Bubble Busters

Ah, the NCAA tourney kicks off tonight with some play-in games.  It's hard to beat the first two days of the tournament.  Buzzer beaters, upsets, Cinderella stories.  The first two days have it all.  If ever you need to have a wisdom tooth removed, do it the morning of the first day of the tournament.  You have wall-to-wall basketball the rest of the weekend.  I did it once and would have a tooth extracted just to have the experience again!

Of course, last weekend brought us Selection Sunday.  This is where all the teams were announced and seeded.  Like every other year, there are teams left out of the tournament that feel they should have made it.  In our area, the Drexel Dragons were in that camp.  They finished 27-6 and are relegated to the NIT.  This is college basketball's consolation tournament.  The problem with Drexel is they had a couple of conference losses that they should have won and their strength of schedule was suspect compared to other teams that made it.  One more key win would have done it for them.

How many times do we see this in our organizations?  Losing a bid, missing a sale, coming short in a promotion.  In most cases it would have taken a little more effort, one more call, or more dedication to a project.  Every day we are playing in our own tournaments-constantly being reviewed, analyzed, hopefully seeded or left out.  Just as Drexel wishes they had won another game, many of us wish we had another opportunity to do something over. 

The problem is that we don't always take responsibility for the loss or missed opportunity.  We blame in on circumstance, others or bad luck.  I don't know who said it, but the harder you work, the luckier you get, is a great quote.  As leaders we need to remind our teams that doing a little extra goes a long way in being successful.  Think about the consequences up front, confront your weaknesses and make them strengths, make the extra call and follow up on the open item.  It's not easy being successful.  The alternative is that you're on the outside looking in.