By Luke Melms
While the All-Star Game showcases the best talent in the game, it also serves as a much needed scheduled break in the middle of the marathon a season is. The standings and stats serve as the facts but the second half serves as the truth that stands in the history books. No one has ever won an MVP because of a great first half.
In business, there is no scheduled “All-Star” break. If we don’t take time to intentionally pause it is easy to roll into the rest of the year setting ourselves up for falling short of our goals.
While it may or may not be realistic to take some time off to recharge, I believe it is important to take an hour to step back and closely evaluate what’s happened up to this point regardless of how well or poorly 2017 has unfolded up to this point.
1. What has been the biggest win of the year?
Every team regardless of where they are in the standings has had a good stretch of baseball. The Astros have had an 11 game winning streak and the Phillies despite having the worst record in baseball have had a six game winning streak. Watching game film is powerful because it makes it easy to go back and revisit when everything was going right. Whether it is a specific project, sale to a new client or whatever it may be, reversing engineering the process from the end point to beginning helps make success duplicatable again.
2. What is the biggest adjustment needing to be made going into the second half of 2017?
There’s no such thing as 162-0. The goal is always to lengthen the hot streaks and minimize the cold spells. There are always adjustments that can be made. Right now I am closely scrutinizing my schedule figuring out how I can maximize the 24 hours each day provides more than ever. I have much I want to accomplish in my job and at the same time making Baseball and Business as valuable as possible to the entire community as it grows. There’s no short cuts around it…time is the only input to make this happen. If you feel that everything has gone right up to this point, I challenge you to look at your schedule and see if there’s any more juice you can squeeze out each day.
3. Am I on track to hit the goals I set at the beginning of the year?
A batting average acts as a thermometer to where a hitter is at. KPIs and performance reviews do the same in business. Let’s say the Astros set a goal of winning 95 games coming into the year. At the break they have 60 wins with 73 games yet to play. The importance of revisiting goals is to see how realistic it is go beyond them versus figuring out the minimum needed to still hit it.
A run in October is so often determined by the momentum carried into the playoffs from how the regular season ends. The 2014 Kansas City Royals are a great recent example of this going 41-27 in the second half before winning the Wild Card game and sweeping the ALDS and ALCS. The 48-46 start is not something at the forefront of anyone’s mind.
The second half is sure to be an exciting time to watch baseball. I enjoy taking the chance to watch others go to work on their goals. It is a great way to unplug while recharging my motivation tank. Our success in 2018 is riding on what we do right now. The World Series won in 2015 by the Royals was the byproduct of the push in the second half of 2014. Let’s crush our goals the rest of the year and be able to ring in the New Year looking back at a great 2017 with tons of momentum for 2018.
