Do you ever wake up and feel that you were just a little off center? Maybe the glass is 30% full or it is a 30% day? Not sure why? - Coming down with a cold? Bad night’s sleep or lack of sleep catching up? Or a mountain of to do’s? Just not at your best but you have that big meeting and you have to deliver?

You still have to deliver and you need to be there for your colleagues and clients. Tiger Woods won the Masters without his “A” Game - can you win without your A-game?

Many sports psychologists say you should play with the “game” that shows up with you on the day. If you arrive at the tennis court and your topspin backhand does not arrive with you, or you arrive at the golf course and all you brought is a hard fade - dig deep and play with what came with you - you will have better results than fighting through the early part of your game and getting behind the eight ball.

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Interesting interview of Stephanie Fireman by Paul Dunay at Marketing Prof’s Daily Fix today on practicing Brand Self Defense. Part of the interview discusses the damage done by comments posted by bloggers who not only do not know the facts, but do not know the circumstances or facts and the impact those posts have. Stephanie mentioned comments made by bloggers who did not know her that posted incorrect or potentially damaging information that shot up the Google chats.

Unfortunately that happens to people every day. Part of the quandary is the classic PR question - do I respond and validate - or let it slide? In an online environment everyone has the ability to share their thoughts publicly. With the long tail exacerbating the impact through links and referrals to the comments one has to comment/correct or actually join that conversation, unless you want to continue to see the story showing up in search results as “fact”. The worst part is that even if the blogger pulls down the post or redacts, RSS feeds ensure that the comments continue to live and they take on a life of their own - the genie is out of the bottle.

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Preparation, practice and lessons learned from sport that we can use to win in business

Gary Player the South African golfer says: “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” Just look at his record. He has also said that winning is a habit and that success breads success. Related to business, preparation is as important or more important than presentation. To understand what it takes to win, one has to understand oneself, and then know as much or more about the audience and potential clients than they do themselves.

Whether coaching, captaining managing or playing on teams in sport or the workplace, sharing credit and giving credit where credit is due is beyond critical from a motivation standpoint. People want to learn and they want to be motivated, connected, recognized and rewarded. If you play sport, think how often you raise your game when you are around better players or how you push yourself to keep up when you are around thought leaders or smart people either socially or at work  (some people just run for the hills ).

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Today is a new day in my evolution - and I am excited by the opportunities ahead. Change is something that I welcome - you gain perspective, see things differently and it creates a host of different and exciting opportunities. Many fear change. It has always motivated me.

Having spent almost 2 years working in “New Marketing”, most recently as CEO of crayon and prior to that with its predecessor jaffe, LLC., Joseph and I agreed that it was the opportune time to part ways. I wish him and crayon well and know they do the same for me.

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