Our family just returned from a trip to Mexico where we’ve visited many times before. This time we stayed at the Princess Resort near Playa del Carmen. Our experience was extremely disappointing despite the beauty of this new hotel.

As Darla and I reflected on our disappointments, we realized that probably 80% of the problems would have been reduced or eliminated if the hotel had simply informed us of our options and benefits. Our greatest challenge was finding out, often after the fact, about perks our package included. If our initial orientation had been done well and information provided, the hotel would have performed much better for us.

Another problem was the lack of communication. As someone who has visited Mexico 20 times, I know most service providers there speak better English than I do Spanish, but evidently because this hotel is new they’ve hired many employees who we couldn’t understand and who couldn’t understand us. A rudimentary ability to communicate with guests is key to a successful experience.

And if you really want to perform, inform your team. Service training was sadly lacking. Many employees simply didn’t know what to do despite whatever intentions they may have had. We sometimes ran into a welcome exception to the poor service rule, and these were typically employees who had been employed–and I assume trained–elsewhere before joining the staff at the Princess.

Information should always precede execution. As simple as this sounds, overlooking it can derail performance.

James Cagney never said “You dirty rat” in any of his films. Nor did Humphrey Bogart say “Play it again, Sam” in the movie Casablanca.

The Caesar salad isn’t named after Julius Caesar. It was named for its creator, Caesar Gardini who first prepared it in his restaurant in Mexico.

The cashew isn’t technically a nut (ever see a cashew shell?). It is classified as the seed of a fruit called the cashew apple. And speaking of seeds, that what a coffee bean really is–not a bean, a seed.

These entertaining facts point to a bigger question: how much of the important things we believe to be true really aren’t? I’ve read–and been unable to source–that 15% of what we are certain happened didn’t; that we’re recalling events incorrectly. While this might explain a few disagreements with your spouse, it should also be reason to pause next time you feel like forcefully advancing your point about what really happened (even if 15% may not be completely accurate).

I’m not advocating a life spent waffling. I am suggesting that we’d all be well served to dig a little deeper into our beliefs and opinions. Obviously much if not most of what we believe is well-founded and true, but the minority of our beliefs that are erroneous can be potentially ruinous to decision-making, relationships and even effective leadership.

We live in the age of easy answers. As much as I love the convenience of the internet, I remind myself that just because it appears on the web doesn’t make it true. Cads and liars can use the net just as easily as you and me.

Dan Sullivan, in his book The Great Crossover, suggests four things to teach kids to create an entrepreneurial attitude:

1. Self-learning: how to acquire new knowledge and skills without a teacher.

2. Self-motivation: setting and achieving goals in a systematic manner.

3. Self-management: the effective organization of time and money.

4. Self-promotion: the ability to present oneself to others in a way that creates new opportunities.

This is sage advice you and I can use to teach our kids to be entrepreneurs.

There is too much knowledge for anyone to know everything. One book claims Athanasius Kircher, a German polymath who lived in the 17th century was the “last man to know everything.” I’ve also read others who believe Francis Bacon, who lived at about the same time, was the last person to know everything (that was known at the time).

I’ve amassed a huge library and subscribed to countless magazines in an effort to learn as much as I could. It has, for the most part, benefited me. But like Solomon, the supposed author of Ecclesiastes said, “Of the making of books there is no end.”

So what should we attempt to know in a world so full of ideas?

Recently I’ve arrived at the conclusion that there are three primary categories of learning:

1. What we need to know: that would include information to living a full, healthy and fulfilled life as well as certain aspects specific to one’s career or profession. For instance, if you don’t have basic information about economics and money management, your future security and networth is limited by this lack of knowledge.

2. What we desire to know: this includes areas of fascination and passion. This type of knowledge is specific to the individual. A person passionate about his or her faith would most likely have a desire to grow in knowledge about the theology and practice of that worldview. I enjoy philosophy, but because I am not a philosopher by training or profession, this is information I desire but don’t necessarily need to know.

3. What we’d like to know: this is the pied piper of distraction. There is much I’m interested in knowing but simply don’t have time to learn about. Sometime I’ll buy a magazine because of a particular article. Reading it is fun and usually entertaining if not enlightened. The potential downside is the time away from my categories of “need” and “desire” to know. In economics, we call that an opportunity cost.

He or she who tries to know everything ends up knowing little. While that type of person might be hard to beat in a game of Trivial Pursuit, they’ve mortgaged important learning for trifles.

In his excellent new book, The Breakthrough Company, Keith McFarland makes this point:

“A search of the Harvard Business Review web site revealed that nearly 50 percent of the articles published by the Harvard Business Review mention at least one of the following companies: IBM, GE, Dell, Wal-Mart, and Southwest Airlines.”

Is it surprising that best practices quickly become common practices? If we all learn from the same examples, won’t we all look, well, similar? What are the odds for distinction and innovation?

There is much to be learned from the success of the mentioned media superstars, but remember there is much more to be learned–and often lessons more innovative–from the less notices and less written about companies in the marketplace.

To be uncommon, look for uncommon lessons.

Last night my friend John and I attended the Denver International Car Show. We parked in the convention center parking deck which is seldom an enjoyable experience.

For some reason you get routed up a tight spiral ramp to one of the top two floors. I’m beginning to suspect that there are only two floors of actual parking in the whole structure.

Your parking space is numbered. You go to the nearest kiosk (which isn’t always that near), wait in line (which is long during events which happens to be the only time you’d be parking there) and then go through a laborious process of programming in your number and paying for the time you’ll be there either with cash or credit card.

In concept it seems like a system that would be efficient and quick. In reality it is a pain in the neck every time I’ve used it.

John said to me, “Guess these guys need to read The Fred Factor.” My response was that a book about skills wouldn’t help a screwed up system. No Fred-like employee could do much if anything to overcome inferior infrastructure. Once you build out a bad system that becomes part of the infrastructure, you’re stuck–unless you’re willing to spend the time and money to fix the system. Skills and motivation won’t overcome bad systems and machines.

Look at your business and figure out what problems are caused by poor skills and which are caused by poor systems.

We hope that those of you who lead, train leaders or desire to lead, regardless of title, are as excited as we are about our new DVD training curriculum based on Mark’s best selling, You Don’t Need a Title To Be a Leader: How Anyone, Anywhere Can Make a Positive Difference.

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• Thinking about what you want to accomplish before beginning a project; hardly a novel idea but too often not given enough attention
• Caring about and listening to others
• Focusing on the success of those around you rather than on individual achievement
• Looking for ways to encourage the contributions of everyone around them
• Drawing on the power of shared values; the glue that binds us to a common vision

You Don’t Need a Title Leadership training takes you beyond simple authority and shows you how to achieve true power with people (leadership) as opposed to merely exercising power over people (title). The idea of an Army of Lions led by a Lion is a central theme of Mark’s speaking and writing. Imagine that kind of power and purpose in your organization!

The You Don’t Need a Title To Be a Leader DVD Training Curriculum is now available through the Sanborn Store. By the way, in addition to many fine products for sale in our store, we also provide several free leadership resources for download along with a wealth of other articles, archived ezines and just great content in general that will help aspiring and experienced leaders alike, lead better.

If you want to know what kind of impact You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader can have on training up your leaders, you’ll be interested in this case study from the VP of Human Development for a $200 million medical equipment and services company.