Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of executive coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace

the way you want to be perceived. I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach and today

we're talking about eliminating distractions.

After years and years of working as a television actor, I had beaten the odds.

I was supporting my family, had bought a home, and put my daughter in private school,

all without ever waiting tables or parking cars. I'd also learn to accept that working actors

in Hollywood don't act for a living, they audition.

And since most of the time they don't get the job, in order to work even a little they need

to audition a lot. The goal, of of course is to have as high a percentage

of success as possible. Now my betting average was pretty good but I wanted to make it

even better and I couldn't figure out how. I'd go into an audition and give a

reading that was so dreadful my dead cat could have done better. I'd keep a brave

face on but I knew and I was sure that everyone else in the room did too that I stunk but then

lo and behold before I could even call my manager they would offer me the job so

how to improve my average? Try to stink every time? Well, that didn't make

sense. Other times, I'd go into an audition and I would give a reading that was so good, so right on, that no one was going to be better.

They might be different, but they weren't going to be better. But then, silence, not a word, nothing.

The job would go to someone else. So how to improve my average? Even

my best wasn't getting me the job. Luckily, a wonderful actress named Linda Carlson changed my thinking about all of this.

Your criteria for success are all wrong, she told me.

You're thinking, the only time an audition is a success is when you get the job, but that's not something you can

control.

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