By Michael Partnow
In my continued pursuit to attend sporting events of all “types” in person, I am thrilled to share that I just attended the Professional Arm-Wrestling Championship.
Beyond the sheer size and awe that I have for these athletes, I am sharing some lessons that may be applied to the professional world:
- Size does not always matter – Do not get me wrong, I was very intimidated by the sheer size of many of the Athletes BUT as the competition got under way many of the Athletes were being eliminated by those much smaller. While size certainly has its advantage in many ways, it is not everything and you should never underestimate / count out the underdog!
- Confidence vs being Cocky – You know it when you see it or hear it. Having confidence with a bit of swagger to me has been a positive if it is done with humility and humbleness. Even when you possess the skillset, bragging is not typically received well outside of the sheer entertainment factor.
- Co-opetition – Make the pie bigger by sharing techniques. After leaving the battlefield, win or whether they had lost the contestants huddled with the larger group to debrief and discuss what worked and what did not. This is such an interesting concept to me. We live in a professional world where many compete AND partner with the same third party. I find that the most successful leaders are those that do not fight for a larger piece of the pie. They look to make things win and collaborate to make the pie bigger. The top tier leaders are those that collaborate to improve the recipe!
- Attention to the competition – We are so laser focused on our own business that we rarely pick our heads up and study the competition. Regardless of whether the arm-wrestler was advancing to the next round or if they lost, they studied every match with a very close eye. Furthermore, in the spirit of making the sport better and better, following other arm-wrestlers match they would share their observations and collectively discuss strategy.
I hope you found the above helpful in placing you and your offering “Over The Top” – pun intended.
Michael S. Partnow is the Head of Wealth Management at JIFFY.ai. JIFFY.ai’s intelligent automation platform enables enterprises to build business applications that run their processes end to end. Using cognitive capabilities such as intelligent document processing, AI, RPA, ML and advanced analytics, these apps learn and adapt to changing situations impacting the business landscape, and even mimic human thinking and actions intelligently.
Contact Michael at [email protected]
