“Dan Davis…’HDH Sports!” His voice was deep and booming, and the studio microphone caused it to echo with spectacular richness.
He was the sports anchor for WHDH a.m., big-time radio in Boston in the 70’s and 80’s. And he was really good. Also, turned out to be a great guy.
While interning at WGTR a.m. (small-time radio in my hometown of Natick, Massachusetts) as a 21 year-old wannabe sportscaster, I met Dan when we both covered the annual U.S. Pro Tennis Championship at Longwood in Brookline. I asked if I could visit him at the station some day and watch him work. He kindly agreed.
While there, he did some great teaching and provided me with many of the inside aspects of broadcasting.
But, what impressed me more than anything was the following exchange:
At one point, he told me that when conducting an interview for a story in which only one answer would be aired, to – rather than asking a bunch of questions and sorting through all the answers later in order to find the best one – simply ask one question; the one I would eventually use.
“Ahh, of course, Mr. Davis” I agreed. “I’ve been doing it all wrong. I’ve been asking a lot of questions because I haven’t had the confidence to know which one I’m definitely going to use. I’ll do it your way from now on. Thanks!”
He then paused, thought about it and said, “Actually, Bob, I was wrong. Eventually, after you’re experienced enough, you should do what I said and ask just one question. For now though, until you have the confidence you need, keep doing what you’re doing. Ask as many questions as necessary in order to get the right one.”
Notice his first five words: “Actually, Bob, I was wrong.”
Sure, I learned a “good” lesson in terms of asking questions.
I learned a “better” lesson in seeing a pro – a true pro and a confident and humble man – who could admit to his young “protégé” that he was wrong.
Over the next 30 years, I’ve continued to notice; great leaders, great people, the truly confident, the real winners, not only know they make mistakes, but admit to those mistakes, as well.
What a winner. “Dan Davis…’HDH Sports!”
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Thanks so much for this post Bob,
I think the people who have made the most influence in my life have been those who remain “real”, and real people make mistakes…it takes a bigger person to admit that…and those are the people I respect even more!
Jody In Beautiful BC
thanks for the smile today!
Bob,
Great reminder that those who are confident leaders can place being genuine as priority over being correct!
Bob, that’s the advice I got the day I interviewed for the Enterprise job, delivered by a great business person by the name of Doug Brown. He just said, “Larry, from time to time, you’re going to screw up. Just admit it.”
At the time, it didn’t mean that much to me, but he was right. I screwed up a lot, especially in that first month on the job. I took his advice, and vowed to learn from my mistakes; equally as important is the perception you leave with people you work with. They view you as an honest, hard-working guy who isn’t afraid to admit he’s not perfect. People like other people who aren’t pretentious, and in turn, there’s a lot less tension and a lot more cooperation & teamwork; and that’s not so bad.
Your post brought back a lot of good memories and reminded me what it takes to be successful; admit you’re not perfect, but always try as hard as you can to be the best you can be. Nice!
Wow – what exceptional feedback. Another case where the comments have more wisdom than the original post. 🙂 Thank you for sharing.
This reminds me of a workshop I was running recently. In response to a question, I offered some advice that seemed a little “out of the box”, yet worth trying. When I thought about it (and thought about it and thought about it…) later, I realized it was NOT good advice; not at ALL! The more I thought about it, the more I felt like it was actually awful advice.
At the next meeting, I apologetically told everyone I wanted to retract the advice I had given the week before. Several participants shared that, at the time, they didn’t think it was good advice either, and they had no intention of following my suggestion on that idea. So glad I admitted I was wrong, especially since they knew it anyway.
Interesting, that I thought about just not mentioning it; if it came up I would address it, but if not, I’d let it go. Reading this post makes me glad I didn’t do that
Linda, thank you for sharing that. And, I’ll bet it made a huge difference to them and their ongoing trust/faith in you. Not that they didn’t already have it, but I’ll bet you took it to a whole new level; the fact that you addressed in before they did, and came right out and said you were wrong. Good for you, my friend!!