That's A Great Question

I'm going to give away one of my secrets. One of the most important things for me to hear from anyone, in any conversion, is this: “that’s a really great question.” A bell goes off in my head every time I hear it. Wish I was kidding.

Going to a great school or working for a great company is all well and good. Lots of people do these things. In my opinion, one of the things that separates top performers from solid performers is the ability to distill information in a meaningful way and ask questions that move the conversation forward.

“If we don’t consider this, what are the consequences?”

“If we want to accomplish X, what is the first step we need to take?”

"Is this activity the best use of our time right now, given the circumstances?"

Taking examples to the extreme is a good way to break down barriers. Don’t be afraid to challenge conventions when conversations are in fact-finding mode. If a partner says that they can do something on a small scale, ask them if they can do the same analysis or make the same complex considerations across your entire company. Why not? It COULD potentially happen. In the example of paid search, if something can be done at the campaign level, can it be done at the keyword level?

Ask hard questions. If something doesn’t make sense to you or if you feel as though you have an itch that needs to be scratched, GO AFTER IT. Ask the question.

LeBron, Steve Jobs, and A+ Players

Like seemingly everyone else over the past week, I was completely enamored with the latest LeBron saga. I might have a little extra skin in the game since I was finishing up my MBA in Cleveland during The Decision in 2010, and can remember walking down to the huge LeBron billboard (WE ARE ALL WITNESSES) immediately after the announcement and watching angry fans burn jerseys as a line of cops stood by to keep everything in line. It was a remarkable night to say the least.

With all that said, LeBron's decision to return to Cleveland has sparked interest in every corner of the media. One post that particularly caught my eye was from Jeff Sullivan at the illustrious baseball blog Fangraphs, who titled his article simply, "Let’s Imagine a Baseball-Playing LeBron James." The crux of his post is essentially this: there can never be a baseball-playing LeBron James. In order to evaluate LeBron's dominance in the NBA and attempt to translate that performance onto a baseball diamond, Sullivan turns to one of my favorite sports metrics: WAR, or Wins Above Replacement. The formula to calculate WAR differs from sport to sport, but the final product is the same: how valuable is a specific player to their team, and how difficult is it to replace that player? In 2013-2014, LeBron James had a WAR of 20.06, or about 2.3% of all basketball WAR. Sullivan then chases down two scenarios: one in which he attempts to create an MLB player with a WAR of roughly 23 (based on an NBA season) and one where the player has a WAR value of 42 (based on an MLB season). Needless to say things get whacky.

I strongly suggest you read the post, because it's both entertaining and illuminating. In order for a baseball player to be as dominant over his sport as LeBron is to the rest of the NBA, you essentially need to create a hybrid of offensive-centric Barry Bonds at his absolute peak and cross him with defensive-centric Ozzie Smith at his absolute peak. This doesn't make sense and can't ever make sense, but man is it fun. Of course part of the issue here is that NBA players CAN take complete control of a game in a way that no baseball player can. You only hit once every nine batters, you can only play one position on the field. Regardless, there's nobody quite like LeBron in any other sport.

So why am I talking about LeBron on a business blog? The thing that really captured my imagination through all of this was tying the impact that LeBron can have over his team and over his sport back to a famous quote by Steve Jobs. His saying that "A players hire A players; B players hire C players; and C players hire D players" rings true here. LeBron James is an A+ player with such a superior skill set that comparisons to him in other sports are difficult or impossible. By simply signing back in Cleveland, LeBron changed the landscape of the NBA because other A-players want to work and play alongside him.

Think of the implications A-players can have on your organization. By finding and hiring people with unique skill sets that defy comparison, you create an environment that not only thrives by itself but also attracts other high-performing individuals to join alongside. While we can't all be the everyday business version of LeBron James, the lesson remains: hire only the best.