Thirty years ago, Tom Peters published an incredibly influential business book, In Search of Excellence.

In it, he defined eight characteristics of excellent companies: a bias for action, staying close to the customer, autonomy and entrepreneurship, productivity through people, clear and compelling organizational values, focusing on what you do best, operating with a lean staff, and finding a balance between having enough structure without getting stuck in it.

These principles remain good guides to this day. However, the business world has changed almost beyond recognition over the last 30 years, and the time has come to redefine what excellence means. In today’s world, excellence is more than a set of principles. It’s a set of beliefs, ways of thinking, a matter of discipline, and ways of focusing.

Excellence starts with getting very clear on the end state you wish to achieve (winning) and relentlessly driving towards it every day. Excellence requires knowing when to push on (even when you don’t have all the information or the perfect solution), but doing it well and constantly refining as you forge ahead. Excellence means accepting only the best, and understanding that when it is not given that you, as the leader, are at least partly responsible.

Excellence reveals itself in the language you use, the questions you ask, the people you surround yourself with, and how you interact with others. For example, do you show up on time for meetings? Are you present in the moment? Do you listen actively to employees and direct reports? Are you aware of the biases and thought bubbles you bring to the table? Do you take steps to minimize their impact on your decision-making, or at least explore others as well?

In today’s hyper-fast world, excellence requires building flexible, nimble organizations that can quickly adapt to rapidly changing markets without losing sight of their vision of winning. Creating this type of organization starts with three critical elements.

Clarity
First and foremost, you have to know where you’re going and why. When faced with adversity (or opportunity), having a crystal-clear definition of winning keeps the company from going off in too many directions. It enables clear and consistent decision-making, not only in terms of what you will do as an organization, but also what you will not do.

When things change very quickly, as they do in today’s chaotic markets, it can be easy to fall into a reactive mode. A new technology enters the market… how do we respond? A competitor introduces a new product that easily tops ours…how do we respond? An innovation from a completely different industry suddenly disrupts our business model….how do we respond? Having a clear definition of winning serves as your north star from which to navigate these critical strategic decisions.

Focus
Getting clear on winning represents the starting point for excellence. Keeping your people focused on winning is the engine that will get you there. As the leader, you live and breathe the vision, mission, and strategy every day (or at least you should!). But for the people in the trenches, it’s all too easy to lose sight of the big picture. Excellence requires making winning a daily objective for your people as well.

How? By constantly communicating your company’s definition of winning in as many ways as possible, and with as much specificity as possible. Start every meeting with a quick reminder of the goals. Post visual cues and “brain prompts” throughout the company. Clarify how individual jobs and teams contribute to everyone winning. Reward individual and team behavior that moves the company closer to winning. The more you keep people relentlessly focused on winning, the better your chances of achieving it.

Connection
People won’t buy into your vision of winning unless they feel connected to the organization. Connection starts with having a powerful vision people can believe in and feel good about. Keeping it going requires a variety of leadership behaviors that often get overlooked in the rush to get the product out the door.

To help people feel connected, give honest, candid feedback on a regular basis. Set clear performance expectations for each job, and hold people accountable for performing at the required level. Solicit ideas and input from people at all levels of the organization, and listen. When adversity rears its head, let people know why and how your company will still win.

Most of all, make sure your actions align with what you are saying. In an environment where employees have rightfully grown to distrust leadership, personal integrity is an essential precursor to excellence.

Clarity, focus, and connection are the hallmarks of corporate excellence in the 21st century. What will you do today to create them in your organization?

FastCompany recently released its list of the world’s 50 most innovative companies.

Many of the names on the list come as no surprise, especially the top three (Apple, Facebook, and Google). But what caught my attention was the diversity of companies and industries represented.

Technology and Internet companies dominate the list (again, no surprise). But what did surprise me was the number of industries making the list that you might not expect to see, such as higher education, healthcare, and fast food chains. As this list indicates, with the right attitude and approach, innovation can happen in almost any sector of the business world.

Even UPS, with its conservative brown uniforms and laser like focus on efficiency of movement, made the list! How could a company whose business model consists of schlepping packages from one place to another be considered a leading innovator? It all depends on how you define innovation.

Too many companies see innovation as merely coming up with new products or services. Certainly, that’s part of it. But at its core, innovation is all about thinking differently than you have in the past. It’s about finding new ways to improve internal systems and processes. It’s about coming up with better, faster, and cheaper solutions to your customers’ most pressing problems.

As with any list of this nature, people can disagree about who belongs on it and why. But clearly, each of the companies on the FastCompany list made a significant break with the way things are always done in their industry. In doing so, they have positioned themselves as market leaders and redefined the value that people receive from their product or service.

Let’s look at why FastCompany recognized some of these companies as the best innovators, starting with the top three:

• Apple: For redefining what cell phones can and can’t do, and how people will interact with their phones (through Siri technology). And for constantly introducing new products/technologies that force others to play catch-up.
• Facebook: For continually finding new ways for people to share information with each other.
• Google: For making the transition from a single product into a diversified web power.

To see how innovation can happen in many different ways, consider some of the names you might not expect to find on the list:

• NFL: For the willingness of team owners to push the boundaries of the industry by establishing a venture fund that will allow them to invest in businesses that can “further incite fan passion.”
• Southern New Hampshire University: For using technology to transform a traditional bricks-and-mortar university into what may soon become the country’s largest online not-for-profit education system.
• UPS: For solving it customers’ biggest annoyance (missed deliveries) with the launch of MyChoice, a free service that gives consumers a day’s notice regarding the impending arrival of their package.
• Chipotle: For going against the industry norm by using fresh, sustainable foods (rather than processed ingredients), and for telling consumers the truth about what goes into their meals.
• Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital: For bringing low-cost, high-quality health care to more than a billion impoverished people in Southern India through a relentless focus on cutting costs and improving efficiencies.
• James Corner Field Operations: For redefining the boundaries of landscape architecture to create “intimate green spaces out of industrial urban blight.”
• LegalZoom: For disrupting the legal industry through low-cost online products and services, including new online consulting services.

Many companies on the list have vast resources to fuel their innovation efforts. But innovation doesn’t necessarily require deep pockets or huge R&D departments. What it does require is thinking differently.

From time to time, pause for a moment to ask questions like:

• In our business/industry, what have we “always done this way”?
• What have we gotten so comfortable with that we stopped looking for new and different ways to approach it?
• Why do we always do it that way?
• How can we do it faster, better, or cheaper?
• What unsolved problems or unmet needs do our customers have?
• Who in our industry is doing anything about those problems?
• How could we solve them in a way nobody has ever done before?

Answer these questions in a meaningful way and you might just find your company on someone’s top innovator’s list.

Success in business is a wonderful thing. But it’s also a double-edged sword.

As companies experience success, their emphasis tends to shift to protecting and maintaining the status quo versus considering new opportunities and products. Unfortunately, clinging to what has worked in the past puts the brakes on innovation. It also puts you out of touch with your customers’ changing needs — a dangerous circumstance in today’s highly volatile markets.

If you’re trying to innovate but not having success, see if any of these apply to your organization.

1. Stuck thinking. This occurs when individuals and teams get so locked into old ideas, attitudes, and assumptions that they don’t take the time to update them. If you haven’t asked yourself within the last three to six months, “What has changed about our customers, our markets, and our industry?” you’ve just taken your first step toward anti-innovation.

2. We’ve always done it that way. When the organizational focus shifts to protecting the status quo, people stop looking for new processes or solutions. When problems arise, people tend to default to the solution that looks most like what has worked in the past rather than exploring new ideas or different ways of doing things.

3. Playing not to lose. As leaders spend more time protecting current assets rather than defining and executing edge-centric strategy, the organizational mindset changes from “play to win” to “play not to lose.” This subtle shift in attitude has a profound impact on how decisions get made and how people behave at all levels of the organization.

4. Customer disconnect. Who has time to talk to customers anymore? We’re running as fast as we can just to get the product out the door! Besides, we know what our customers need and we know the best way to give it to them, right? You won’t hear this attitude spoken out loud. But if you look closely, you can see it driving behavior on a daily basis. If you’re not talking with customers, it also means you’re not listening. And if you’re not listening, it’s just a matter of time before you’re no longer relevant to their world.

5. The lone ranger approach. In many companies, one team or small department gets tasked with innovation. That’s like asking a single NASA engineer to develop a new rocket ship to take us to Mars. Innovation requires a combination of skills and talents from all areas of the organization. It does not flourish in isolated silos or hidden corners of the organization.

6. Failure not an option. Most organizations don’t tolerate failure very well to begin with. And once the mindset shifts to protecting the golden goose, failure becomes anathema to the organization. But failure goes hand-in-hand with innovation. If you’re not failing to some degree, you’re not trying or pushing hard enough.

7. Follow the leader mentality. Too often, attempts to innovate occur as a response to a new entry into the market or an existing competitor’s innovation. However, true innovation leads the way rather than attempting to catch up. Don’t ignore what your competitors do in the marketplace. But don’t let it drive your innovation efforts either. Figure out where your customers will need you to be in six months to a year and get there first.

8. Weak hires. Companies looking to protect their success often make a subtle shift in hiring. Rather than new ideas and new energy, people get hired for their ability to “come in and hit the ground running.” Which is another way of saying they won’t rock the boat. As the overall talent level begins to decline, so do new ideas, new thinking, and successful innovation.

9. Lack of know-how. Employees need to have the appropriate skills and abilities to discover, evaluate, and execute on the best ideas. If you don’t invest the time and money to constantly develop those skills, don’t expect people to innovate on a consistent basis.

10. Unrealistic expectations. As success begins to slip away, management often begins looking for that one “killer” product or idea that will save the company or at least prolong the life of the cash cow. This tendency to put all the resources into one make-or-break innovation effort usually ends in disaster and disappointment.

Remember, innovation should always link directly to your strategy. And it works when it becomes a way of life rather than a one-time event. Stop clinging to past successes, update your thinking constantly, and you will find it much easier to innovate and thrive in today’s hyper-paced world.

Have you ever watched the TV show Undercover Boss?

The “plot” is fairly simple. Each week, the CEO or owner of a business goes undercover as an entry-level employee in their own company. They typically work in different jobs and different areas of the company. And at the end of the week they reveal their true identity to the employees, who are (of course) shocked and amazed to learn they’ve been toiling alongside the head honcho without knowing it.

In the episode I watched, much of the drama appeared to be contrived for the sake of creating tension. And I found it hard to believe that none of the employees could figure out that something was up. But one part that struck me as genuine was the owner’s reaction to the challenges his front-line employees faced every day. He seemed honestly surprised to learn what they went through on a daily basis and what it took to get their jobs done.

And that leads me to the point of this week’s blog — that most CEOs, owners, and C-level business leaders tend to view their organizations through rose-colored glasses. Meaning they often have unrealistic ideas of what goes on in their organization and how others view the company.

This unrealistic view occurs for two reasons. One, business leaders tend to be optimistic by nature. They’re problem solvers and go-getters who like to make things happen. So they instinctively pay more attention to what’s going right in the business than what’s going wrong. They tend to focus on what is possible and the future more than the past.

Two, CEOs generally surround themselves with a small group of people (the management team) who depend on the boss for their jobs. These people often tell the CEO what they think she wants to hear rather than what she needs to hear (the unvarnished truth). This often results in a leader with no real understanding of what goes on in the business on a daily basis.

Having an overly optimistic view of the business is a natural and valid bias/thought bubble for C-level executives. However, it doesn’t serve the organization well. The trick is to find ways of behaving that allow you to constantly refresh that bubble and get more in touch with the day-to-day realities of your organization.

Start by getting out of your office and spending more time with customers and employees. They will tell you what is really happening in your company. If you find it easier to connect with customers (as many CEOs do), make a point to get out of your comfort zone and engage with employees as much as possible.

One of my fellow Vistage International speakers, Kraig Kramers, recommends a great technique for finding out what’s really going on in your organization. A former CEO of eight different companies, he calls his technique W4C, or walk the four corners.

Every day, spend 20 minutes walking around your business doing nothing but talking to people and asking three specific questions: How can we improve the company? How do we fix the problems? What opportunities can we take advantage of? The key, says Kramers, is to ask them how rather than telling them how.

Next (and you’ll get plenty of time to practice this skill if you walk the four corners) is to listen actively. Go into each department or team, ask people what’s on their minds, and then listen. Suppress your natural instinct to argue, defend or explain. Just listen, and then thank people for their input.

If you find it absolutely necessary to speak, ask clarifying questions rather making than definitive statements. For example, “That’s interesting, what leads you to that conclusion? What would you recommend as a possible solution? What would you do if you were one of our customers?”

Finally, broaden your inputs and sources of data, both internally and externally. A good internal technique is the “cold-eye review,” whereby non-experts research various aspects of the business and report back to you. For example, have someone from accounting take a look at marketing and give their perspective on that area of the business.

Externally, if you don’t have some sort of system for regularly staying in touch with customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders, get one now! Focus groups, intranets, monthly lunches, etc., etc. The options are limited only by your imagination.

To lead effectively, leaders need to see things as they really are. So take off your rose-colored glasses every now and then and, like the undercover boss, you’ll be amazed at what you see!

I was driving on the highway the other day and saw a billboard that really caught my eye.

The advertisement was promoting Mandalay Bay, an upscale resort in Las Vegas. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it said something like “At Mandalay Bay you’re not a tourist, you’re a resortist.” I immediately thought, “What a cool word — resortist.” And what a clever way to position their product offering.

When I hear the word “tourist” it conjures up images of crowded bus rides, two-star hotels, and cheap food eaten on the run. I see families with bored, whining kids rushing from one place to another in a frenzy to take in as many of the sights as possible. I see people trying hard to blend in with the locals while standing out like sore thumbs. And I see people looked down upon by the local inhabitants, and generally unwanted except for the money in their wallets.

But the word resortist suggests something entirely different! When I think resortist, I think class, elegance, and style. I see beautiful people lounging by the pool, playing golf, or leisurely indulging whatever strikes their fancy. Resortists enjoy fine wines, glamorous meals, and superbly appointed hotel rooms. They get welcomed with open arms and treated with expert care rather than contempt. Tourists get tolerated, resortists get pampered.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit here. But the point is that language matters. When one small word can change the way we think about a product or service, it behooves us to pay close attention to the language we use.

Language also matters in our organizations, especially in the way we treat our employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

For example, do you have employees or associates? Do you have personnel or team members? Do you have customers or clients? Do you have suppliers or trusted partners? Do you have satisfied customers or advocates in the marketplace? Do you say “my” team instead of “our” team? Again, small differences in word choice can make big differences in the attitudes and perceptions of people internal and external to your business.

Think about other common phrases heard in organizations. For example, “We need to cascade this down the organization.” Down the organization? Really? What kind of message does that send? Why not use more inclusive and empowering language, like “We want to engage everyone around this issue…”?

Both approaches basically say the same thing. But if you’re one of the people being cascaded down upon, which one would make you feel more respected, included, and empowered?

Here’s the real challenge for business leaders: you can’t just use the right language. You also have to live it. Your actions have to match the words. Otherwise, it creates a huge disconnect that destroys your credibility.

The classic example is companies that proudly proclaim, “Our people are our most important asset!”, and then treat them like so many disposable parts. Most don’t do it intentionally. They’re just running so fast that they don’t pause to look at the language they use or the disconnect between that language and their behaviors.

Language can even affect the quality of your meetings. Too often, most of what you hear in meetings consists of blaming the economy, complaining about the budget, and a litany of excuses for why things aren’t getting done.

Instead of lamenting about all the obstacles in the way, try asking, “When we are insanely successful with this project, what are we doing? What data are we using to make decisions? How are we working together as a team? What information, tools, and resources are we using to achieve the desired results?”

This shift in language prompts the brain to focus on solutions rather than obstacles. It helps you figure out the “how” of getting there rather than tripping over what’s getting in the way.

Most companies do this, but only once a year. During the strategic planning process we set goals and outline what it will take to win. But then we lose that positive energy because we don’t talk about it relentlessly and obsessively throughout the year.

So pay attention to the language you use and the impact it has on your people and your organization as a whole. After all, which would you rather be — a tourist or a resortist?

What does it mean to be bold?

The dictionary defines it as “showing an ability to take risks; confident and courageous.” But I like the thesaurus description much better: daring, intrepid, brave, valiant, valorous, fearless, dauntless, audacious, adventurous, heroic, plucky, spirited, confident, assured, swashbuckling…

I love the word “swashbuckling,” as it evokes images of pirates and sleek clipper ships running fast with the wind. Just imagine if we dressed up as pirates when describing our vision of winning to employees and stakeholders! Think it might change how they hear the message?

Bold can also be a word to describe your actions, your drive, your efforts, and your organization. But only if you’ve created habits and behaviors that constantly progress you and your team towards your vision of winning and excellence.

People are attracted to bold. Employees want to believe in something big. They want to pursue goals that push the limits, and they yearn to achieve something that has never been done before. They want to take bold steps to achieve their dreams and have a significant impact on their customers and the world.

The opposite approach is to be timid. And who wants to be known as bashful, fearful, apprehensive, timorous, trepid, intimidated, mousy, cowardly, faint-hearted, pusillanimous, or wimpy – especially by their customers?

Timid takes the safe course of action when the riskier one would yield much bigger rewards. Timid operates with a fear of failure mindset rather than a ”we play to win!” attitude. Timid settles for the field goal rather than going for the touchdown when it’s fourth and goal on the one-yard line. Timid may protect you from the pain of failure, but it won’t put you in a position of market leadership.

How do you get bold?

Pause and get clear on winning. But make sure it’s a big win. In football, teams want to win their divisions. But what they (and their fans) really want is to win the Super Bowl. Define what the Super Bowl looks like for your business or industry and then go out and win it!

Push the envelope. Bold doesn’t involve doing the same things over and over again. Remember the old Star Trek theme: to boldly go where no man has gone before. Fire up your Starship Enterprise and lead your company, your market, or your entire industry to a place it’s never been before. Keep in mind that what made you successful today will not necessarily make you successful tomorrow.

Project a bold image. For example, Starbucks currently has its baristas wearing red stickers about Bold. Of course, it refers to a new coffee they’re promoting. But no matter the context, the word “bold” reaches out and grabs your attention.

Think about some of the memorable tag lines or slogans that project bold. Nike’s ageless “Just do it!” Gatorade’s new slogan, “Win from within.” Apple’s “Think different.” Fed-X’s “When it positively, absolutely has to be there overnight.” Or even the Olympic phrase, “Go for the gold!” These exude bold. They draw a line in the sand and dare you to cross it. They make you want to get off the couch and achieve something big.

Act decisively. One disadvantage of today’s thoroughly wired world is that we can easily get paralyzed by information overload. The tendency to wait until we have gathered all the data before moving forward with a new project or product offering can be hard to overcome. Except that we will never have all the data.

Instead, we need to gather what we can from diverse sources and make sure we have considered as many different perspectives as possible. Then move forward boldly and aggressively, knowing that our plans will change along the way.

Most of all, position yourself as a winner by your thoughts, words, actions, and deeds. People want to align with a winner. And in today’s markets, it takes boldness to win.

If you’re not bold, what are you waiting for? Things to slow down? Fewer emails to distract you from winning? The light at the end of the tunnel (which is really a train coming at you full speed)?

The time to be bold is now! Being timid is not a goal or desired state, it is a default when we don’t pause and get it right, make it big, and stay focused on achieving something!

Here’s some interesting news.

According to the Department of Labor, unemployment fell for a fourth month in a row. The current rate of 8.5% represents its lowest point at any time in the past three years.

Leading indicators also show that the economy continues to grow. Granted, it isn’t creating jobs as quickly as we would like. But economists expect that to improve during the second half of 2012. Also, employers are laying off fewer workers than they have in the past few years – another sign that bodes well for employees.

But here’s a fact that really caught my eye: the number of Americans quitting their jobs has begun to increase for the first time since well before the recession.

Generally speaking, people don’t voluntarily leave their jobs unless they already have another one lined up. Or, they have confidence that they can find a new job in a reasonable period of time. Combine an improving economy with this leading indicator and the employment pendulum appears to be swinging back to the employee side.

What does this mean to business leaders?

At the present moment, the majority of American workers are not happy campers! They’ve been let go, laid off, and cast aside. They feel mistreated, over-worked, and underappreciated. And they see banks and some large corporations raking in record profits while wages stagnate or decline.

Those who do have jobs have been stretched painfully thin to make up for understaffed organizations. They’re constantly being asked to do more with less. And they’ve all been running too fast for too long to feel much (if any) loyalty to the companies they work for.

Today’s workers appreciate having a job, but they don’t necessarily appreciate their employers. And with more employment options becoming available, don’t be surprised if your employees start migrating to other employers who will show them a bit more TLC.

One thing I have learned as a leader and manager is that inspired and employees rarely leave their jobs. If you want to avoid a mass exodus (or even the loss of a few key players) as more jobs become available, make inspiring and engaging your employees a top priority.

To inspire people:

Get clear on winning.

I realize I’m beginning to sound like a broken record on this one. But if there’s one record that deserves to be broken, this is it. No matter what your business or industry, people want to work for a winner! In order to win, they have to know what winning looks like for your organization. So get clear on winning, and then get going on communicating your vision of winning. And not just how you will win, but why.

Share your passion.

People understand why winning is important to the organization. They also want to know what it means to you. Talk frequently about why you feel so passionate about where the organization is going and how it will benefit customers, employees, and other key stakeholders when you get there.

Connect the dots.

Even when employees understand your vision of winning, they often have a hard time seeing their roles in it. Let people know — specifically — how their jobs contribute to winning and why it’s so important for them to perform at a high level. Also let them know how they will win on a personal level when the organization wins as a whole.

To engage your employees:

Give frequent feedback.

When employees don’t know where they stand performance-wise, they think you don’t care about it. When they think you don’t care, their interest in winning wanes. That’s when they start looking for people and/or companies that do care.

Listen up!

Actively solicit ideas and opinions from your employees and then pay close attention. Nothing makes people feel more engaged than having leaders and managers who take the time to hear what they have to say.

Pat their backs.

I have yet to run across a quicker, easier, and more effective way to engage employees than simple recognition for a job well done. A “thank you” here. A “nice job” there. The occasional small reward, such as a handwritten thank you, Starbucks card, dinner coupon, or gift certificate can go a long way. The return you receive from these small but sincere gestures will far exceed the investment of time and/or money.

Recognition, both public and private, feeds that very deep human need to be acknowledged and appreciated for our contributions. Feed it often and individuals in your organization will be far less inclined to seek out greener pastures.

Don’t wait until you have a turnover problem. Get ahead of the curve and begin re-recruiting your best team members through some of the simple behaviors and sincere appreciation noted above!

As business leaders, everything we do should focus on setting our organizations up to win. But we can’t do it all ourselves. Which means we also need to get our employees obsessive and relentless about winning – a task much easier said than done.

If you’re struggling to build a winning attitude in your organization, I have some encouraging news. Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society.

Not some of the time, but always. Which has huge implications for business leaders trying to shape attitudes and opinions in their organizations.

According to the scientists, when the percentage of a population committed to a certain idea or opinion is less than 10 percent, that idea or opinion will spread very slowly, if at all. However, once that percentage climbs above 10 percent, the idea will spread like wildfire. As long as proponents of the idea hold firm to their belief, once they begin to talk about it, opinions about that belief will begin to gradually change and then at some point suddenly shift.

As an example, the scientists point to last year’s tumultuous events in Tunisia and Egypt, where dictators who held complete power for decades were toppled in just a few weeks.

Clearly, the uprisings benefited from the use of social networking tools, which made it easier to connect with others in the population. But the scientists assert that the type of network does not influence the 10 percent tipping point. As long as the percentage of committed opinion holders remains at 10 percent or higher, it will eventually become the majority opinion, regardless of how or where it got started or spread throughout the society.

For business leaders, this means we can leverage our efforts to build a winning culture by engaging informal thought leaders throughout the organization. And once we get that critical 10% to care as passionately about winning as we do, the majority of employees will soon adopt the same point of view.

How do you engage those thought leaders?

Start by sharing your compelling vision of what winning looks like for your organization. Not just how the company will win financially, but how it will improve the lives of customers, employees, and all key stakeholders. Talk about how you positively impact others and the world.

In meetings and in one-to-ones with direct reports, share why you feel so passionate about winning. What is it about where the company is going that gets you fired up to come into work every day? Ask employees what your vision of winning means to them. How does it motivate them to produce the results your organization needs? How does it impact the way they feel about how they earn a living?

To give people reasons to feel good about what the company does, share positive customer feedback. Relate stories of how your product or service solves problems for your customers or improves their lives.

Celebrate the achievement of milestones, both big and small. Nothing reinforces the positive aspects of winning like recognizing the progress and success people make along the way to the company’s goals.

During meetings, place visual cues around the room to remind people of the importance of winning. Eliminate language that supports outdated ideas and old ways of thinking (i.e., “good idea, but it will never work; we already tried that; the customer would never go for that”…).

Ask future, active, past tense questions to help people understand what winning looks like. For example, when we have won:

• What will we have achieved from a financial and market-share perspective?
• How will customers perceive our brand?
• How will our competitors view us?
• What will our workplace culture (attitudes, beliefs, values and operating principles) be like?
• What will be our greatest competitive advantage?
• What will we be doing to continually innovate to stay ahead of the game?
• How will working in this organization be even better than it is today?

Future, past tense questions open the brain to figuring out how to get it done versus what is getting in the way. When these questions focus on winning, it gets people thinking about playing to win rather than playing not to lose. It opens the brain to explore possibilities and alternative ways of achieving that we don’t even know we can ponder.

Ten percent is all it takes. If we can’t get one of out ten people to believe as passionately about winning as we do, then we either have a lousy vision of winning or else we’re in the wrong business!

Did you catch the New Orleans Saints/Detroit Lions game last Saturday?

What an exciting game between two high-powered offenses! And once again, the sports world offered a powerful lesson for business leaders. Specifically, I’m referring to Saints coach Sean Payton and how he approaches the game of football. Now there’s a coach who plays to win!

If you follow pro football, you know it’s nothing new for Payton. In the Super Bowl a few years ago, he shocked the Colts (and just about everyone else) by doing an onside kick-off to start the second half.

Conventional wisdom says that you just don’t do that in the Super Bowl. Especially against an explosive offense like the Colts had at the time. Give them the ball at midfield and they’ll score in no time at all. But Payton plays to win (as opposed to playing not to lose), and his calculated risk served as the turning point in a hotly contested game.

In Saturday’s game against the Lions, Payton again demonstrated this philosophy going for it on fourth down. Not once, but several times. Conventional football wisdom says to punt and play it safe when your team has the lead. But Payton knew that holding onto the ball gave his team the best chance to win. So he took a few calculated risks, and they paid off.

Of course, it helps to have a quarterback like Drew Brees and plenty of offensive weapons, as the Saints do. But Payton’s “play to win” attitude clearly rubs off on his players. No matter the opponent or the situation, they don’t just believe they can win, they expect to win.

Why is playing to win so important?

People want to be on the winning side, and playing not to lose sends a subtle message that changes their thinking and their behavior. People become a little less focused on the small things that lead to winning. When faced with adversity, they get discouraged and disheartened a little more easily. And when major setbacks occur, they have doubts about whether the company can still win. When you play not to lose, you’re playing for second best (or worse).

What does playing to win look like in the business world?

Dare to take risks.

This doesn’t mean to call a fake punt on 4th down at your own 10-yard line. Risks should be calculated, not foolhardy. Look for opportunities that offer huge upsides with minimal downside if they don’t pan out. Or outline the risks and mitigate or minimize them beforehand.

Get comfortable with failure.

When you take risks, you will fail much of the time. They key is to make it safe for people to fail, and to learn from your mistakes. Even Tom Brady throws an interception every now and then, for gosh sakes. His coach puts him back out there every time. If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough and you are probably falling behind.

Shake up the status quo.

This is hard for most business leaders to get comfortable with. In the U.S., we tend to have a real short-term mentality, especially in large public companies. We’re so worried about the quarterly numbers that we play not to lose rather than to win. When we innovate, we usually do it incrementally, which yields a safe but minimal return.

In today’s markets, becoming a market leader requires shaking up the status quo; going for the long bomb rather than the 3-yard run up the middle. Easier said than done. But if you don’t at least aim for it, you’ll never hit it.

Change your thinking.

Most of all, get rid of the idea that what made you successful today will continue to make you successful tomorrow. In football, the players keep getting bigger, faster and stronger. Coaches know they can’t stand pat, so they continually develop new offensive and defensive schemes to stay ahead of the game. In business, your competitors are also getting bigger, faster and stronger. To stay ahead, your products, services, and ways of doing business must continually evolve.

When it comes to winning, there’s one big difference between pro football and business. In football, the rules of the game are imposed on every team by the NFL. In business, when you play to win, you get to impose a lot of the rules.

When you change the way customers perceive value, they have to play by your rules. When you come up with a new product or service that transforms your industry, competitors have to play by your rules. And when you build an organization that is so passionate about winning that the top performers clamor to work for you, other employers have to play by your rules.

Doesn’t that sound like more fun than playing not to lose?

2012 (being a Leap Year) contains 366 days, 8,784 hours, 527,040 minutes, and 31,622,400 seconds. How will you spend them?

Will you be focused on winning and moving towards it each day, celebrating milestones along the way? Or will you be playing to not lose, worrying about the past, talking constantly about what went wrong, stewing about how tough markets are these days, why you can’t do something, or why customers just won’t X, Y, Z, etc., etc.?

A new year is all about possibilities, promise and potential. But making all those dazzling possibilities turn into a reality requires a real focus on, and a commitment to, winning.

When an organization lacks a clear destination, it usually has many ill-defined ones. Employees feel unmotivated and uncommitted. Time, talent, and resources get wasted on products and projects that go nowhere. And people end up working on their own personal agendas rather than doing what’s best for the company. They think they are doing the right thing, but directions changed and someone forgot to realign them.

Having a clear definition of winning provides focus and clarity at the individual, team, and organizational level. It gets everyone aligned and moving in the same direction. And it motivates and inspires people to perform at their best. When employees know where they’re going and what they need to do to get there, it becomes much easier to reach your destination.

That’s why your #1 job in 2012 is to create a compelling vision of winning, then keep yourself and everyone else in the organization focused on it with laser-like intensity.

Start by getting clear on your vision of winning. Pause to think about what really matters: what does winning look like for you? What do you need to do – as individuals and as an organization – to win? What will it look like when you have won?

Answer these questions with as much specificity as possible. For example, identify the key operational and financial metrics that you will have achieved. Paint a picture of what your workplace and culture will look and feel like when you have won – what attitudes, beliefs, and core values will the organization be living by?

Identify the skills, knowledge, tools, technologies, and abilities you will have acquired or enhanced in order to win. What organizational structures will be in place? What new products or services will you have brought to market? What new customers will you have acquired? How will you have leveraged the customer relationships you already have?

Once you have this crystal clear picture of winning, share it with everyone in your ecosystem. Not just employees, but customers, vendors, suppliers, partners, alliances – anyone that has a stake in helping you win.

Don’t share your vision of winning like you’re giving a quarterly financial report. Use it to inspire people. Talk about why winning is important to you personally, and why you feel so passionate about where the organization is going. Link your vision of winning to the bigger picture by letting people know how they will have made a difference in the world when you have won. At the same time, point out what’s in it for them when the organization wins.

To stay focused on winning, also get clear on what you will not do. Then make sure those things don’t sap your time, energy, and attention. Make a list of all the major initiatives and big projects that no longer fit your definition of winning and shut them down.

Most leaders know intuitively when a project no longer makes sense because the goals have gotten out of sync with changing market realities. Yet they still cling to the belief that they can somehow squeeze some mileage out of a dead horse. Don’t let outdated assumptions and thought bubbles prevent you from getting those obstacles to winning out of the way!

Help your organization stay focused by setting clear individual goals that link directly to the organization’s key strategies for winning. Then give ongoing feedback on how they and the organization are doing. You’ll know you’re communicating enough when every employee can answer these questions without hesitation:

• What are my top priorities?
• What are the three primary objectives I need to achieve this week/this quarter/this year?
• How will I know I have been successful after I have worked so hard this week/month/quarter?
• How will we know when we have won – as a team, as an organization?

As the leader, you set the tone for your entire organization. Does your language and behavior reflect a relentless approach to winning? Or does it reflect a willingness to settle for just not losing, being second best….or less?