Luke Skywalker: Master Yoda, moving stones around is one thing, this is totally different (as he tries to retrieve his space ship from the water telepathically)
Yoda: No! No different. Only different in your mind. You must unlearn…what you have learned.
Luke Skywalker: Alright…I’ll give it a try…
Yoda: No! Try not! Do. Or do not. There is no try.
Fails to move it.
Fails.
When is effort important? All the time! When is it not enough? Often.
Years ago, when my daughter played youth lacrosse, there was a goalie on her team named Emma. She was terrible. She let more goals in than she stopped and yet with every miss was the collective cry from our sideline of “Good try Emma!”Emma never did get better. The team went on to lose most of their games. I don’t know where Emma is today (she would be in her early 20s as of the date of this post) but I hope someone came alongside her and pushed her harder to get better.
I’m the first one to applaud effort. After all, it’s the middle leg on our 3-Legged Stool of Great Performance® model. But the effort needs to be built up with success.
If you’re The Boss, it’s important to encourage a try, but once it’s made, push the employee a little harder. Recognize the effort and move the bar. Encourage firmly but friendly. Be in the employee’s corner but do the important and hard work of driving them to success.
If you watch The Empire Strikes Back, pay attention to how Yoda mentors young Luke. It’s a great model for you to emulate.
Effort is great. Just be sure it continues on until there is full success.
