Category: #Business

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Watching success.

I have always been a sports fan. My appreciation for sports occurred well before I became an athlete, and before my business career and entrepreneurial journey.  What initially intrigued me about watching sports, was that although I didn’t fully understand how a team was put together, it was clear that some were more organized and better coached than others. Another observation I had early on, was that pure talent significantly stood out, but early on in my life, I didn’t appreciate how and why this was occurring.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago when one of my family members began referencing a United States college women basketball athlete. Her name is Caitlin Clark, and up until April 7, 2024 when she played her final college career game, she was a member of the Iowa University Women’s Basketball Team. I had never heard of her, or seen her team play, but based on the allure she seemingly possessed via the description of my family member, I wanted to see for myself what they were talking about.

Upon seeing Caitlin Clark in action, it was obvious her talent was different than other female basketball athletes I had seen. Her poise and movement on the court was unique and she exemplified what it meant to be an unselfish team player. She also commandingly knew precisely when she should and could hit three points. Many from half court, or other court locations that seemingly appeared to defy the odds of occurring. Another ability that made Caitlin stand out from others was how she was so authentically herself. Seemingly unapologetically so, which contributes to the elements of representing an example of watching success in action.

The ability to see success in action is much easier, and admittedly more interesting to watch, than watching a business or individual on a workplace team have success. For a few obvious reasons, one of them is because a camera typically isn’t following every move a business leader or individual is making. If it was, there would also be a significant amount of editing required to spice up what you were watching, along with providing extensive context to what you were seeing and hearing too. These are some of the reasons why watching success in sports is clearly more entertaining. Although there is a great deal which can be learned from business leader and individuals who are successful, it simply might take more effort in extracting and appreciating how they were achieving and arrived at their success. Which is why many business schools will leverage case studies to study both failure and success stories.

When I need to be inspired, I typically will either watch, listen to or read about either a person or a sports team that has been successful. I especially like stories about underdogs, or teams who are struggling, but find a way to become successful. In either of these scenarios, the teams have in common a concept focused on by the popular Ted Lasso show. The underlying concept and theme of belief.  A theme which is intended to help to support everyone on the team, and which included the supporting team members buying into the concept they could improve. More importantly, that at some point they could function with having healthy team dynamics which would contribute towards their eventual success.  Naturally this doesn’t happen overnight for successful teams, leaders, or individuals. Although this can easily be forgotten by many who are watching the success occur.

For those who have had success, it is well understood by them that they know that there was a great deal of time, work and effort that was poured into their success equation before it occurred.  Lots of sacrifices were also made, and the timeline that was desired for the success to occur may not have been anywhere near what was originally planned. How can this happen? It happens quite easily, because when humans are involved with setting a scenario up for success, the process of doing so can be extremely complex. Or not.

The “or not” method has a different approach to achieving success. It is often hyper focused, disciplined and requires both time and personal commitments that may appear to be unreasonable. Yet, they can be achievable with some creative thinking, and the “or not” approach doesn’t have to sound as undesirable or as radical as it initially comes across. The point is that there are options in terms of the variety of paths to success.

It terms of what you can learn from watching the success of others, its critical to keep in mind that everything they are doing may not be applicable to your desire to replicate their method. There will need to be modifications made to accommodate the reality of your situation as a team, leader or individual. However, all of this is possible, and even leaving out and replacing some of the elements which contributed to other peoples or team’s success can still bring you the results you are seeking.

If you are interested in some suggestions about what to look towards to help you borrow from the success others have had as leaders, sports coaches, team’s or individuals, here are some suggestions to consider.

  • It’s easy to think unrealistically. Give yourself permission to apply methods which either you or your team can be set-up for success to achieve (e.g., scheduling, methods of training, how you go about introducing different concepts to the team to wrap their minds around).
  • Study and break down what you see as the tactics and strategy being applied by whomever you are observing who is successful. Then determine ones which will contribute the best options for early “wins”.
  • Mindset plays a critical role in achieving success. If you are not willing to put effort into potentially modifying your own, or teach others how to go about doing this, the definition of “insanity” will likely occur. Give yourself plenty of time to also ensure that a changing mindset (e.g., positive, resilient) is going to be attainable.
  • Pre-determine measurements for success so that you can gauge whether you are tracking towards the success metrics you are aiming towards.
  • If you are leading a business or sports team, you will need to have exceptional self-awareness of your talents, and how they can constructively impact the team.
  • Delegation isn’t always a concept all leaders or sports coaches are initially comfortable with. If you are not comfortable with this concept, consider initially delegating concepts to others that offer ways to ensure your and their comfort level in completing the task, without any micromanagement occurring.
  • Make a list of the qualities and characteristics of either leaders, sports coaches, or the team’s you admire. Are any of them ones you or your team already possess? If not, why not, and is it possible to alter this?
  • Ensure you are not romanticizing either your own or your team’s ability to achieve success.
  • If you or your team haven’t cracked the code on finding a solution or recipe for success or sustainable success, there are likely a few contributing factors which are preventing this from occurring.
  • Be willing to take a hard and deep look into what the lack of success factors could be and be more willing to alter them.

One of the things in life that brings me great joy is seeing others succeed. My hope is that some of my suggestions will contribute to your ongoing success. Or, which can provide you with some alternative thinking about how to experience more success if you have not achieved the amount of success either you, or your team desires to have.

TAGS: #Success #Leadership #Leader #Sports #Sportscoach #Sportsteam #Achievement #Howtobesuccessful #Caitlinclark #Tedlasso #Iowa #Universityofiowa #Teamdynamics #Teams

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Are we done losing yet?

In my mind, winning can be prescriptive. What I mean by this is that you need to have a plan. One that either helps to mitigate the risk of losing or allows you to get back on track to begin winning again.

If you find that you are leading a business or sports team and it’s involved in a losing pattern, having a tactical, yet strategic plan is going to be something you are going to need. You will also need to have the support of the entire team, and we know this is easier said than done. Especially when the team has lost faith, trust or any number of negative sentiments which are contributing to an undesirable mindset. A mindset that is focused on scarcity versus abundance, or perhaps having a victim mentality.

Leveraging the mindset mentality and planting either a seed or setting the expectation to win is a powerful approach. An approach which many leaders and sports coaches leverage as their foundation and formula to obtain the results they and their team are looking for. Establishing clear ground rules for behavior or results, or expectations and having non-negotiable actions or behaviors that contribute negatively to the team are also clearly communicated and understood by everyone. Ideally, this information needs to be expressed both verbally and in writing.

When a team is experiencing a losing cycle, it’s easy for the leader and the team to do what I refer to as “hitting the ignore button”. At least for a period. Or until the losing streak or pattern has become so obvious, and a problem, it can’t be ignored any longer. Although, some leaders will do, or seem to appear to do exactly this. Why? One of the reasons is because they didn’t think it could get as bad as it has become. Another one is because they are embarrassed to say or do something different. We all know the definition of doing the same thing and expecting different results (when things are bad). It’s referred to as insanity.

Another reason a leader or sports coach will do what appears to be ignoring what is happening, is because they are not sure what to do to correct the problem. So, they either hope someone will step in and offer help, or they will keep plodding along and dig a deeper hole with a continuation of poor results.

While this is happening, the team dynamics and camaraderie start to slowly, or potentially rapidly decline. Finger pointing or assigning blame becomes rampant, and disrespectful and ugly and often out of control behavior begins to become the norm. Adding to this dismal scenario is the major issue of trust. Either it’s been entirely lost amongst the leader and team members, or worse. Worse is that communication between the leader/sports coach and their team either begins to rapidly erode or becomes non-existent. When communication shuts down, it may appear to be obvious to everyone, especially people outside of the team, although surprisingly to the leader and the team members, it might not be obvious this has occurred. Which is more catastrophic and adds additional fuel to the already burning fire of losing or severely underperforming results.

One question I often get asked about this scenario of chronic loss is whether the team has a talent or management problem? There isn’t always a straightforward answer. However, what I can tell you is that not having the right talent or knowing how to work with the talent to improve it, can significantly contribute to the loss.

Not having the right management or leadership skills are also factors which can contribute to a losing pattern, but not always. The real challenge is when talent and leadership deficiencies are mixed in with other factors. Some of which are controllable (e.g., attitude, working strategically, giving all you’ve got, being a strong communicator), while others may be out of a leaders or sports coaches control (e.g., over matched competitive talent, inferior or sub-standard talent skills which haven’t been developed, or blatantly not invested in, undisciplined approach to an individual’s contribution to the team, and nothing has been done about this).

Given the fact I always say, “no one shows up on game day and says, ‘let’s lose today’”, sometimes it may appear the leader and the team have taken on this mindset. This same scenario can play out in the workforce, particularly on sales teams who have been struggling to meet or exceed their numbers. For the participants on either of these teams, at some point when they are in a cycle or pattern of losing, they may have a slim spark of hope that their performance results will be different that day, season, month, or quarter. However, they often know they won’t be. What’s worse is that these team members may feel like they are in a hopeless situation, and winning or hitting their performance numbers isn’t even a possibility. When people on a team begin to adopt this mentality, this is when I say that something “radical” needs to happen.

What would I consider radical? The list of what would be considered radical is extensive. The trick is in how open-minded is the leader or sports coach willing to be radical in their approach? Only they know what level they are willing to entertain, and execute, and in some cases, they may need to go to radical extremes to change the trajectory of their results.

If you are a leader or sports coach who happen to be in a losing pattern or cycle, below are some suggestions you can consider:

  • Are you willing to ask for help to change the course of your results direction?
  • Are you willing to consider doing things very differently than you have been presently doing them?
  • Are you willing to admit that your approach hasn’t worked? Both to yourself and your team?
  • Can you immediately put together a plan that is intended to change your current situation?
  • Are you willing to communicate to your team that you have a plan. A plan which is designed to alter or significantly course correct the direction or state you have found your team in?
  • Is your and your team’s level of discipline and focus recoverable? What will you need to do to begin the recovery process?
  • Trust and respect are likely at an all-time low. Acknowledge this, and as part of your plan, incorporate what you will need to do to begin repairing these elements.
  • On a scale of 1-10, ten being the highest, how would you rate your ability as a leader or sports coach to effectively communicate, and on a regular basis with the team and individually with the members? Fixing the area of communication isn’t going to be easy, and this may be one of the areas you will need outside support to build back up your foundation.
  • What can you do today which will have a positive impact on the team?
  • What is your level of radical change tolerance on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest?
  • If your tolerance level isn’t at least at a 5-7, think long and hard about why it isn’t?
  • Mindset plays a significant role in performance outcomes. What are you doing to impact this in a positive way? An idea is to prescriptively suggest to your team that it’s time right now to begin “winning”.
  • Are you willing to risk doing things that you would have considered radical before to get your team back on track to winning and performing well? If not, challenge yourself in terms of understanding why you are not willing to do this. Sure, being afraid of continuing to fail is possible, but not attempting to turn things around is going to be a far worse outcome.

Losing isn’t desirable or fun, and it doesn’t have to be a long-term experience. Although the work to turn around a losing or low performing team is going to take significantly more effort, strategic thinking, and time than you may think, you know what the alternative to not doing this is. So, start immediately coming up with, or seeking assistance to develop your turn around plan. It will be worth it.

TAGS: #Motivation #Teamdynamics #Management #Business #Teams #Leadership #Leader #Sports #Sportscoach #Sales #Salesteams #Avoidlosing #Confidence #Strategy #Winning

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What lights you up? Many can’t answer this. Yes, this includes leaders too.

Let’s face it. Not everyone is motivated the same way, and clearly not everyone understands what drives or motivates them. We see examples of these individuals all the time, but was there a time when they were highly motivated? Perhaps, but chances are high that if they knew what motivated them, they might have responded to circumstances differently.

When it comes to leaders and sports coaches, it is to their advantage to deeply understand and appreciate what their own motivational drives are. Although since we don’t live in a perfect world, in theory they should, but the reality is some don’t know what motivates them. At least not fully. Should they? Absolutely, as they are responsible for the direction and success of others. So, if they are not fully operating at a higher level, the outcome from their leadership isn’t always pretty, or desirable.

Have you been what I’ll refer to as a victim of a leader or sports coach who wasn’t fully appreciative or aware of who they were, and what their own motivational drivers were? I’ve had the unfortunate experience of working for one of these types of leaders. Sometimes they are referred to and labeled several different ways, and one of them is being a narcissist. Perhaps even sociopathic. The second label is often harder to spot, as they have decades of practicing hiding their less than desirable attributes. Although when they are discovered, it is often shocking, disappointing and makes you feel like you should have seen what was revealed.

The two labels I noted are certainly extreme human personality behaviors, so the good news is that most people will not have to encounter or deal with leaders or a sports coach who is this way. The other good news is that most people who are in a leadership role have either been chosen by others to be in that role, or they have personally pursued being there for other reasons. Typically, noble reasons, and because they want to make a positive difference in other people’s lives. The best and most winning sports coaches will tell you they often put others needs before their own, and they are also very humble and almost cringe when the spotlight is upon them. Why? Because they want the spotlight to be on others who contributed to the team’s success, even if they were a large contributor.

One of the most endearing reasons one sports coach told me why they love being a sports coach is to see their athletes develop into highly productive, thriving, and happy adults. Another sports coach shared with me that nothing makes them happier to be invited to be a part of their athletes’ lives (e.g., getting a friendly phone call or text from them from time to time), especially when they are not “officially” on the current team.

The leaders and sports coaches who know how to bring out the best in others, know how to do so because of their EQ and self-awareness levels being much higher than most people. They also have taken the time and invested in themselves to better understand what their own personal drivers are that motivate them. More importantly to know and be able to leverage tapping into their motivational drivers when they are required. Which for most of them, is going to be daily.

When I come across people who don’t know what their motivational drivers are, they look like a deer in the headlights. There is also often an uncomfortable and lengthy pause as they contemplate how to answer the question of “What motivates you?”.  As I wait to hear their response, what I then hear from the people who don’t know what motivates them is that either they haven’t thought about this, or that they legitimately don’t know what they are. When I hear this, I have conflicting feelings.

My first thought is that I’m disappointed that they don’t know this information, because it tells me they haven’t been able to fully capitalize on many different aspects in their life or work that they should have been. My second thought is that revealing this information is going to be life altering for them. Providing they are willing to do the work to determine and unlock their own motivational factors. It’s hard to believe a person wouldn’t want to do this, but there are exceptions to everything, and I’ve seen my share of them.

For those of you who either feel like they haven’t fully unlocked or even scratched the surface to unlock what motivates you, I have good news for you. It’s never too late to sort this out. Even more promising? Once you do, you will be thankful that you sorted out and learned what your own motivational contributors are. There are not many guarantees in life, but I can tell you that most people who didn’t know what motivated them, and then learned what they were, were not the same people afterwards. Yes, it’s that powerful to understand this information.

So, if you are a leader, sports coach or know someone who hasn’t fully unlocked their own motivational drivers, I have some suggestions for you below to start turning that lock and opening it up eventually.

  • Often other people in our life have a better read or interpretation of what seems to motivate us. They have seen you as I say “light up” when you are doing or thinking about something that is a motivational driver. Ask some you have in your life that serves as a trusted advisor or person that knows you well, to give you some examples of when you seem to be motivated.
  • Looking forward to doing something, even if it seems mundane, as well as practical things might serve as drivers to motivate you (e.g., spring cleaning, getting back in touch with someone, helping another person, figuring out a solution to a challenge).
  • Most people will find it satisfying to help another person. Even the slightest types of helpful acts can give you a spark towards being motivated differently or give you additional energy and drive towards a pursuit.
  • Do you know what your “why” is? In other words, what are one or two reasons you get up to do what you do each day? These reasons are beyond making a living and simply surviving. Look much deeper than that. It’s in there, I promise you.
  • Perhaps someone or a few people have told you that you don’t appear to be motivated. Is it possible that this is situational, or due to a particular and potentially difficult circumstance? One that caused you to essentially become “stuck”. Possibly depressed? If so, have you asked for help because you haven’t been able to help yourself get out of this pattern you have found yourself in? No judgement is being applied here, as it’s possible others have offered you help, yet you were not able to accept it? Perhaps in time, you will be ready to do so? Consider this as a possibility.
  • If you knew that you could successfully unlock all your motivational factors, would you be willing to pursue making this happen? Some people won’t, but I hope you don’t fall into that category.

Giving someone the gift of knowing what their motivational drivers are is one of the greatest joys I have experienced in my life. Knowing what my own drivers are allowed me to pivot my career, find myself much more satisfied with my own personal and professional life, and the ability to look at life from a much-improved lens to have each day authentically be better than the next. I hope you do or can feel this same way too. 

TAGS: #Motivation #Leader #Leadership #Sports #Sportscoach #Teams #Teamdynamics #Management #Professionaldevelopment #Success #Management #Mentor #Trustedadvisor

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Trust. How it makes and breaks team’s and leaders.

The word frustrating, perhaps infuriating comes to mind when I think about both business and sports team’s I have either witnessed or been involved with that have performance results that are terrible. I’m talking about consistently poor results. Results that don’t make sense based on numerous other factors.

From an outsider’s perspective peering into a poorly performing team, they may quickly decide they know why the team is experiencing the results they are. However, it’s not that simple. In fact, if you were to use the analogy of an onion having numbers of layers, this is how the team’s performance needs to be looked at. It’s almost never one thing, but there is a factor that can largely contribute negatively to a team’s performance. Yes, you guessed it, it’s the element of trust. Or rather lack of it.

Independent of whether we are discussing a work or sports team, both function on an often-unspoken rule of having at least a minimum trust level. Think of this as being like gas in your tank, or perhaps a minimum charge amount on your car. The vehicle will operate, but if you don’t refuel or recharge it, it will eventually cease to work. This is how the aspect of trust works to support a team. Although, depending on where the team is at in terms of the four aspects of a team’s organizational cycle (e.g., forming, storming, norming, performing), they will either have a strong amount when they are performing, or a limited amount when they are in the forming and storming phase.

When a team is in the earlier phases of moving towards norming and performing, the trust level is growing. Not always, but generally it is at a reasonable level. I do want to point out though that a performing team can absolutely slide back down to a storming cycle. This happens when what I’ll refer to as “trust deposits” have not been made to support the trust health and “trust bank account”. Think of an action that can negatively impact a team. This would be considered a “withdrawal” from the trust bank. So, it’s critical that the leader or sports coach is aware of the health and state of their team’s “trust bank”.

Although it might seem obvious that trust can impact a team’s performance, what tends to happen is that the trust aspect either is in a state of slowly growing, maintaining neutrality, or receding in small or large doses. The smaller doses of trust growth or erosion are harder to detect, so it is up to the leader to have a strong pulse on this. However, also keep in mind that the leader isn’t ultimately responsible for the team achieving the “trust level” they will need to attain to be a healthy and highly functioning team. That’s where the members of the team play a critical role.

Independent of a team member understanding how they each contribute to the team functioning from a strong trust level is critical and shouldn’t be something that anyone takes for granted. This is like assuming that someone else on the team is doing both their job and yours, or playing their role, and taking on aspects of yours too. Certainly not an ideal scenario, as this arrangement tends to breed discontentment and resentment. When these two factors begin to emerge, they will quickly begin to erode a team’s collective trust level.

I’ve seen this type of dysfunction occur on both sports and work teams. The good news is that there are some actions which can be taken to quickly remedy this challenge. One of them being what I’ll refer to as “constructive conversation”. In other words, the individuals on the team who feel like they can’t trust other members of their team for various reasons, taking the time to have a conversation with the members who have taken too many “trust withdrawals”. Yes, this can be a difficult conversation to have, but it will be necessary to work towards restoring the trust bank account.

There is an element of confidence and bravery going to be required to have a constructive conversation with either one or multiple people. If you are the one who is going to be doing the talking, you may or may not be prepared to handle this conversation without some support, and this is perfectly fine. In fact, everyone can benefit from additional support in terms of what it will take to restore either pockets of trust on your team, or in extreme cases, the entire team.

Regardless of whether you need additional support with restoring trust at a minimal or maximum level, I have some suggestions for you to consider handling your trust building or restoration scenario.

  • The leader or sports coach is going to need to assess and determine what the trust level of the team is. Use a scale of 1-10, with ten being the highest trust level. Be brutally honest with what you think this number is, as it won’t be of any benefit to you or the team to inflate the number.
  • With your trust number level determined, assess whether the team has pockets of trust levels that are acceptable, and whether there are pockets (e.g., roles on a team, or departments within an organization) that are operating at a respectable trust bank number.
  • There is a chance there are one or a handful of people on the team who are contributing to the trust level numbers being low or high. Consider what the members who are contributing to the health or demise of the trust level may be doing. Either independently, or collaboratively. Potentially also either consciously, or subconsciously.
  • Is there a clear leader? Someone who is the actual workplace leader by title, or known as the head sports coach who should be playing a more contributory role in terms of helping to increase the team’s trust bank level? Sometimes people who hold the title of manager, director, vice president or captain are not fulfilling their obligation to help support having a higher trust bank level. In some cases, if you were to ask an outsider if they could tell who the named leaders in title are, they can’t. This should be obvious, and if it isn’t, the people in these roles need to understand the impact they are having on their respective team.
  • As we know, trust is earned. Is your team doing things that will allow each member to earn the trust of one another? Or are you seeing blatant actions which are chipping away or rapidly taking the trust level down?
  • Having the workforce leader or sports coach be prescriptive in terms of communicating both what and where they expect their team’s trust level to be at needs to be discussed frequently. When trust levels are back to being at a high level, this will be a very short team conversation. If they are not at a high trust level, the leaders and or sports coaches and their respective teams should be prepared to focus a significant amount of attention on this critical team dynamics component.

Every team wants to be successful, and they can be, so long as they know the element of having high trust levels is going to be an essential foundation ingredient. An ingredient that is critical to get right. Most importantly, having a high level of trust will provide a team with an opportunity to launch from, with the goal of working towards achieving success together.

TAGS: #Trust #Teams #Sports #Leader #Leadership #Sportscoach #Teamdynamics #Success #Management #Communication #Business  #Management #Mindset

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Showing up when it matters.

Overview:

Several days ago, I was faced with a critical timing decision. I needed to decide to embark upon a seven hour round trip to be someplace in person with one of my sports team’s or call into the meeting. The decision about making this trip was made six hours before heading out on the road, and it was not ideally made at the hour of 9:30 PM. Especially knowing I was only going to get five hours of sleep and must leave my house at 3:30 am to arrive where I needed to be.

Adding to the complication of making the decision to embark upon this trip was the fact that one of our family members was in the hospital and I was potentially going to have to bring two dogs with me. One of them is Charlotte, and she is used to traveling with me, but Luna isn’t. Based on some creative logistics planning, I was able to leave the dogs in the care of a family member at my house, and the family member in the hospital was stable enough to delay visiting with them until the early afternoon.

When I received “that” phone call from the head coach of the team, I knew right away that my plans for the next day were going to be significantly different. Thankfully I have several talents which allow me to turn complicated matters into manageable ones, and my skills were certainly put to the test. After rearranging my planned schedule late that evening, I knew that making the trip to see the coaches and their team in person was not only the right thing to do, but it was much deeper than that. What I mean by this is that I considered all the possible ways I could handle providing support from afar, but under the circumstances, the only option I was comfortable with wasn’t going to be an easy one to accomplish. This didn’t matter, as what did matter was that I needed to physically show up, regardless of the difficulties of doing so.

The twist related to this decision was that I wasn’t going to provide advance notice of being where I was going in person. I understood the risks of this decision, but I felt in my heart this was the right approach under the circumstances I was aware of.

Fast forward to being in the presence of the sports team and their coaches and the look of surprise and relief on their faces was what many would consider to be priceless. Also, heartwarming, because it confirmed I knew I made the right decision to show up in person to support this team. This is what I do, and to tell others to do this, you need to lead by example.

When I was addressing the team, I asked them initially if they knew why I was there? I did this because they certainly were not expecting me to be in front of them very early that morning. Nor were their coaches or their trainer. What do you think the response was from the team? If you guessed that I heard “crickets” and saw a lot of heads looking down at the ground, you would be spot on. Since the team apparently didn’t know what to say, I told them I was there based on a conversation I had with their coaches the previous evening. I also suggested to them that they likely understood what was involved with this conversation. After I conveyed the unspoken context of why I was there in front of them, I told them that sometimes it is critically important to just show up in support of another person, or an entire team.

After conveying why, I was there, I added that they too needed to show up. I then went onto tell them that I was challenging them to do this. To show up for not only their team members and coaches, but also for all the people who had indirectly supported them to get to the place they are today as a D1 team. Let’s also include the fact that since they were flying out to begin competing in their pre-season games the next day, it would be an ideal time for them to put this concept into practice. More importantly because there were enough members on the team who were far from doing this.

Does every leader or team have the challenge of not showing up at times? Not all of them do, but many of them struggle with this concept occassionally during their season. The same concept can be applied to workforce team’s and their leaders, but the timing cycles tend to be different. Although the outcome from showing up can produce the same intended positive results, and not the consequences that come from not doing so.

Was I emotional when I was addressing the team? You bet I was, and I believe I showed them how much I care, and that I am comfortable with being vulnerable too and showing a leadership side of me they don’t always see. Demonstrating and or allowing yourself to be vulnerable in front of those you are leading, or engaging with in a constructive manner is a critical component to leading others. Although I’m certain a few leaders either haven’t grasped or adopted this aspect associated with their leadership style. It’s not easy to be vulnerable, but it is authentic, and at the end of the day, in my opinion, there is nothing better than authentically being able to interact with and lead others.

The outcome from showing up hasn’t been revealed yet, but I expect that it will be over the next few days. This will begin with how the team is interacting and supporting one another as well as their coaches and supporting staff members.

Getting “that call” isn’t something any of us look forward to or are prepared well enough to handle. However, if you find yourself in this leadership scenario at some point, below are some suggestions for how to navigate this challenge well.

  • It’s easy to cast blame on a person or a group of people. Don’t do this when you are addressing the team. The ones on the team who are causing challenges know who they are, and so do their team members.
  • If you begin to see small cracks in your team dynamics, address them right away. There also need to be consequences that are in alignment with any challenges that are being destructively applied. Sure, you can start with a verbal conversation and warning if the negative behavior isn’t that significant, and you will have to leverage your best judgement and common sense about whether a warning, or immediate consequence is appropriate.
  • Make sure that your team understands what non-negotiable actions are. Put them into writing if you think this will help, and so that they can’t be misunderstood or misinterpreted.
  • Your first inclination might be to take the easy path and not directly address a matter. Although there will be choices that are hard to make, don’t dismiss them because of the fact they are. They might absolutely be the right ones to apply to make the difference or course correct the scenario or team dynamics you need to adjust.
  • Put yourself in situations that make you uncomfortable. The more you practice being in them, the easier it will be when you are faced with not having a choice when it really matters that you “show up”.
  • Ensure you are fully listening and understanding what you are hearing when you get “that call”. It’s easy to overreact and to not think clearly in heightened emotional scenarios. So, after you have intently listened to what has been conveyed to you, verbally play back what you heard.
  • In many scenarios when you get “that call”, you will want to physically be in the presence of the person who put out the S.O.S., and it will be up to you to decide whether it is physically possible for you to actually “show up” to support that person or the team.
  • Timing of when you can do “show up” can be critical, so, when possible, don’t delay in doing so. Although there will always be exceptions to this.

This is certainly an emotionally charged topic that is close to my heart, and the reason I do the work I do. Serving others as a leader is an honor, and privilege, so don’t ever forget this. I would be interested in knowing your thoughts on the impact you have had during a time when you had to “show up”. Keep on showing up.

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