Always Answer that you are Lucky and Blessed
Dear Bank of Prairie Village Community~
This past month, I was part of a CEO roundtable. The topic was “How does a company correctly hire motivated workers.”
For most small businesses, hiring the correct workers in the correct position is of all importance.
Despite a great deal of money spent on recruiting, background checks, psychological testing and behavioral interviews, even the best employers generally bat about 50 percent in making good hires.
As I listened to the various CEO speak about both their successes and failures, my mind wandered back to a conversation I once had with a very good Human Resources (HR) officer.
It was a light conversation. She worked for another, rather large company. Accordingly, we were talking in general terms about interviewing and hiring~ and not about the Bank of Prairie Village.
After a while she said, “Dan, if you are ever in a situation where you can only ask one question to an interviewee, simply ask him if he generally feels like a “lucky” person.”
I know I made a funny face at what I considered a somewhat unprofessional question to ask an interviewee. She could see my confusion.
Dan, think about that “lucky” question hard and you will understand its power.
If a person thinks he or she is “lucky or blessed” you will know they generally have an innate positive attitude.
If you think about it Dan, a positive attitude is generally a key ingredient in personal success. If you are positive in your outlook, you are generally motivated.
If you are motivated and positive, you generally have a drive for success. If you have a drive for success, and are positive and motivated, you generally accomplish assigned goals--even if the goal is difficult to achieve.
If you become used to achieving assigned goals you then have confidence in your ability to take on even greater responsibilities and goals~ which only reinforces your confidence and by definition your drive, motivation and positive attitude.
I told the HR Officer, I liked the logic of the “lucky and blessed” question but asked why not simply ask the applicant if they have 1) a positive attitude, 2) motivation, 3) drive and 4) confidence.
The HR Officer looked at me as if I was slightly dense. “Dan, think about what you just said. Even the most obstinate interviewee will be smart enough to tell you they have a positive attitude, motivation, drive and confidence. They will simply tell you what you want to hear—not what they really believe about themselves.”
By asking them if they are “lucky and/or blessed” it is a short-cut into finding out whether they really believe what they are telling you.
A person who thinks he or she is “naturally lucky and/or blessed”, deep down knows they make their own luck and blessings. They know the hard work and persistence that goes into making luck happen. Nevertheless, they are often too modest to say it out loud.
People who innately believe they are “lucky” wrongly assumes everyone else has their same positive attitude, motivation, drive and confidence. Thus they assume their success is due to being lucky and/or blessed to be in the right place at the right time.
They are generally too humble to say, it was their innate drive that put them in the right place at the right time. How many times do you hear great business leaders say they were lucky or blessed in their careers? How many times do you hear great athletes say they were lucky or blessed to be on a great team which enabled them to achieve success? How many times do you hear someone who attributes all their success to their teammates or coworkers.
You never hear a great leader say it was just his own positivity, drive, motivation and confidence that achieved personal and organizational success. At a minimum they will say they were lucky or blessed to be part of such a great team, with great coaches and great mentors.
In a society where it is easy to claim you have gotten nothing but bad breaks, were assigned a bad boss, or work for a bad company, it can be easy to think your failure is due to lack of luck. However, that mindset can be equally self-reinforcing.
If we spend our time trying to document our bad luck, we will miss the positive attitude necessary to see great opportunities. We will lack the motivation to turn a bad a situation around. We will lack the drive to make the necessary changes to change the negative behaviors holding us back. Further, we will lack the confidence to make hard changes.
Simply to be an American to some degree makes us all “lucky.” Yes, we live in a country of opportunity. To some degree we all are blessed with unique skills or personalities we are “lucky” to have.
The challenge for this Month of March, as we head into the glorious Spring is to ask ourselves in how many ways we are blessed and lucky. The more we see ourselves as blessed and lucky, the more opportunities will open for us, which with drive, motivation and confidence we can seize.
Yours in seizing all the blessings and luck, the coming Spring Season has to offer~ After all, we can’t let the Irish have all the “luck.”
Dan Bolen ~ Chairman
Bank of Prairie Village
913~707~3369 Cell
Dan.Bolen@BankofPrairieVillage.com
“The Bank of Prairie Village ~ Home of Blue Lion Banking” ~ cited March 2020, April 2021, April 2022, April 2023 and April 2024 by the by the Kansas City Business Journal as one of the “Safest Banks in Kansas City for Your Money.”
Small Batch Banking ~ Once Client at a Time.
