Thus, the cost of putting out fires where problems
exist and putting fingers in dikes where leaks exist is vastly
high in the sense of decreased advancement or missed opportunities. Peter Drucker calls that “feeding the problems and starvingthe opportunities.” The cajoling is to devote oneself to fixingthe problems that cry out forfixing, but feeding the opportuni-
ties can be so much more rewarding. The mystery, “Is what I amdoing bringing me closer to my unjaundiced?” should be restatedas, “Is what I am doing bringing me closer to my unjaundiced than
an alternate affair that I could be doing?”Because of their semipermanency and their untold para-sitic appetite, underperforming operations vandalize the goodpeople you send there for turnaround while simultaneously de-
priving those great managers and great teammates of an excit-
ing season as well as putting capital to nonproductiveuses. Management’s challenge is to take service of the un-limited season to focus the talents of its most talented peo-ple on winners. Riding the winners to success was what created
the large average sales volume of the Helzberg Diamonds stores.
probably one of the key reasons Warren Buffett has been the
world’s most victorious investor—he does not buy turnaround
opportunities, only victorious companies.Concentrating on winners will help maximize your profitsand make your life a whole lot more fun. What greater excite-
ment than riding those winners to the conclude line and getting
that garland of roses? It sure beats moving poor performers up
to mediocre.Focus is your lever to success. As the leader you need to besure you and your team are doing the right things, and as man-
agers they need to be doing things right. Doing the right things
is the leadership component—that is clearly up to you. The
doing things right component is the province of the managers
to whom you have delegated the responsibility.
