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Article by The Goals Guy

Become Brilliant on the Basics

Success in all its forms consists of simple fundamentals.

- Professionals respect while amateurs loathe them.

- Professionals master while amateurs neglect them.
 
- Professionals practice while amateurs undermine them.

Whether you refer to them as the ABC's, 123's, rudimentary skills, basics, foundational principles, universal truths, elementary steps, or simply as square one, the fundamentals are the foundational building blocks on which all success stands.

In my career as a performance improvement expert and coach, I am constantly reminded of, and reminding others about the importance of becoming brilliant and well-disciplined on the basics.

Why?

Because, success is neither magical nor mysterious, it's neither complex nor confusing.

Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals.

A foundation anchors your house to the earth, holding it up and, just as importantly, holding it down. A well constructed, rock solid foundation will last several lifetimes, while a poor foundation will forever remain unstable.

The foundation must be strong enough to shoulder the entire weight of the house, as everything built into the house becomes vulnerable or strengthened by the quality of the foundation.

When well constructed, foundations escape notice, quietly doing their thing below grade. But when they begin to fail, their weakness is quickly exposed along with the fingerprints of mediocrity and incompetence.

When constructing a house, there is nothing more fundamental than a firm foundation. The same applies in every aspect of life. Anything of quality and durability is constructed carefully, patiently and lovingly to ensure a proper end result.

Fundamentals are basics; they are important because they are something that other things can be successfully built upon.

Success in any sport, career, or hobby is built on a foundation of timeless, universal, and pragmatic principles.

From accounting to astrophysics, education to engineering, fly-fishing to firefighting, computer programming to construction, rock climbing to rocket science, and from raising kids to raising capital, all consist of fundamental principles and each fundamental counts.

Eight Fundamental Rules

1. Fundamentals Come First

You must learn these before anything else. Strong foundations are built on strong fundamentals; there is no shortcut to mastery. You must crawl before you walk, ski the bunny hill before attempting the double diamond trails, and you must
learn the fundamentals first.

2. Fundamentals are Simple

Anything and everything is based on a foundation of simple truths. Even quantum physics is simple once you
learn the fundamentals. Our minds create fallacies of complexity which betray us so often that we fail to see the simplicity which is hiding in plain sight.

3. Fundamentals Require Patience

Rome wasn't built in a day and they were using local, well-trained help.

While fundamentals are always simple, they conversely require time and patience to be understood. The process of trial and error correction is different for each person.

4. Fundamentals Must Be Mastered

The objective is and will always be to become brilliant on the basics. In order to perform at the top of your abilities, you must become a master at your trade. There is no other way to personal excellence; you must pay your dues in advance and in full.

5. Fundamentals Require Practice

Everybody loves a great performance and behind every great performance is the consistent practice and
reinforcement of the fundamentals. Repetition is everything, as the quality of your performance will never exceed the quality of your practice.

6. Fundamentals are Universal

When it comes to fundamentals it really is a one size fits all world. The wonderful part about fundamentals is that it provides a level playing. For anything to be mastered everyone must pass the same test. No one gets a passing grade simply for showing up.

7. Fundamentals Once Lost are Found in Humility

The minute a performer gets away from the fundamentals-whether it is proper technique, work ethic, or mental preparation-her entire game begins to break down.

This inevitably leads to embarrassment, missed opportunity and finally to a helping of humble pie. Humility leads you back home, to the fundamentals of success.

8. Fundamentals Never Change

There is nothing new under the sun. The fundamentals of investing, raising kids, mathematics, science, accounting... you name it have been identified, in place and will not be changing anytime soon. There is nothing more fundamental to success than making everything you do count. Meticulous attention to details, focusing on superior quality, proper preparation and planning, well crafted strategy, consistency of purpose, flawless execution, exemplary character, uncompromising standards and the discipline to honor each commitment is how we make everything count.

In times of high uncertainty, companies understandably tend to get carried away by a dizzying array of management fads.
But to avoid distraction, management must stay focused on the key fundamentals, which shape the business landscape.
You must never choose fad over fundamentals. I repeat: you must never choose fad over fundamentals.

The Personal Strategic Planning system has been designed to help you become brilliant on the basics. It has been designed to reinforce many of the disciplines necessary for success and achievement.

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Are you aware of the unfortunate fact that what science recommends is often not implemented by business?

Why do I say this? I will get to this further on.

 

But firstly I want to start off by describing to you two serious problems that exist in many companies and organizations across the world. And they are, firstly, the extremely high levels of stress and unhappiness that exists amongst the employees of these companies and organizations. And the second is the poor performance, not only of individual employees, but also of the companies themselves.

 

OK, let me explain what I mean by way of a story which involves J.E. a job-hopping employee. Over the past 2 years J.E has worked for 4 different companies. In the first 2 he experienced severe stress and unhappiness.

 

Now in the first company

• J.E.’s experience was that despite his superior performance his remuneration was far less than certain of his co-workers who performed less well than him. He worked hard and always produced his best but was paid less than certain under-performing workers.
• These co-workers he noticed were always doing favors for the top managers and bosses of the company.
• When he tried to air his view about the inequitable and unfair reward system that existed at the company he was told that if he did not like the situation he could leave.
• This gave him many sleepless nights.
• So he left and joined another company.

 

 

Although he found the second company a little less stressful the strict bureaucratic nature of the organization was very stifling to him.

·   He discovered that this company did not really view him as a person but as an entity whose function was to perform a collection of roles.

·   The fact that he had to virtually behave somewhat like an unimaginative robot in this company caused him great anxiety.

·   And his stress was compounded by the fact that those who had more important roles and functions in the company held more power in it.

·   His anxiety became severe. So he moved on.

 

 

Now his experience in the third company was much more to his liking because in this company workers had a high degree of flexibility and autonomy.

·         And this company also placed a great emphasis on the completion of tasks or the achievement of goals and objectives.

·         But what he liked most was the fact that the people worked in teams which were highly-driven energized and motivated to complete the tasks which were assigned to them.

 

 

Now when this last company that J.E found himself working at acquired another company he was moved to this acquired company.

·         And he really like this company too, maybe even more - because this company

         viewed itself as being subordinate to, or dependent on, its people for its existence.

·         In fact its people came first before everything else.

·         It placed great emphasis on nurturing the personal growth and development of its

         people and on the sharing of information, decision-making and influence amongst

         its people.

 

 

What our friend J.E. has been experiencing and what caused him to feel stressed in the first two companies and then happy and satisfied with his job in the last two is something referred to as Corporate or Organizational Culture.

 

And what I have described to you in terms of the experiences of J.E is just a very broad overview of the different types of Corporate Culture that exists. In terms of the companies described they are as follows:

 

The first company had a Control, Power or Autocratic Culture

The second a Role Culture

The Third an Achievement or Task Culture   and

The Fourth a People or Support Culture

 

 

OK so what is Corporate or Organizational Culture exactly?

 

Well it is the shared beliefs, values and consequent feelings and behavior of the people of a company or organization and which they subconsciously assume to be correct and valid. It is in fact their shared attitudes. Similar to each person who has his or her own unique personality so an organization’s or corporation’s culture can be seen as its own unique personality.

 

 

Now in order to understand culture more clearly we must look at the components or dimensions of culture rather than a broad description of it. And the following are just 3 components of culture. There are of course many more.

 

1. Methods of resolving conflict - most organizations are beset with conflict of some

    kind or another. And in many instances this conflict is quite severe. However many   

    companies have very ineffective conflict resolution methods in place – or worse none

    at all.

 

2. Employee inclusion or participation – this involves the inclusion of employees in

    decision-making processes which allows it to make better-quality decisions. It also

    prevents employees from feeling that decisions are foisted on them without respect for

    their feelings or points of view.

 

 

3.  Management style – this includes trustworthiness or integrity of managers and their

willingness and availability to listen to employees. It involves management support which consists not only of motivation and assistance, but also includes clear and frequent communication with the workers. Good managers ensure that appropriate and accurate information is provided and allowed to flow unhindered throughout the organization. They keep all employees updated and provide them at all times with all the relevant information they require. Unhappy workers are encouraged to inform and question management about their grievances.

 

Now why is organizational culture important?

 

Well, probably the most important reason is that it is a major factor which determines the success or failure of a company. Or, at least, it distinguishes mediocre performers from excellent performers.

 

And of course an important factor in the performance and success of a company is the health and wellness of its people. And organizational culture as we have seen has a significant impact on this factor.

 

Now let us get back to the problem of business not implementing the recommendations of scientists. 

 

So why do I say this? Well despite the fact that scientific research has shown that those organizations which actively measure, manage and develop their cultures have healthier and less-stressed people – and of course perform much better – many organizations and companies around the world fail to do so in any meaningful way in keeping with these scientific findings. But worse, many do not even do this at all and actually completely ignore this all-encompassing aspect of their companies or organizations. Historically this has been the case more often than not but, fortunately in recent years, the issue of culture is being taken more and more seriously.

 

So in conclusion then if companies and organizations want to have healthier & less-stressed people who perform optimally, then they need to take heed of what science says about organizational culture – and implement its recommendations as a matter of priority.

 

My book on organizational culture "Not As Soft As You Think - What You Should Know About Organizational Culture" provides more information about the experiences of J.E. and the cultures of the different companies he worked at. It also describes the various components of culture from the perspective of an extremely high-performing company and various other aspects of corporate culture such as its origins and functions, its relationship to financial performance and its management amongst others.   

 

To read more about the book go here

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this article

 

 

 

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