The chorus is amazingly insightful to me as an advisor who works with a lot of CEO’s and Pastors to help them build great organizations. I know Fogerty didn’t write it for that purpose, but here’s the chorus:

Oh, put me in, coach – I’m ready to play today;

Put me in, coach – I’m ready to play today;

Look at me, I can be centerfield.

The chorus illustrates 4 great principles that separate dreamers from success stories:

1) Power of the Ask (Put me in, coach!)…

Over the years I’ve marveled at the people who appear less talented, less qualified, less “voted most likely to ____”, yet they got the job, got the TV show, got the dream girl, got the book deal, fulfilled the dream. The difference: At some point, they realized they’d have to be bold, strike the fine balance between humility and confidence, and say “Put me in, coach”…Key word ‘coach’. Are you asking the right person, the person in authority over your opportunity, for the chance to be put in? Telling your friends, complaining to co-workers, asking the wrong people for feedback does no good. At some point, you’ve got to ask for the opportunity, confidently, knowing you may get a “no”. It’s your future, your dream, your life. Wanna have it?

2) Power of Preparation (I’m ready to play!)…

David had to practice throwing a rock with a slingshot for days, months, years…before he got to throw it at Goliath 1 time. Olympians spend every day of their life trying to shave the 1/100^th off their time to make the difference between bronze and silver medals. Before your door opens, are you preparing your gifts and talents in private in preparation for them to be on display publicly?

3) Power of Priorities (Today!)…

I never advocate being a workaholic, nor am I suggesting everything happens overnight. However, there are moments we have to recognize that a door is opened, and be keenly aware of its closeability. All doors close eventually, that’s why they’re on hinges. What matters is what side you’re on when it does. When the door opens TODAY, what’s your excuse for waiting until tomorrow to charge through it with a sense of urgency? Oh, it’ll be there tomorrow…I have all these emails to catch up on before I make the call…I can’t possibly pick up and fly to New York just for a lunch…Well? Why NOT today? What guarantee do you have the door will be open tomorrow? After all, why would God open it today, if you weren’t supposed to move toward it today?

4) Power of knowing who you are vs. what you do (I can BE centerfield!).

The amazing part of that lyric (the part I always thought was bad grammar), an awkward ending to a chorus…I never caught it in 20+ years until now…he said “BE” instead of “play” centerfield.

Your gift, the thing inside you that’s uniquely you and opens doors of opportunity for your future…is in you because of who you are, not what you do. Great jobs, relationships, and other opportunities rarely come to you as a result of what you do, they usually come to you because of who you are.

He knew he loved baseball, and could play a lot of positions. But the one he was born for…was centerfield. Middle of the action. The one that required the guy with the best speed, the best arm, the best sense of the game to be counted on to cover the most ground and save the day the most times up against the wall.

Great success stories are great because they didn’t ask for ANY job, they asked for a chance at “the” job. THE relationship. THE internship. THE chance. They asked for it because they knew it was in them, it was what they were born to do, and it was who they were.

Interesting thought dawned on me…Nothing wrong with cheese & crackers. they go well together. Great combination, they mix ‘n match, they come in various flavors, shapes and sizes, and they make a great pair. But…whenever I decided I didn’t want the combination, it was easy to peel 1 off the other, with little evidence they were ever connected to begin with. Hold that thought a minute.

Then we had the pancakes, as and my kids drenched them with syrup and 5-6 different toppings, my youngest daughter shouted in terror, “NOOOOOO Daddy! I didn’t want syrup on them!” My son chimed in, as only an 8-year old boy loaded with empathy can…”Oh well, too late!” He was right…once the pancake was immersed in the syrup, it was all in.

With clients, it tends to be the same way, if you ask most business owners. They usually have a long roster of clients they serve well, love to work with, and have a great relationship with year after year. Cheese & crackers. But then there’s that small handful…the ones where they move beyond working in the client’s business…to the client’s business working in them. So immersed in the pancake is the syrup, that it’s impossible to disconnect the 2. I suppose the best relationships, ideally, are the same way.

Leaders: Check your team’s perspective on your clients. It’s unrealistic that everyone on your team will feel fully immersed in the vision of every client, that’s impossible to sustain and maintain every day, year after year, as you grow. But being transparent and discerning who feels how about which clients can be a powerful opportunity to match the right employees up with the projects they can’t help but get passionately immersed in…and that’s where the magic of “surprise & delight”, under-committing & over-delivering…really happens.

Almost every server at every restaurant I’ve ever been to in any country/state asks, toward the end of the meal, “Did you save room for dessert today?” The creative ones mix up the status quo sometimes, with things like, “So…I know you saved room for dessert for me, right?”

It’s become a cliche that’s gained momentum and become the status quo, the way the industry does it, the expected, the conditioned statement/question.

Here’s the problem:  The response has also become conditioned: “No.”

Generally, dessert isn’t something you save & plan for logically. It’s an emotional “I deserve to endulge” purchase. Enter logic into that process and you’ve asked your customer to think rationally at some level. And when you do, believe me, they do. They actually START thinking about the impact the calories will have and the “room” it’ll fill in their body. It moves us from a pleasure/endulgence impulse purchase to a “what’s in my best interest” decision.

In organizations, when you have an accepted way of communicating something that gains momentum, it becomes status quo and “the way we’ve always done it.” For businesses, Churches and other organizations, the “watchout” is this: We forget we’ve conditioned our audience to respond a certain way.

Generally, servers do what they think servers are supposed to do. Customers react the way customers think they’re supposed to react. And thus, a rhythm’s created for conversation. “Did you save room?” (smile…). “Oh no, not me.” (w/standard chuckle of “I’m full, I couldn’t possibly!”). Simple exchange, 10-15% loss of overall revenue per ticket.

Walking the dessert tray to every table is a lost art form.

Truth is: Everyone loves appetizers and a great entree. We spend lots of $$ on it, plan most of our evening and conversation around it, and we don’t literally plan to save room for dessert. I never ordered an appetizer, filet w/sides and enjoyed the customary bread basket, the whole time thinking, “I hope all this food isn’t enough, I’m saving room so I can spend more for dessert.”

Upselling is an art, and GREAT art isn’t an afterthought to create, whether on a canvas or in customer service…it takes time to come up with the ultimate way of evoking emotion that moves us to the decision to buy. As with most art, it starts with engaging the audience and communicating intentionally (dessert tray for instance, that creates an experience) to move us to a desired response.

Challenge your industry’s cliches & status quo…a little creativity could radically change an industry norm if you’ll dare.

If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest everyone get the book “Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman. He demonstrates how everyone responds to others in light of FIVE love languages. They are: quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, physical touch, and words of affirmation. Those are pretty much self explanatory.

So, what does that have to do with ‘why’ I do what I do. Well, I took a step back and asked myself if I really enjoyed graphic design. As the Creative Director here at ShowCase, you would think I would be in love with design. But, it would surprise you to know that that’s really not what drives me. You see, there is an underlying reason why I do what do.

Years ago I interned at a small college that offered several on-campus and correspondence classes. They were in need of someone to take the manuals and do a better job making them look professional. So, I bought a computer when I was 20 years old and did my best to help them out. I learned fast and people were amazed at what I could create on a computer. They constantly told others what a great job I had done and how creative I was.

You see, what drove me then (and still drives me!) is not so much a passion to create something new, but it fulfills my love language (words of affirmation). I realized that the ACT of creativity fulfills a NEED I have. If no one ever commented or “affirmed” me and my work, would I still do what I do? The answer is, “probably not.”

So, ask yourself, “Why do I do what I do?” If you’re honest with yourself, you probably will realize that a NEED you have drives the ACTS that you do. It might tell you a lot about yourself. It might also cause you to rethink what you do.

Written by Chad McMillan, Creative Director

Shared it with 8 different people, different organizational levels, different walks of life, different generations. They all smiled and said “how true.” So, as leaders, at what level are we willing to embrace this concept?

The first step to embracing change is recognizing how unwilling we are, in any areas, to fathom change. If you want a real litmus test for how willing you are to challenge paradigms, grow and change (business, marriage, perception of your kids, faith, etc.), ask yourself this question: What great services/products/behaviors are part of who we are today, that I couldn’t imagine becoming irrelevant, unnecessary and/or counter-productive in the future?”

The length of your list will show you how tied you are to your vision, vs. your comfort and perception of how to get there, an what stage you’re at in being willing to be transparent and challenge every premise. Be ok with going out on a limb…that’s where the fruit is.

Same thing’s true for big ideas. Let it breathe a bit, and get a few additional sets of trusted and experienced eyes on it. You just might be on to something remarkable.

The culprit? Getting caught in a rhythm of efficiency vs. a pattern of effectiveness. We’re taught every day to be efficient. Get more done in less time. But why? What if your focus—everyday—was ONLY to stay in a pattern of effectiveness, of impact? Check your calendar. More importantly, check your habits. Was turning on your email on the list of priorities? Didn’t think so. Then why’d you do it first?

For sales people, it’s putting together the big proposal AFTER going through 6 hours of emails. For the CEO it’s finding the time to interview and hire an admin support person to get out from under the $10/hour jobs so he/she can focus on the $300/hour issues.

Getting the most important priorities done early in the day and early in the week, while your energy is highest and you’re the most excited, charged up and focused, sets you as a leader up for a powerful principle: You give your most your most, and you give your least your least.

Comedian Paul Reiser nailed it in the ‘80s with his “Who is THEY” routine, begging the question…Who’s controlling your decisions, defining your parameters, and ultimately determining your destiny?

“What would they say?”…Sometimes it’s a pessimistic, unengaged employee. Sometimes it’s a disconnected board member. Sometimes it’s a customer. But it’s the person that you find yourself curbing your enthusiasm for, adjusting your big thinking, your “what if” dreaming…Consider saving the headaches…get rid of “They”…

Is it misplaced, out of order or broken?

If it’s missing, focus quickly, decisively and wholeheartedly on putting it back into place, back into proper order, or restoring the broken part. If it’s lost, barring a miracle to save or bring it back, you might want to consider moving on.