I had a boring experience on Sunday that is worth sharing.

Throughout this winter, since I ran a Marathon in October, I have struggled to find time to run. I have a busy consulting practice, family engagements, and much travel. There is also the matter of the weather: it seems it has been too cold when I am free to run, and perfect weather to run when I have meetings or other obligations.

Saturday night, I decided that I didn't care about the weather on Sunday. I also decided that while there have been very valid and understandable reasons for not running, by and large, I had started believing my own BS. I had started believing my own excuses.

So, in my formerly dedicated fashion, I slept in my running clothes, laid out shoes and sweatshirts and sweatpants the night before, checked the time of the sunrise, set the alarm for 5:30 AM and hopped out of bed and ran a 5K practice run in 31-degree weather without stopping.

My best time of the year, in fact my best time in a long time. See, I told you it was boring. The good news? I stopped making excuses for myself, always a great day when that happens, even when it is boring.

One of my ‘bread and butter’ mentoring themes over the years has been my belief that more often than not the formula for success depends 50% on image and 50% on results. 

Not many people would argue with the concept of image and results being important, but most would have their own idea of the percentages that should be ascribed to each one.

Then of course, there is the example of the Oscar winning actor slapping the comedian for offending his wife. There are lots of questions about this one. Did the comedian know? Was the wife really offended?

What good does a slap do? (What good has a slap ever done, anywhere, by anyone to anyone else, except athletes getting butt-slapped on the field.

In the Oscar slapping situation, both image and results are impacted. The actor’s image suffered greatly with labels of inappropriate, violence, etc. On the other hand, the comedian’s tour showed impressive results with an exponential increase in ticket demand (In Boston, tickets went from $45 to more than $800 per seat in the secondary market).

My experience is that most people, including me, focus a little too much on either image or results, and wonder why they were not more successful in a specific endeavor without attributing the level of success to the level of balance between the two.

I think that is because too much emphasis on image (you phony!) or too much focus on results (you cut-throat) doesn’t work well, and impacts both image and results negatively.

Since we started this column with an ‘actor’ reference, consider the occupation and the 50/50 rule. An actor needs a certain image ‘fits the part’, but also needs to produce results like a ‘great portrayal.’ But think about everything that hinges on the right combination of image and results.  

Think of all the things that have to balance image and results.

The list could go on and on indefinitely, and no matter what thing you put in the sentence, there will always be two ‘needs’ in it. It needs to perform, and it needs to look______ when it does.

The same applies to companies and individuals.

Most know my aversion to spandex leggings. In this context, while they may produce the desired results, too many people wear spandex who really should know better because it doesn’t help their image.

The analogy that I’ve used for years to illustrate the difference between image and results is a bacon and egg breakfast. (I know, I have a lot of food analogies, but no allergies).

If you took two perfectly prepared bacon and egg breakfasts with four crisp slices of thick cut bacon, two large eggs, over easy, buttered wheat toast and home-made home fried potatoes and put the ingredients for one of the breakfasts into a blender, whipped it up and poured it on a plate, both breakfasts:

1.      Would cost the same for the ingredients

2.      Would have the same nutritional value

3.      Would take the same time to consume

4.      Would fit on the same plate

5.      Would have the same caloric content

Only the image would be different.

The point is that the reason I personally attribute 50% of success to image is that image can have a much bigger impact on decision making than results, and in many cases impacts judgement far more.

So, what’s the best way to balance image and results? I like to think of it this way:

Since results are relatively objective and can be validated or documented, the hardest part is identifying the 'image' part of performance.

The best way to do that is to give someone you trust 'permission' to share insights about your image. Not always fun, not always positive, but always valuable.

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