When I give a speech I always try to interview a dozen people from the audience beforehand to better understand their situation. Two of the questions I usually ask are, “What are the two greatest challenges your organization is dealing with in the next 100 days?” and “What are the two greatest opportunities your organization has in the next 100 days?”

Recently I asked a CEO this question for an upcoming meeting. He answered the question on challenges and then asked me how I defined opportunities. While I’m big on defining words, I had not thought of defining opportunity. So I said, “Anything that you can leverage now to improve your future.”

In retrospect, I like that answer. What can you leverage now to improve your future? Is there a person in your organization that you could mentor for greater performance down the road? If yes, then that’s an opportunity. Is there a particularly cranky customer you could proactively reach out to and ask for his or her opinion that might help solidify your relationship with that person? If yes, then that’s an opportunity. Is there an idea you’ve had in your head for over a year about how to create more appropriate value for your customers that you could start to put into motion? If yes, then that’s an opportunity.

What can you leverage today that might improve your future? There’s your opportunity.

With the CEO it turned out that his answer about his challenges ended up being his same answer about his opportunities.

In 1985 Butch Perchan was the athletic director at Tri-State University in Angola, Indiana, a small NAIA school. Butch gave me my first job after college as the head soccer coach, head of the Greek system, and dorm director of the largest dorm on campus. I made $3,000 and free room and board, and I thought I was in heaven. I can remember sprinting up the steps to my office to recruit soccer players and lining the field for the games. It was a great job, and I learned a ton about a lot of things.

Butch was the greatest boss I ever had. He worked hard, he made sure I worked hard, and he made every minute of it fun and funny. He cracked more jokes in five minutes than anyone I’ve ever met.

I left Tri-State in 1987 to go to DePaul University, but Butch and I stayed in touch for a few more years and then I lost track of him. I caught up with him on Google in 2008. He had been the AD at a few Division II schools and then he took the job as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs at a small university in Florida. I had a speech near his school so we met for lunch and then he gave me a tour of the campus. It was a really beautiful school that I had never heard of. He showed me the soccer fields and then the basketball court where the team was practicing. He told me the goal was for the team to play in Division I. Everywhere we went people yelled out, “Hey, Butch, how’s it going?” I felt like we were back at Tri-State University.

Last weekend his school, Florida Gulf Coast University, made history as the first-ever #15 seed to make it to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. Yesterday FGCU was on the homepage of cnn.com, USAToday.com, and espn.com. Their website had more than a 500% increase in hits in one day.

Butch was ready for his moment. After being an athletic director for more than 30 years he is now a big part of NCAA history, and I’m really, really happy for him.

Are you ready for your moment? Are you ready to handle massive success at a moment’s notice? You never know when the tide will turn in your favor, but you have to prepare for your moment every day.

Recently Charlie Rose interviewed Michael Porter about strategies that could help the U.S. be more competitive in a highly-competitive world. Here’s the link. Porter explained eight broad, high-level strategies that he believes will affect the direction of the U.S. toward becoming more competitive on the global stage.

High-level strategies that affect the nature and direction of an organization are very important and can be extremely useful. However, for an organization to compete, individuals in the organization must act in competitive ways.

Here are six competitve behaviors that individuals can do that I believe really matter: define winning (what would have to happen in terms of your efforts that you would consider a victory for your organization?) prepare to win (do what it takes to get yourself ready to deliver that victory), maintain a burning desire to win and to do so honestly, persevere through challenges, analyze your performances and improve in the details, and be comfortable with getting other people uncomfortable (it’s okay to challenge the way other people think and behave, just do so in a mature and respectful way.)

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