Although business hadn’t been bad, it hadn’t been great either. It was time people stopped taking advantage of all the excuses that were available and started to put some numbers on the board.
The President’s memo to the sales department encouraged them to be more aggressive in seeking out business. The memo stated that the company wasn’t satisfied with the status quo, he wanted “guys that make things happen” in his sales department.
What are “guys (or gals) that make things happen?” They’re people that take the initiative to try something new when everyone else is content to say nothing will work. They’re the people who are too busy working to listen to the latest rumors or spread tales of gloom and doom. They’re the people that see the glass as half full rather than half empty, but they aren’t satisfied until they get it filled to the top!
It seems like most everybody has a few initials after their name to indicate professional competence these days. There are MBAs, CPAs, MSs, DDs, CLUs and registered this and certified that. Sometimes its hard to tell one from the other or a good one from a bad one.
Because of their value, it’s about time that “guys (and gals) that make things happen” became recognized with their own set of special initials. Perhaps we’ll call them “GTMTHs”, “GTs” for short.
You can’t find somebody who has a GTMTH by reading their resume. But I can guarantee you that the President of any successful company is always looking out for “GTMTHs.”
You won’t find a PhD in GTMTH, because no school offers a degree in this most important skill. As a matter of fact I don’t think that you can teach anybody to become a GTMTH, I think it’s probably something that you catch rather than learn. It’s a credential that doesn’t lend itself to an easy definition, but it’s a quality that’s easily recognized as valuable.
All the other professional credentials that a person earns can help prepare them for a successful career and can open the door of opportunity. But when that door of opportunity opens, it is the GT’s that make the most of the opening.
Being a GTMTH is tough, but fun. GTs take initiative and are quick at picking things up. Without any official initials (up until now at least) to hang behind their name, they claim their position only by proving their continuing competence.
GT’s have to recognize when to act. After all, you only want to make things happen when there is a need for it, and then you want to make sure its good things that you are making happen. A GT should know that when you are not sure if something needs to be done, you are sometimes better off to do nothing at all. However, when you are sure that something needs to be done, you are better off doing something than nothing at all.
Finding GTs is difficult, it’s truly an art, not a science. Even though you don’t specifically know what you are looking for, because GTMTHs come in all shapes and sizes, you always have to be looking. When you meet one however, you almost always know it right off. Like most things, you get better at it with time. If you are a GT or if you know a few, you will learn to quickly spot others when they are around.