Don’t look now, but our U.S. Olympic team is making history at the XXI Winter Olympics in Vancouver, as it blows away the rest of the field in total medal count.

At present, they lead with 32 medals, 6 more than Germany and 13 more than Norway. Some performance highlights by the Americans in these Winter Games include:

• Bode Miller wins his first gold ever and his third medal in these Games, after nearly walking away from the sport a year ago;
• Apolo Ohno has won three medals in Vancouver and now owns more Winter Olympic medals (7) than any other U.S. Winter Olympian;
• Shani Davis became the first skater in Olympic history to win the 1,000 meter distance event in two Olympics;
• Our woman’s hockey team wins silver; and
• The U.S. wins SIX medals in one day, more than any other country EVER achieved (5).

QUESTION: Don’t our Olympic athletes know that this is NOT supposed to happen? Our athletes don’t typically perform very well at Winter Olympics.

What has brought about this dramatic change in THIS team’s results? Perhaps our athletes collectively brought an entirely new attitude and approach to these Games and said: “Forget the past, let’s dare to be great!” There is a tremendously powerful lesson that we can all learn from our athletes, and apply to our own business and professional efforts?

THAT GOT ME TO THINKING: What if each of us took the approach of: “No more excuses, we are going to dare to be great?” What if we each decided that it can NO LONGER be acceptable to strive to maintain the status quo? What if we ALL took our heads out of the sand and stopped waiting for the current economic storm passes?

What if we all decided to REALLY invest in our people, and began taking calculated risks with higher reward potential? What if we bucked the trend of cutting back on spending, to invest in cutting edge creative and effective marketing and sales strategies? Let our competitors shrink from the public eye. Our efforts will come through even louder as our competitors remain silent. What if we decided once and for all to tear down the processes that we established long ago (even the ones that aren’t broken), in a concerted effort to achieve Gold medal, world-class customer care, business operations, sales efforts, marketing campaigns, new product offerings, and strategic approaches?

What if it wasn’t good enough just to stop laying off employees but we started restructuring EVERY employees’ job description to leverage ALL their core competencies? If we can learn anything from our American Olympians, it’s that success is not measured in wins and losses, or Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Just ask the heavily favored U.S. woman’s hockey team. A gold medal loss 2-0 to the Canadians was shocking, but they won Silver. There is no failure or shame in achieving such lofty success. After all in life’s winding road, it’s not about the destination but the journey. What lessons can be take away from the past two years of Recession?

If anything our Olympians might quote Einstein for us – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome is INSANITY. Apolo Ohno completely changed his skating style after winning medals at the last Olympics, and came up GOLDEN again. Only by daring to take a different approach can any of us hope to achieve Gold.

What do you think?

Show Preview

Have you seen Undercover Boss? It’s the latest reality TV show that follows CEOs of companies as they go undercover to investigate their businesses. The first episode aired after the Super Bowl and focused on Larry Hughes, President of Waste Management.

On one hand, I guess you could say “it’s about time.” Presidents of corporations are FINALLY getting out there and seeing what it’s like for their employees on the front line.
But a part of me sees this all as grotesque reality TV. Am I the only one who sees this as too little too late? We’ve suffered through decades of leadership deficit in Corporate America.

CEOs have failed miserably at communicating with their people. They have lost sight of what it’s like to be their employees or their customers, vendors, suppliers, partners, etc. They have alienated their workforce by initiating massive layoffs, instituting draconian employee compliance programs, and overworked, underpaid, undervalued, and underappreciated their people for so long that this new emphasis on hands-on caring CEO smells of grotesquely insincere gesture.

So, CEOs are going undercover to find out what it’s like to work in their companies? Here’s an idea. Why limit it to only ONE week out in the field? Why not take THREE MONTH tour with 2-week job rotations across all of the areas of their company? While they’re at t, spend time with their key customers, top suppliers, most valued partners, and other stakeholders.

The fact that this show was even produced is yet another slap in the face to the American worker. This is like dropping a coin in the tin cup of the homeless man on the corner, a momentary morality speed bump. If CEOs of American businesses really want to know what it’s like to be an employee in their organization, ASK THEM! Here’s a novel idea. Implement truly valuable programs for employees. Solicit direct feedback from workers by soliciting their ideas constantly.

Offer valuable incentives through reward and recognition programs, and match junior-level staff with more tenured workers in coaching/mentoring programs. Ant to REALLY show you are a CARING CEO? FREEZE all senior management bonuses, commit to NO MORE LAYTOFFS for several years. How about implementing cutting edge training & development programs for the employees?

Start by communicating with each and every employee. Use monthly town hall meetings to speak from the pulpit on the state of your business. Hold quarterly video conferences. Implement weekly “Breakfast with the Boss” talks, and send Monday morning emails from the CEO?

We all know there is a void in corporate leadership. Let’s not add insult to injury for the American worker by implying CEOs care. That ship sailed a LONG time ago. The landscape of American enterprise is littered with the fecal remnants of Adelphia, Enron, Global Crossing, Bear Stearns, GM, Lehman Brothers, AIG, etc.

If you want to get lost in mind-numbing reality TV, check out The Jersey Shore. Leave Undercover Boss.