How To Win Every Day

If you changed something and no one gets mad, it means you changed something that doesn’t matter.
–Dan Reiland

Last week I read Mark Miller’s book Win Every Day: Proven Practices for Extraordinary Results. If you’re not familiar with Mark, I highly recommend his books to you. Mark heads up the leadership development for Chick-Fil-A, and his books are must-reads – I recommend them often to other leaders. 

This is his newest, and like his others, it’s short and well worth your time investment. 

Several nuggets I came across:

• “We will not drift to greatness. If we go there, it will be because of disciplined and thoughtful actions executed consistently over time.” Intentionality matters. No one drifts to excellence. 

• “Your past does not determine your future.” Drive down a new marker and determine to intentionally make tomorrow different! 

• “Improvement is impossible if you do what you’ve always done. Progress always requires change.” Change is not optional for growth – it’s absolutely required.

• “If I don’t make the right choices, my team never will.” Speed of the leader, speed of the team. Those you lead will watch what you do and, most often, do what you do. 

• “Great plays are worthless without great execution.” How many binders filled with fantastic plans sit on shelves, never executed? 

• “Change the process, change the outcome. The process is the process for a reason. The process creates consistency.” As Deming said so well, “your systems are perfectly designed to give you to results you’re currently getting.” 

• “Communication is the oxygen of execution.” When your team knows WHY, and can communicate the why to others, execution gets a boost. 

I love reading great books that make me think. Speaking of, right now I’m reading Adam Grant’s newest, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know – more on that soon.

What good books are you reading this summer?