What We Heard From Our Clients This Week

Frequently LWF gets requests to do Executive Assessments after clients’ internal selection processes have taken place.  The requests often come from clients who have executives who are concerned about why they didn’t get a highly coveted promotion!  Recently we had such a request.  During the assessment and subsequent feedback session we shared a story involving Olympic figure skater Peggy Fleming, and a competition that took place almost 50 fifty years ago during the Cold War.  In the competition, Peggy skated brilliantly!  But as her scores were being posted it became obvious that the politics of the time were resulting in shocking results --- she received high scores from the United States and other Western powers, and low scores from Eastern-block countries.  After a vociferous diatribe from a leading commentator of the time, a microphone was thrust into the famous skater’s face.  She was asked, “Peggy, what do think about these outrageous scores?”  Peggy, in her profound wisdom said, “Dick, the point is not being good enough to win.  The point is being good enough that they have to give it to you!” 

In the recent executive feedback session we similarly shared, “Mr. Executive, you ARE good enough that you could have won the position, and probably even succeeded.  But you aren’t good enough (yet), that the company had to give it to you.”  We went on to have a powerful and constructive coaching meeting where we identified what had to change for him to be a far more compelling candidate the next time around.  In reflecting on our interaction, I was reminded of another client, and a plaque displayed prominently above his desk.  It simply said, “Good enough…never is!”  Peggy Fleming’s words (shared in a competition where she won the coveted Gold Medal despite biased scoring) have burned brightly in my psyche for virtually my whole life.  You see, I’d like “good enough” to be “good enough.”  But in reality, I know it seldom is.  I have found that believing and living by that myth is at the root of many disappointments, and even resentments, in business, leadership, and life!