At the 2015 Academy Awards Lady Gaga gave the performance of her career during the tribute to the 50th anniversary of the classic film, The Sound Of Music – which is probably a favorite movie of many reading this blog post. Lady Gaga’s performance was breathtaking and potentially career changing. It certainly brought highly favorable attention to the talent that she is.
When Lady Gaga was asked to perform songs from The Sound Of Music at the Oscars, she recognized how important this performance would be. According to press reports, she spent six months working with a voice coach every single day so she was prepared for this very special moment when the world would be focused on her and the talents she is gifted with. The preparation paid off for Lady Gaga on many professional levels. It will be interesting to see what this particular Oscar performance will ultimately lead to as she continues to transition her career and expand her fan base.
Lady Gaga’s Oscar performance leads me to today’s business topic:
Preparation Is A Key To Business Success.
Ask yourself:
- How much time do you spend to showcase your business talent?
- How prepared are you?
- How prepared are you when you go to work each day?
- Do you know what you want to accomplish each day?
- Do you know who you want to talk to or meet with each day?
- Do you take time to think through your day before it even starts?
- Do you give any thought as to what will make this day a success for you?
Preparation is the way to business success.
It doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do. It doesn’t matter what you still need to learn in your leadership role and industry. You will only get better at what you do each work day by being open to new ideas, new thoughts and learning new things. You can only get better at something through adequate, sometimes more than adequate, preparation.
If you are considered the best at what you do but are not fully prepared, then it has the potential to fall flat. If it does fall flat you may not get another opportunity.
Business and life can sometimes be cruel when it comes to second chances. So you need to always be prepared as much as possible. Can you imagine how it might have been for Lady Gaga to take the stage and to not be prepared as she was on Oscar night for the live performance in front of industry peers and millions of viewers worldwide?
Every business day is a live performance. Though perhaps not in front of millions but… still extremely important to the well-being of your company, employees and customers.
The award winning actor, Jack Lemmon, once shared in an interview that just before a live performance or shooting a scene for a movie he would say to himself: It’s showtime! A reminder to himself to give the best possible performance every time he was in front of an audience or the camera. No matter what – The show must go on!
We as business people – as CEOs, presidents, founders and business owners – need to do the same every business day: Give the best possible business performance.
As business leaders, we are here to help people – co-workers, customers, vendors and anyone else we may meet up with in our business day. But to help others you need to be prepared. You need to know what’s going on and what you want to talk about.
If you’re not prepared the competition will be breathing right down your neck – and that’s because they are prepared and they want your business.
The business person who is most prepared is the one who will win and keep the business. The person who is most prepared will excel at what they do. Others will enjoy working with them for this very reason as it supports what they do and the company. The person who is most prepared will enjoy coming to work each day. And… have a more stress-free business day.
Remember:
- Be on top of your business game. If you’re not, find some time and space to quickly get back in balance.
- Understand your business role and what you contribute to the company.
- Understand how successful you are.
- Understand how successful you can be.
- Don’t use the excuse that you’ve been doing this for a long time.
- Know that there is always more to learn.
- Know what you want to communicate to others.
- Choose your words and actions carefully.
If you do and you are always prepared (as much as any business leader – CEO, president, founder or business owner – can be), success will be yours. You and your company will be getting rave reviews just as Lady Gaga did at the Oscars. Make every day a winning, red carpet business performance!
For 25+ years Howard has advised CEOs, presidents and business owners throughout the United States. If you’d like to know how you and your company can achieve more profit, success and rave business reviews from customers, contact Howard directly at 888-738-1855 or connect with Howard on LinkedIn or Twitter @HowardLewinter.
This post was originally published on Linked Into Business.