The Problem With Comparison
On January 3, 2007 the head coach of the Miami Dolphins resigned from his position after meeting with the owner of the franchise, Wayne Huzenga. Coach Nick Saban was leaving his post in the National Football League to become the 27th Head Football Coach at the prestigious college football program - The University of Alabama. No stranger to high level college football, having already won a national title while leading another Southeastern Conference powerhouse, Saban knew he had big shoes to fill in such a prominent role at Alabama. This wasn’t an ordinary college program and the role came with extraordinary expectations and scrutiny. None more than that Saban placed on himself to succeed. He quickly went to work on establishing new processes he felt would lead to success.
Nearly three years to the day later, Nick Saban led Alabama to a National Championship. Their first National Championship in close to twenty years. On January 7, 2010, the Crimson Tide steamrolled another college football titan in the University of Texas. With the win, Alabama captured a perfect 14-0 season. One of the originators of the “Trust The Process” mantra in coaching and leadership, Saban saw his process actualized with a perfect season.
Every aspect of the fall campaign was perfect. All of the tireless work from Saban and his staff of coaches had paid off. The late night recruiting calls selling the vision for the program. The time away from family on the road recruiting. Falling asleep in their offices watching film in preparation of their next opponent all fall. Early morning workouts with the players. Monitoring academic progress, tracking players’ eating habits. All of the labor, all of the sacrifice had culminated in accomplishing what they had set out to do.
For Saban, this must have been one of the most satisfying feelings of his coaching career. He had returned a storied program back to the top. He had done what he set out to do when he left the Miami Dolphins. The feelings must have been euphoric. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of accomplishment, the feeling of attaining a stretch goal, especially when the sacrifice had been so costly, the price so high.
We can almost picture Saban reclining in the office chair, deep in the bowels of the stadium, a smirk on his face as he stares towards the ceiling, distant sounds of players and coaches celebrating a job well done, the reality of the accomplishment sinking in.
There’s only one thing in this moment that could take the joy of earning his first national championship at Alabama away from him. One thing could instantly suck the fulfillment out of what was just accomplished. One thing, too often invited into our lives.
Comparison.
After winning his first national championship at Alabama. Nick Saban COULD ruin the celebration in his mind by realizing Paul Bryant won six national championships while at Alabama. And while one was nice, and took a lot to achieve. Saban still had five more national championships to tie the winningest head coach at the University of Alabama. Instead of celebrating winning one national championship at Alabama. He could have let his mind compare his one trophy to Paul Bryant’s six trophies.
There’s nothing quite as toxic in life, as comparison. Nothing that can cause quite as much destruction to our enthusiasm than comparison. Comparison has put more leaders in a sour mood than any revenue report, preseason ranking, or class scores on the AIR Assessment.
Comparison is so destructive because it removes us from the present. The six feet in front of our face, the stage we are in in the process - right here and now. It enlarges our focus on external things, things irrelevant to our goals, processes, and systems. It pollutes the focus needed on the task at hand.
Driven by ego, comparison will always measure success based on someone else’s progress relative to our progress. Instead of our journey being about continual improvement of our own craft, comparison binds us into measuring our success in relation to someone else’s success. Comparison views someone else’s success as a threat to our own potential.
Often mistaken for competition, comparison is not the same as competition. In competition there is a clear set of boundaries and rules to the game. A beauty pageant competition is scored on a predetermined, agreed upon scale. Comparison of beauty via social media is determined by our emotions and our reaction to seeing beauty in someone else as a threat to beauty in us. In competition, a true competitor wants the opposition to be on top of their game, so as to test and develop their own skills. In comparison, we want the other person to appear small so we can appear big. Competition often brings out the best in us. Comparison often brings out the worst in us.
Comparison always pushes us to focus on things outside of our control. Instead of trusting our own process, comparison thrusts us into facing an unregulated, not often well thought out benchmark for where we sometimes think we should be in the journey. A benchmark frequently driven by emotion and a benchmark rarely defined in a clear fashion.
How to fight comparison:
Recognize nothing good comes from comparison. You either feel really bad about yourself or overly good about yourself, depending on who you are comparing yourself to.
Remind yourself it’s really more important to focus on improving your craft. Improving what you were given, while enjoying the present moment. What someone else does is irrelevant.
Refocus on things in your lane. Things that are one-hundred percent controllable by you. Every second you spend comparing your role, your team, your company to someone else is time wasted that could be spent improving your skill, your team culture, your processes to get better.
It is very difficult to enjoy where we are in the journey when we are constantly comparing where we are to where “they” are. There has never been a more critical time for leaders to fight to stay in the present moment.
Fight Well, Stay The Course,
JB
Book of the week: Scary Close by Donald Miller
Podcast episode of the week: EntreLeadership Podcast with guest Jocko Willink - The Toxicity of Ego
Article of the week: 7 Ways Positive Leaders Lead - Jon Gordon