For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

The #3 Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style comes from Nelly and his 2001 song “#1” off the soundtrack from the movie Training Day.  Here’s the Lyric:

“What does it take to be number one?
Two is not a winner and three nobody remembers”

It seems cocky doesn’t it?  But let me ask you this question: Why do you go to work?  I think there is probably a number of answers to that question: “I have to”; “I love what I do”; “I love the company”; etc.  I’m a scoreboard guy – I love to win.  I come to work each day to win.  I want my team to win – I want people on my team you want to win.  I hear you – “Well, what the hell are you winning in HR?!?!”

That’s a good question.  No matter what organization I have been with – retail, casual dining, health care, recruiting – I wanted to beat our competition at every level.  When I show up in the morning until I leave at night – I want to beat my competition.  When I go into designing a new employment branding project, or designing a new compensation model, or creating a recruiting strategy it all starts with one mindset – how is this going to make my organization stronger, and how is it going to make my competition weaker.  My competition is always top of mind.

Back in the 90’s there was a sportswear company called No Fear who mostly became popular for printing t shirts with funny motivational sayings like: “He who dies with the most toys, still dies” or “I’ve never lost, I’ve just been a little bit behind when the time ran out“, but my favorite was always “2nd Place is the 1st Loser”.  In a nutshell that sums up my feelings – I play and work to be #1 and try and surround myself with others that have that same winning desire – it’s natural 5 hour energy that doesn’t stop at 5 hours!