The Importance of Vision and Leadership

June 11, 2009

Love of the Game

For the Love of the Game

Yesterday on Facebook, I wished a friend from high school, Tina Manzano, a happy birthday. She replied with:

“the best troy PG there ever was!”

PG refers to point guard. This meant a lot to me. Probably more than she or anyone will ever know. I am confident if the WNBA was around when I was in high school I would have pursued a career in it. I love to play basketball.

Starting at the age of 8,  I played from the time I walked out the door in the morning until sundown and sometimes later.

By the time I entered sixth grade and started Parks and Recreation, I was the best player on the court and I had never played organized ball. Some of those girls had been playing organized ball for 3 years.

I’ll never forget my first game. No one ever mentioned the rules. In the first half I was called for the 10 second in the back court penalty. I was upset, it was embarrassing but I scored twice in the first half.

At the start of the second half, I scored for the other team because no one told me we switched directions! I was really embarrassed! A great basketball player but no one prepared me with the rules. If my memory serves me correctly, the final score was 10-4 (we won).

I went on to play in 7th grade at Baker Middle School. I was playing for the best coach I ever had Mr. (Mike) Vagnetti. He had five undefeated seasons prior to this season. I was the point guard. We pretty much flew through the season with no problems until Boulan Park Middle School. They had 2 girls who were already 5′10, Karen Merritt and Kara Kesler, and I was barely five feet. Tina (mentioned above) was also on this team. This was the last game we had to win to succeed as the sixth team in a row to be undefeated at Baker.

If you don’t read anything in this article, you must read this:

At the end of practice, the day before the big game, Coach Vagnetti had us all lie down on the court. With our backs to the floor, he told us to close our eyes. He told us to envision 3 seconds left, we’re down by 1 and we make the game winning shot. I got the image in my mind. I was nowhere else but in the game winning moment. I believed it could happen. He gave us a vision.

It’s now game day, I don’t remember the score with 14 seconds left, but I do remember we were down by 3 points. Lena passed me the ball at the foul line and I threw up a shot that bounced around the rim and went in. Down by 1 with 9 seconds left.

I was defending Boulan’s Karen Merritt who was bringing the ball up the court when she was called out of bounce. She disagreed with the ref’s call and forcefully threw the ball in his direction. She was called with a technical foul. Mr. Vagnetti made the decision to have me shoot the two technical foul shots.

The pressure was on.

These moments define superstar’s from athlete’s. Anyone can play a sport but you “gotta have heart” to come through in the clutch moments to be the superstar.

With less than 5 seconds left, I made the two foul shots to put us in the lead by 1. They didn’t have enough time to bring the ball up the court and WE WON.

My point here is Coach Vagnetti gave us a vision. His vision coupled with my positive thinking and “heart” was a formula for our team’s success.

I went on to have many more defining moments as a basketball player but only under the leadership of great coaches.

The same is true for leaders of successful organizations. You must have a vision and positive thinking to prepare your organization to be “the superstar” and not just your average company.

I encourage you to continue following our blog to find out more about our vision.

Written by Harmonie · Filed Under Inspiration | 3 Comments 

For the Love of Bing - Microsoft Might Be Onto Something

June 2, 2009

Bing

On Sunday, while compiling search engine rankings, I noticed that when I went to Live.com (formerly MSN’s search engine), the URL forward me to Bing. Bing (formerly Microsoft Kumo) was announced last week at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital Conference.

How timely this article is since the last post ended with another Microsoft let down.

Don’t Leave Yet - Microsoft Might Be Onto Something

Right off the bat, I liked the speed, the relevancy and the ease of use. I also like some following features:

1.) Best Match - Provides useful links and information for definitive sites. Try typing in UPS (or click the link). It provides all of the information I could be looking for without having to enter the site! The customer service phone number and a tracking form.

2.) Deep Links - Deep Links enable users to see inside the site without having to click into it and learn a new site structure.

3.) Quick Preview - Summarizes a Web site at a glance, before the searcher clicks through to the site. Bing takes the captions you see beneath a search result a step further. Hovering over a search result gives you a better sense of whether a site contains the information you’re looking for without taking up valuable real estate on the search page.

4.) Instant Answers - A quick search for “weather” returns the local weather which is Traverse City, Michigan. I have been unimpressed with Google lately returning Madison, WI local information as I am in Northern Michigan.

4.) Virtual Earth - Virtual Earth is strikingly similar to Google Earth. Microsoft’s Virtual Earth seemed very smooth though with options to drop a pin on any location on Earth.

Competition is Good, but is Bing Good Enough?

Bing will definitely challenge Google to be thinking about their long term strategy here, that is what we all want. We want Google to get better and the only way that can happen is if they have to.

What about you? Have you tried Bing?

Feel free to post your feedback about the new search (decision) engine.

Written by Harmonie · Filed Under Search Engines | 4 Comments