Category: #Success

Posted on

Is it time to stop doing what you are doing?

We have all either been there, or have seen someone or a situation occurring in front of us that isn’t working out. Perhaps it’s crystal clear to us, and for the person or the people involved in the situation. Despite this, the less than desirable situation continues to play out without any signs of it stopping. Or, the possibility of it changing. In either of these scenarios, there comes a time when someone else either needs to intervene, or the person or group needs to ask for help. 

Asking for help can be difficult. Especially when the factors of pride, stubbornness, ignorance or complacency is involved. However, these are some of reasons which contribute to a situation which can go from good to bad quickly. Often when the situation takes on the trajectory of heading into the “bad” zone, it might hover there for a period of time. This can be despite others attempting to intervene and to help.

Yes, it can be enormously frustrating seeing either a person or a group of people continuing to do something which isn’t working for them. Imagine how it must feel for some of them if they realize they are in a scenario which seems to present itself as a “Ground Hog Day”, when every day is exactly the same. Worse, is that it isn’t the type of day you want it to be, but you or the team feels powerless to change what is happening. In this team situation , either one person or a few people will need to address the fact and admit it isn’t going well, and that they want it to change. 

Change is a concept which most people have a more difficult time embracing. Yet, it can be exactly what needs to happen. When change needs to be introduced into a situation which isn’t working, the steps to do this don’t always provide an overnight solution. Although there are instances when they can have a desired effect to begin the process of what I refer to as a “course correction”. My definition of a “course correction” is taking a retrospective look at a current situation and then coming up with ways to introduce changes which will have a positive outcome. An outcome that the leader and team initially intended to pursue and experience. 

Fear of change, having the courage to admit you don’t have all of the answers and becoming stuck is something I regularly see happen with leaders and their teams from a performance perspective. It’s not only hard to watch it play out, it is even more difficult to wait to see at what point will be the right point to intervene. Or, to allow the leader or the team to get to the point just before they are heading to being in an unrecoverable situation. Being a consummate optimist, I rarely think a situation is unrecoverable, but occasionally there are instances of this. 

Over time I have learned to recognize the signs of when a leader or team is heading towards a place they may not want to be going. It isn’t always obvious this is happening, but there are signs. The signs you or someone else will need to be on the lookout for whether they are being leveraged, include factors such as whether emotional intelligence is being applied, being able to interpret and understanding body language, having the ability to read and know the leader or teams energy level and how to impact them are some of the underlying signs and behaviors that are often so subtle, they are very difficult to see. These are also some of the behaviors which collectively are contributing to the dysfunction of the situation or team. 

I’ll often talk to people about how as a “Caption Obvious” statement, that no one wants to be on either a losing or dysfunctional team. Each of these type of teams and those that lead them are certainly not desirable, but it doesn’t mean they have to continue to be that way. Most of the time, if they continue to be that way, as I noted above, some type of intervention will occur. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there are instances when an intervention doesn’t occur, and this is equivalent to the analogy of the captain going down  at sea with their ship. Perhaps this could be looked at as self-sacrificing, but the outcome generally isn’t desirable. When a leader takes the position of either being the “scape goat” or is trying to fix everything themselves, both of these scenarios never result in being favorable for anyone involved. Why? Because one person does not equal a team.

Let’s circle back to having some type of intervention or course correction injected into a scenario which calls for whatever is occurring to stop happening. In this situation some initial actions need to occur. The first is to admit what either the leader or the team has been doing isn’t working. The second step is to embrace the need to do something different, and the third and fourth steps are to ask for help, and to finally commit to doing something different. Doing something different doesn’t mean it will need to be radically different, although it might need to be. However, it could be moving towards introducing a series of steps to apply the course correction needed to alter the current direction which isn’t working. 

In addition to the steps I noted above to apply to help you or your team stop doing what isn’t working for you collectively, below are some suggestions of other options you can consider.

  • Start with evaluating your mindset. Is it open enough to be willing to consider doing something differently than you are currently doing which has contributed to the situation you as a leader, or your team are in?
  • Is there someone you know that has been in your situation? If so, consider reaching out to them and ask them if they would be willing to provide you with their own ideas about how they stopped doing what wasn’t working, and tried something else which produced the results they were looking for. 
  • If you are the leader, what are the factors which contributed to having you been in the less than desirable situation you or your team are in? Without placing blame on others, what are the factors you may have been contributing to your negative scenario?
  • Sometimes leaders and teams are not set-up for success. This doesn’t mean they can’t be successful. It simply is an early warning indicator that either the leader, members of the team or a combination will need to agree they will need to determine what the factors are which could be brought in to help them to be successful. This will require a high level of collaboration and trust, and if the leader or team is struggling, this is going to present an enormous challenge, but it isn’t one that can’t be overcome. It will take both time and patience, and no, there isn’t an overnight solution.
  • Sometimes others who have nothing to do with your situation, or who are not close to your less than desirable scenario, will have clear insights into solutions which can be applied to help you. Do you know someone or a few people who might be able to offer you their valuable insights?
  • Consider if the situation you are in is a reoccurring pattern or behavior. If it is, do you have the ability to be reflective enough to see what is contributing to it? If you do, are there instances when you are heading towards doing something you should stop doing when you can prevent yourself from continuing to be on this less than desirable path?
  • Although others may not agree, I do believe that hope can be a strategy, and that it is needed in circumstances that seem hopeless. So, if a leader or their team has even the slightest bit of hope their circumstances can be different, this can be the catalyst required to positively change the direction they are currently heading. 

Leaders and their teams are oriented towards being successful. However, there are times when they are not, but this doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t be successful under a different set of circumstances. The most important thing to keep in mind, is that if someone is willing to change and stop doing what isn’t working for them, that is the point in time when the opportunity to be on a successful path will become a realistic possibility. 

#Teams #Leadership #Leaders #SportsCoach #Leadershipstrategies #Hope #Tipsforteamsuccess #Dysfunctionalteam #Business #Strategy #Thinkingdifferently #Change #Askingforhelp #Teamsintrouble #Fixingteams #Helpingteams #Howtohelpateam #Management #Carreradvice #Personaldevelopment #Teamdevelopment #Communication #Motivation #Confidence #Strategy

Posted on

Choosing words that matter.

Even a small word such as yes can make a difference in someone’s life when it is stated at the right time and to the correct person. Consider the last time you expressed this word, and what the context of using it was. Now that you have hindsight on having said “yes”, was this the optimal word to have chosen? Or, would you have rather expressed another word?

It’s not always easy to cobble together words that will have a positive impact, and some people are clearly better at doing this than others. Does it take practice to be able to do this? For most people it does, but there are people who have the ability to be both articulate, succinct

and expressive in a way that will the majority of time have a positive impact based on what they have expressed. I’m sure you also can name someone who does this well.

We don’t always have the chance to practice stating something that will have a positive impact on someone, and even when we have an opportunity to write and then convey our message, it might not achieve its intended purpose. Although the chances of it doing so in writing might be slightly higher because of the reality that you can edit your message, we know there are no guarantees. Which is exactly why choosing the right word or words and stating them to others can be so difficult. Yet, having the ability to do so is certainly worth striving to achieve.

When the right words are conveyed to either another person or a group, it’s always interesting to learn post the message delivery about the variety of impacts and interpretations the listeners had. About half of the listeners will be in agreement with what they heard, while the remaining half will have varying degrees of either taking action on, needing more time to digest the information or potentially not have any impact on them.

When people in a group setting are hearing words expressed to them that are intended to have a positive impact, and the impact doesn’t affect them the way the speaker thought it would, places both the message conveyer and listeners into an interesting place. One that isn’t always ideal, yet provides an opportunity to also dissect what went wrong with the message delivery.

A recent conversation I was having with a leader related to actually not leveraging an opportunity to have the power of their words impact their team. Instead of conveying upfront what they intended the outcome of a situation to be, they opted not to express what they anticipated the results would be. So, the outcome which resulted was highly disappointing to the team, but the leader was in a neutral state, and this caused unintended consequences.

Upon having a post-mortem conversation with this leader about their decision not to leverage words to inspire or express their intentions to the team about how they were perceiving the outcome of the opportunity the team was involved with, was what I refer to as an “ahh-ha” moment. The fact of the matter is that there was a missed opportunity to state up front how the leader would have leveraged the power of expressing what they were thinking, and it was completely different than how the team was thinking and reacted without any explanation. Given this scenario, this is what I refer to as a perfect “course correction” situation. One that provided the chance to leverage the power of words to do so, yet didn’t occur.

At this moment in time, there isn’t closure on the example noted, but there is a next step. The next step is to have a conversation with the leader about how to fully appreciate and apply the power of words to both their own and their teams benefit. Will the initial time they do this have the intended impact they are expecting? I believe it will, and yes, it will take them practice to become better at doing this. However, it’s exactly what they need to do as a leader, and their team also needs them to do. In fact, the team expects this from their leader, and it is an enormous missed opportunity when this doesn’t happen.

If you are a leader or sports team coach or someone who hasn’t been benefitting from the practice of choosing words that matter, below are some suggestions to get you started.

  • Consider what words inspire you. Write them down, and begin practicing using them in sentences on a one-on-one basis with people you regularly interact with.
  • Do some research and listen and read about others who are inspirational speakers.
  • Pay closer attention during conversations to appreciate who is having a positive impact on you based on how they are conveying their message to you.
  • Words can be like weapons, and have unintended negative consequences. So, make sure that the words you choose are meant to be supportive and not punitive.
  • Work on finding your communication style and comfort zone when it is time to convey your words to others. You don’t have to imitate others styles, as it will be both hard to do, and isn’t likely your natural communication style.
  • Always think about what the intended end goal of your communication will be, as sometimes your communication and the words you choose will have different purposes.
  • Factor in making sure that your body language is in alignment with what your words are expressing.
  • Appreciate and be highly responsible for the words you choose to express to others, as they might have a lifelong impact on them.

I’m excited about the opportunity I have today to see the leader I referenced above, and to have a second chance of helping them to leverage their words. Words that I know they want to positively impact the intended outcome for their team today. Let’s hope the suggestions above are ones that will benefit both you and the team you lead. Or, to have a positive impact on any future conversations you are having with others.

TAGS: #Leaders #Sportscoaches #Communication #Powerfulcommunication #Leadership #Motivation #Inspiration #Business #Sports #Sportsteams #Thepowerofwords #Influence #Theimpactofwords #Professionaldevelopment #Personaldevelopment #Growthmindset

Posted on

Are you a compelling leader?

The word compelling is certainly a positive one, yet there can be varying degrees of how compelling someone might be. It can also be highly subjective in the eyes of the person stating the word, but the word is one you will pay attention to when it is woven into a conversation. Particularly when it is offered in the context of describing a leader.

In my personal experience of both working for, collaborating with and advising leaders, there are a number of characteristics that most of them foundationally have. One of them is a presence that has the effect of commanding your attention. An energy that they exude which is similar to a gravitational pull towards them, and in a positive way. Another characteristic which I have commonly experienced is the person’s ability to articulate information succinctly and in a highly compelling way to what they are saying. Although they may not have earned your trust, you inherently place your trust in them.

Granted there are numerous ways to describe a leader, and you have a gut instinct when you are with someone who is a leader in the making, not everyone who has been appointed as a leader should be one. Unfortunately, there are innumerable examples of these type of leaders, and they often overshadow the leaders who are tremendous ones that don’t get the same level of attention or notoriety. This is often because of the fascination people have with spotlighting people and topics which are less than favorable, and which have a higher level of “shiny object” effect. Consider the mainstream news as a heavy contributor to this phenomenon.

If you are a leader, or potentially on track to be one, have you actually truly stopped to think about whether this is the path you want to be on? I offer this question to have you consider the point at which you either decided to pursue this path, or the time when other people placed you on it.

Let’s start with the assumption you solely decided to pursue being placed onto a leadership path. Of course, not all leadership paths are equal, so I’ll leave the interpretation of what type of leadership path you are on up to you to decide upon. Although you may think that you either want to, or deserve to be on a leadership track, I can assure you that you will have more detractors than supporters of this decision at the onset. Why? Because by nature, people can be skeptical about someones abilities until they have more proof of them being able to accomplish something. However, the conundrum with this thinking is that how can you prove your ability without being given any opportunity to do so?

This is where early leaders who decided they wanted to be on the leadership track were potentially either more creative, or influential. Possibly both in terms of seeking and finding opportunities to gain their leadership experience. Now, consider these people early on in their “training-wheel” leadership roles. I’m certain many of their experiences with their early leadership roles were less than ideal, and I’m fully confident they made many mistakes. With each mistake they made, they either learned from it, were extended forgiveness or continued forward without the benefit of being reflective on the experience. Hold this thought for a moment.

The early leaders who did not take the time to be contemplative of their mistakes, or who do not admit having made any, are not who would be deemed a compelling leader. Why? Because there is a certain level of needing to splice in having a dose of humility and humbleness to being a compelling leader. In the absence of these characteristics, a leader becomes far less compelling as someone you want to trust, or put your greatest efforts into supporting. This might not even be something you are consciously aware of, but when you are, the compelling leader is someone you will do extraordinary work to support.

If you are wondering what other aspects there are to being a compelling leader, or are wondering if someone you work for is one, or one in the making, consider these suggestions to make this determination:

  • Would you proverbially “run through a wall” to support your leader, or would you initially hesitate before doing this?
  • What makes the leader someone you are proud of supporting? If they are simply someone you derive a paycheck from, chances are good they are not a compelling leader.
  • Do you have confidence in your leader’s abilities to make the right decisions which will offer the greatest benefit for the organization or team they lead? At least 95% of the time.
  • How would you rate your leader’s likeability level? You might not support all of their decisions, but can you separate how you feel about their decision making qualities from whether you actually like this person? It’s much easier to support a leader that you like, and this is also one of the compelling characteristics you should look for.
  • Respect is generally earned, although there are plenty of circumstances when you need to grant respect upfront, and then determine whether the leader is compelling enough to sustain the respect they may not have earned, but that is granted to them.
  • Leaders are intended to be followed. If you have any hesitancy about following your leader, chances are good, they do not fall into the category of being a compelling leader.
  • Being a compelling leader and outcome performance may in fact be mutually exclusive. However, when a compelling leader is able to achieve performance factors which are favorable, and consistent, this is a highly desirable combination to look for and achieve. I want to underscore that this is not an individually achieved outcome, and takes many people into consideration to accomplish. A compelling leader will acknowledge this.

Not all compelling leaders will be able to tick off all of the boxes above, and there are certainly numerous other characteristics which contribute to making them one. The point I am emphasizing is that we will always have a need to develop and support compelling leaders, or people who are willing to step into the role of being one. Thank you if you are one currently, or are on your way to being one.

TAGS: #Leadership #Management #Howtobeacompellingleader #Inspiration #Motivation #Awareness #Teams #Sportscoach #CEO #President

Posted on

Seeing the future. Can you?

About ten years ago I was out in Las Vegas at a technology conference, and one of the events I attended was headlined by someone I was surprised by. It was Sinbad, and he was there to provide both insights and predictions on how our future was shaping up.  Some of his predictions seemed far-fetched, but many of them were plausible.  In fact, the ones that were plausible were the ones I was most captivated by.

Although being able to see and predict what might be happening in the near or long term future, if you had this ability, what if it included both positive and negative information? Could you handle the potential negative outcomes? Or, would knowing this information allow you to potentially prepare to either mitigate the damage in advance, or altogether avoid it?

Now, let’s focus on looking at the positive side to being able to capitalize on being able to see into the future. Perhaps you know someone who has this ability, or possibly this is one of your skills? In reality, the majority of people do not have this ability, but when you come across someone who does, be prepared to have a fascinating conversation. In fact, some of what you might be hearing will either be tantalizing or put you into a state of having to suspend your skepticism to truly pay attention to what they are saying. If you are a good listener, this will be easier for you to do.

When I am in the presence of someone who has the ability to see what I don’t, I have always been thoroughly intrigued by the way they describe what the future looks like. Their descriptions are typically influenced by their level of both life and professional experience, but not always. In fact, I have been most surprised by younger people (e.g., sub 30) who are able to verbally paint a vivid depiction, and provide a highly detailed description of what they see happening ahead of where we are presently. The more questions you ask them about what they are seeing, the more details you will get about how what their predictions are.

Are people who have the ability to see into the future always accurate? Not always, but many of them have an uncanny ability to predict what the proverbial road ahead has in store for us. Upon reflecting back on conversations with the people who have the skills to offer predictive insights into our future, has offered me personally and professionally tremendous advantages. The trick is to pay close attention to what you are hearing, and not make assumptions and twist what you are hearing about to be in your favor. This isn’t always easy to achieve, but I highly recommend you heed this advice.

In terms of whether it is possible for those of us who don’t have the ability to see what lies ahead to help us, how do we know if there are people we interact with that have this skill set? Here are some suggestions to help you to do so.

  • The first step is to ask yourself if you are open-minded enough to allow these type of conversations to occur?
  • Consider some conversations you have had where the person you were speaking with had a completely different approach to how you think. Were you dismissive or intrigued by their thinking? If you were dismissive, it’s possible you were in the presence of someone who has a “futuristic” ability.
  • When you are conversing with someone who has the ability to see into the future, they might seem conversationally as if they spend a great deal of time thinking about what has yet to occur, and appear to be more comfortable with thinking ahead versus living in the moment, and being fully present.
  • A few key phrases that you will regularly hear from someone who has the futuristic thinking tendencies, is “Imagine if this was possible…” and then they venture into telling you about the vision they have which supports this statement.
  • There is a certain contagious energy people with a futuristic ability possess, and they generally have a positive outlook on what they are describing to you.
  • If you think you might have the ability to see into what lies ahead for the rest of us, work on fostering this ability by both verbally, in writing or perhaps both options with the intention of engaging and increasing your talent in this area.
  • For those of you who are leaders or sports coaches, I’m going to highly recommend you seek having someone like this on your team, or in your “trusted advisors group” who has this ability.

As a consummate optimist, I’m always excited when I come across someone who has a futuristic capability, and I’m delighted to share with you that I have the good fortune of knowing quite a few of them in my life. All of whom I treasure, and I hope you either have them in your life too, or will soon.

TAGS: #Future #Futuristic #Optimist #Optimism #Leader #Leaders #Leadership #Sportscoach #Team #Teams #Business #Success #Motivation #Teamdynamics #Trustedadvisor #Openminded

Posted on

The benefits of losing.

If I have said this once, I have said it hundreds of times. No sports team ever shows up on game day and says, “let’s lose today”. This same sentiment can apply to work scenarios too, albeit there are some additional layers of complications that doesn’t make this statement as simple or straightforward. However, it is applicable. Although in work scenarios, this statement may not be applied one hundred percent of the time, much to the chagrin of those leading the employees.

The comparison between sports teams and work teams is something I truly enjoy doing. Yes, this is partially due to working with both team types, but also because there is so much to learn from both of them. Now toss in the cross-pollination from the learnings, and that’s where everything begins to start to become more interesting.

I chose the word interesting, because I am always pleasantly surprised by how similar sports and work teams are to one another. The obvious common denominator is that people are at the core of both scenarios, and both are led by typically a few leaders. Although where the people comparison differs, is in the age decade that the sports teams are in, compared to work teams. The sports teams age decade is more homogenous and typically all female or male teams, versus the work teams being far more diverse in both categories.

Another interesting comparative difference between the two types of teams is that there are more opportunities for less experienced leaders of sports teams. An exception to this would be that some work teams in the start-up phase, or smaller, family-owned businesses might have less experienced leaders. Are the less experienced leaders at a disadvantage then the more experienced leaders in both categories. Yes, and no. Yes, if they seek counsel from more seasoned leaders, and no, if the less experienced leaders are willing to admit they will likely require more support than they might realize.

Although work and sports teams have different metrics to determine their performance, the sports teams have a more straightforward method of determining their outcome results. Work teams also are generally working on quarterly based results, while sports teams may not all be playing in all four quarters of the year. This also has both advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that the sports teams comparatively are operating on more of a “sprint” style, versus the work teams who are running marathons. Preparing for both styles is far different, and also comes with a separate mindset approach. One isn’t better or more favorable than the other, they are just different.

Having experienced for most of my career what it is like to be focused on quarterly results, I learned how to pace myself and ramp quickly for results at the beginning of a quarter. Typically, my team would then have to shift into maintaining and then potentially have to figure out a strategy to surge on the performance results in collaboration with the sales teams towards the end of the quarter. Admittedly, there were times that the frantic feeling of having to collaborate extraordinarily well with the sales team was something I enjoyed doing. Although it could also be exhausting and highly stressed induced.

Comparatively, sports teams are in this situation on a game-by-game basis, so their cycle to focus on what it will take to win is different, but also similar. The similarity is that like the work teams, they are extraordinarily dependent on one another to perform at their peak level in every game. We have all seen plenty of examples of some of our favorite college or professional athletes who exhibit being able to perform at a peak level consistently, but this doesn’t apply to everyone on the team. So, can one or two peak performers on both work and sports teams make a difference? Yes, I think they can, but this is where the concept of taking a look at the benefits of losing comes into focus.

As I stated earlier, no one shows up on game day and says, “let’s lose today.” The athletes may think their chance of winning is limited, but most of them are going to put all their energy into having the game outcome be favorable. Ideally with a win, but a tie in some cases will also give them points towards their final season performance numbers. Granted although we can agree that winning can be more desirable, teams can in fact equally benefit from losing. Here are some benefits to a team losing.

  • When a team loses, more emphasis is put into evaluating where were the trouble spots that prevented them from winning, versus a winning team focusing less on this.
  • Losing isn’t satisfying to anyone except the winning team and its fans. However, it can help the losing team to look for opportunities related to how they can work differently and more effectively together.
  • Experiencing adversity can be a great motivator towards change, and if the change is oriented towards being constructive, it can help a team to fuel its team dynamics in a positive way.
  • No matter how stubborn a leader is, eventually if they are consistently experiencing defeat, they will inevitably seek support from others to help them. Or, help will be given to them. Although this doesn’t always mean they will accept the help if the leader is reluctantly having to accept it. Even if it is in their best interest for them and their team.
  • Upon repeated defeats, some leaders will eventually figure out whether they are unselfish enough to admit they don’t have all the answers. This doesn’t always mean they will seek more experienced counsel, but it does offer a glimmer of hope they will admit their leadership approach isn’t working.
  • Although there are teams who have long stretches of losses, at some point, circumstances will change that will have others making decisions for the leader who they have lost confidence in. This doesn’t always happen at a desirable pace for most fans, the athletes, or the support staff of the team, but it will invariably get to this point.
  • The feeling and memory of losing can remain with you longer than the amazing feeling achieved by winning. How a leader and their team handle both aspects can be what separates them from heading towards the path of turning their performance results around, or continuing on the same path. Knowing how to achieve this is critical, with emphasis placed on the word “how”.

Even if you are not a competitive person, most people will agree that winning is far more fun than losing. Although, understanding and appreciating the benefits of losing can be far greater in terms of applying it successfully to other areas of one’s life.

TAGS: #Leaders #Teams #Motivation #Leadership #Business #Winning #Sportsteams #Sportsleaders  #Teamdynamics #Collaboration #Learning #Personaldevelopment #Professionaldevelopment