John Dewey. A few moments of reflection or meditation every day can give you the insights to grow and change.

Ideas for Action

Even if you’re not the reflective type, you can quickly learn. I was recently on an executive coaching panel at a professional conference with David Peterson of Google. Peterson, who has written extensively about coaching, extolled the power of reflection and suggested four basic tasks of reflection:

1. To look inward (what am I trying to accomplish?)
2. To look outward (what matters to others?)
3. To look back (what new things have I tried?)
4. To look ahead (what will I do differently?).

That’s it.

There’s sound science behind the practice. Physiologically, according to brain researcher James D. Zull, deep learning arises naturally from the structure of the brain itself. He points out that reflection engages the brain to search for connections—literally—to achieve comprehension. “Even if we experience something, it is hard to make meaning of it unless it engages our emotions,” Zull says. Reflection is particularly important when trying a new skill or having a new experience.

Afterward, whether you simply think about the experience or write it down, you begin practicing the type of introspection that’s characteristic of some of the world’s greatest thinkers—and its greatest leaders! Above all, reflection gives credence to the most important voice in your daily affairs: your own. As the late Steve Jobs counseled graduates in his famous 2005 Stanford University commencement address, “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” Take some time today to reflect, to hear your inner voice, and to learn.

Excerpt from “Pearls of Leadership Wisdom: Lessons from Everyday Leaders” by Sandra Davis, Ph.D. (MDA Leadership Consulting, 2012). For more information, visit www.mdaleadership.com/what-we-think/Pearls-of-Leadership-Wisdom/

Sandra Davis, Ph.D., is CEO of MDA Leadership Consulting in Minneapolis, a leadership development, talent assessment, and organizational performance firm she co-founded in 1981. Davis specializes in senior executive talent evaluation, CEO selection, and succession planning and is widely known an executive coach and thought leader in the industry, counting numerous Fortune 500 firms among her clients. She is the author of “Reinventing Yourself: Life Planning After 50” and “Pearls of Leadership Wisdom: Lessons from Everyday Leaders.” She was elected a fellow of both the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Association.

By David McNally, CEO, TransForm Corporation

As an Aussie, I am still basking in the glow of the first Australian to win The Masters, the golf tournament regarded by many professionals as the pinnacle of achievement. His name is Adam Scott. One would have to understand the history of sport in Australia to grasp the significance of this to the nation. Aussies love their sport no matter what form it takes. Even the Prime Minister stopped what she was doing to send a message of congratulations.

As is now our custom, my grandson and I were glued to the TV. Now 16 and on the golf team at his high school, he is a lover of the game. Being half Australian and half American, he had several favorites from both countries for whom he was rooting (Australians say “barracking”). However, nationhood aside, this particular event provided lessons so critical to keeping the concept of winning and competition in perspective.

There was a special moment that provided an extraordinary example of sportsmanship. It happened on the second—and what would be the last—hole of the playoff. Both players, Scott and Argentinean Angell Cabrera, had hit perfect drives, leaving them clear shots to the green. Cabrera went first and landed the ball perfectly, giving him a chance for a birdie. Scott matched him and, in fact, was fractionally closer to the hole.

Then magic happened. A moment when one says: “This is what it needs to be about.” Cabrera witnessing Scott’s own wonderful shot turned around and gave Scott a thumbs-up. Scott seeing that generous gesture replied in kind. Millions of people around the world witnessed two competitors acknowledging that each was bringing out the very best in the other.

Loving your competitor is not a concept to which organizations give much thought. However, the U.S. automobile industry is not producing the safest, creative, and most reliable cars in its history because of its own motivations. It is because of the competition from Japan, Korea, Europe, and other nations. Steve Jobs was spurred on by the genius of Bill Gates. General Mills has Kellogg’s. McDonald’s has Burger King, Wendy’s, Subway, and many other fast-food franchises. And, of course, LeBron has Kobe!

Many business experts use “war” as a metaphor for the strategies needed to compete in a global economy. The evidence is clear that the world is tired of war, and continuing that symbolism no longer serves what the vast majority of people want to create: global peace and prosperity.

When the purpose of competition is understood—to bring out the best, to produce excellence, to create better products and services—it brings to light a distinction worthy of our deepest reflection: the desire to win versus the desire to destroy. We begin to understand that without our competitors we would have no incentive to raise our standards and reach our potential.

Everyone wants to win, but reality says someone has to be second. Don’t believe the myth that second place doesn’t matter. Both Adam Scott and Angell Cabrera have won many golf tournaments, but they also have come in second many times. Each experience, however, was a building block for their fortitude, character, and resilience.

And we sports lovers are the beneficiaries. For on that rainy, spring Sunday afternoon, we witnessed an extraordinary spectacle: two tough competitors inspiring each other to a standard of excellence that was breathtaking.

Now that is how the Game of Life should be played.

David McNally is the CEO of TransForm Corporation; a member of the Speakers Hall of Fame; and author of the bestselling books, “Even Eagles Need a Push—Learning to Soar in a Changing World” and “The Eagle’s Secret—Success Strategies for Thriving at Work and in Life.”