Focus on you is a team thing

For me, the greatest team sport is football – the North American version.

I have played and coached at all levels and have always been a fan of the game – the blocking and tackling and practicing and preparation, not the shenanigans of the players and leagues.

The lessons I learned and the friends I have made through football are my treasures.

A football team, like any business, relies on trust between players, and with the coaches. And there is an expectation that each player takes care of their own business (their body and their mental prep).

This same expectation must hold for any business to be successful – for profit or not-for-profit.

It is incumbent for every employee to prepare themselves to do their best every day.

I know life happens and we sometimes give less than 100% – in life, business, or football. And that is OK. Great coaches forgive you and help you get better for the next play or the next game. Great leaders will support you to do your best and recover from what has negatively impacted you. And great families will always be there to support you.

However, if you take your own prep and actions for granted you will create a lack of trust. Those that supported you may be less willing (other than family, perhaps) to continue to support or coach you if you are not taking control of your own actions.

And that is why a focus on yourself is important to the success of the team.

If each player is prepared the best they can be, this increases the chances of executing a successful game plan.

If every employee knows how their role best serves the customer (external or internal) and they are prepared to deliver then this increases the chances for success.

But how do you create a game plan for each individual?

I believe a coach or leader cannot motivate a player or employee. Motivation is intrinsic. It is up to the coach/leader to create the environment that the player/employee wants to give their best to the team/company.

In other words, I can steer the player/employee rocket – I cannot light it.

Here are steps that worked for me as a football player/coach and employee/leader:

• Get your head right. It is called work for a reason. When you clock in, give your best.
• Invest in yourself. Got off the couch at night – the Real Housewives of ____(insert city here) are not “real.” Read, study, watch something that can help you get better for work. OR volunteer your time where you can use your talent/skill to assist an organization.
• Learn how to coach. I have seen too many HR (hardly relevant) folks talk about coaching and they never did anything past Timbits hockey. Yes, hard on the HR because there is a high expectation.
• Learn how to be  ___ (insert your profession here). If you are a marketer – become a better marketer. Don’t rely on someone else to tell you what to do. Guidance for sure. But you are going to craft where you want to go. Be honest with yourself because you know what you can and cannot do. Build on your strengths and improve on a weakness if debilitating.
• Learn how to think and challenge to improve the situation you are in. As a player, if you don’t know the plays very well who will trust your input or suggestions? If you are an “average at best” performer who will trust your input or suggestions?
• Learn ho to ask for assistance/guidance and how to give assistance/guidance. If you have a common team goal you can determine what you need to do to help get there. And if you are the coach/leader you can see who can contribute at what level and where you need to add to the team.

And one final reminder – you can dismiss all these points if you don’t want to get better. I am not judging.

I am suggesting that if you want to be a winner and play for a winner these are the actions that you need to take to become a winner.

And remember that a winner has peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.

Coach John Wooden…take his word for it as the coach of the century.

Change is easy, isn’t it?

A couple of weeks ago our kitchen sink stopped draining at 7PM on a Saturday night. We used Liquid Plumr and the baking soda/vinegar mixtures to try and unclog the drain.

Nope, nothing helped clear the clog. And eventually we saw a slow draining of the water so we left it overnight.

Yikes! Sunday morning brought water into the basement as the pipe backed up to the sewer trap and was slowing leaking.

After we were able to get a plumber booked to come to our house in the early afternoon, we decided to tidy up under the sink in case he needed to get in there. Now, it wasn’t filthy or anything, just had extra items that we didn’t need. And we have a double sink and double doors under the sink. For 20 years the garbage can was on the right hand side.

We changed it to the left hand side.

Guess how long it took my wife and me to get used to going to the left hand side for garbage?

Minutes? Nope…

Hours? Nope…

Days? Yep… at least a week.

In week two each of us had a good chuckle when the other went to the right hand side.

But if a guest cam over and wasn’t aware of the previous location of the garbage can, they would just put it in the right spot immediately upon you advising it is on the left side.

In business, if you ask employees about their willingness to change  the answer is usually, “I am good with change.”

Yeah right.

Interestingly, a brand new employee that just joined is readily able to change because they are not trained in the old ways.

If we, people aka humans, were good at change companies would be implementing the improvements in their systems and processes to improve the product or customer experience. And we’d have no concerns or employee backlash that change is required.

There are myriad programs and companies working on the digital transformation of companies. Too much of the work is purely systems related and not human centric.

Pick up any terrific book on change management and you will see that:

• Change needs to start at the top
• Get key internal leaders on board who can influence and lead the change
• Involve your customers to ensure the change is going to be helpful or beneficial to them when they purchase your product/service
• Have a plan and commit to the plan

That is an unfair summary of the depth of work required to enact change in an organization because the change requires everyone to be part of the action.

Not using those core steps is like drawing up a play on the sideline of a championship football game …using elements that no player has experienced or can understand but the coach thinks is a great idea at the time.

Yes, we create plays in games “on the spot” but they are based on the capabilities and strengths of the players in the situation to take advantage of a potential weakness they see in an opponent at that time.

So, when your drain is clogged, or you need to make a change in your company, consider all aspects of the solution when creating your winning game plan for change. Including any changes to the placement of the garbage can. This will help you laugh when you open the cabinet and plop the table scraps on the bottle of dish soap, instead of in the garbage can. And you can get your employees to do things the new way a lot faster.

And here are books on change management by two colleagues – highly recommend them both.

(Although nothing specific about the memory change needed after moving the garbage can)

Why not be #1?!?!

During a recent conversation with my youngest son, we were discussing why there are players trying to just get an extraordinary salary, and not focus on winning a championship. We were both on the same page that our most memorable sports events were winning championships. They were not personal accolades or awards.

For me, my proudest business accomplishments were achieving success with a new product, a campaign, or a rebrand. And I did not do these alone. I was part of a team.

Just as in the sports situations my son and I discussed – it was teamwork.

And neither of us could figure why someone would just want the money if they could choose to be part of a championship team. I mean, who wouldn’t want a crazy high sports salary, right?! But given the chance to win a Stanley Cup or Super Bowl or have a big contract, we concluded that having our name on the cup would be most satisfying.

A legacy.

Think of the dominant Montreal Canadiens teams of the past winning consecutive championships. Players didn’t leave after the first one. They wanted multiple rings. Same thing with the Steelers in the 70’s – win more Super Bowls!

As I pondered our chat, and thought about the relationship to my business career, including places I worked and people I worked with, there was always a common thread.

The teammates were selfish.

Yep, the worst kind of fish…sel-fish!

People were confidant in their own abilities and focused on always doing excellent work. If you don’t value yourself first, you cannot deliver what is needed to support the team.

Period.

The main purpose in life is YOU. If you choose to not do things, that is on YOU. It means you don’t care enough about yourself. This is your purpose.

And when you continue to focus on fundamentals (best players in every sport work on the basics every practice; best actors prepare deeply for every role) and build on that foundation then you are better able to support the team.

Do your job and trust your teammate to do theirs. Great motivational saying and description of a true team.

But it is more than just a saying. This needs to become your essence. I don’t mean a work hard and not enjoy life approach. I mean making sure you are doing everything you can to be at your best when your best is needed.

And Coach Wooden says your best is needed every day.

Total accountability every day.

In your winning game plan, as a marketer, what is your new norm? How are you pushing yourself to be better so you can better serve your customers and support your teammates?

Training programs where you expect your company to pay? Or is that an investment in yourself that will pay off with a major raise because of your increased value?

In a competitive business environment, the successful companies are doing what the others are not. Thinking is essential. I am not talking about an advertising channel. I am talking about deep thinking, testing, doing, evolving, redoing, and getting better.

Regularly, not just when you feel like it.

When your customer buys your product or service, they have an expectation of value provided in exchange for their money. If you take days off “because you just weren’t feeling it” how is that a fair trade of value?

If you push when others won’t, you will create a new normal. You become the standard against which others will compare against.

Nobody compares against the worst sports team; they compare to the champion to see what you needed to try and get to the top.

I have this quote framed. And it works in all aspects of your life.

Onward!

Just be you

FOBI – Fear of being ignored/irrelevant

One of my favourite exercises I use when guiding a client through a planning /strategy process helps them understand how and where they compare to their competitors. I take their mission statement, and their competitors, and remove the names. Then I insert each name into the various mission statements to see if there are any similarities. Years ago, I did this with a company and even the president said, “we all sound the same.” This is just one barometer of your level of stated uniqueness or differentiation.

Why is this the case? I call it FOBI – fear of being ignored or irrelevant. Corporately, this is much more than just a typical FOMO (fear of missing out). FOMO is typically when a company or person believes they will miss a latest trend. FOBI is where the ego comes in and leadership in a company believes they won’t be seen at the same level as their competitor. A CEO once told me he wanted to voice a certain radio ad because a couple of clients know him personally and his competitor does it, too. The result was not strong. Ego is the enemy.

You might just call this a corporate version of  “keeping up with the Joneses.”

The main problem with this is that a company is so busy keeping an eye elsewhere that they often neglect their own customers and employees. This leads to decreasing their value to their customers. And this can lead to a business failure.

This issue often comes up when outside experts or new c-suite folks talk about “best practices” or “this is what we did at my last company.” Now, I am all for learning novel items, but I am not a proponent of doing something just because a competitor is doing it.

Why do you want to be like, sound like, look like another company? You are telling your customers, “hey, check out any of us for your solution because we are all the same.” This creates a commodity mindset for the customer and they seek the lowest price. No one wins.

Recently, there are any number of posts on LinkedIn about what you need to do to be like ____ (insert name of famous person here).

Why do you want to be someone else? You have not lived their life, learned, and experienced what they have, and so just following “10 rules to be great like me” is, or should be, a non-starter.

This is vastly different than applying principles and fundamentals as the basis for an individual or company to move forward. When you are building on sound fundamentals you get to shape where you will focus because of your personal or corporate strengths. Unless you have a debilitating weakness, I recommend building off your strengths. Your ability to leverage what you are good at, as long as it delivers value towards your end goal, is what will help you stand out.

As a company, there are things you do very well and as long as these actions/solutions deliver the value your customer is looking for you should continue.

Corporately, your winning game plan is built around what you do well, the team strengths that you have assembled, and the delivery of superior value to your customers. Personally, your winning game plan is built around the same fundamentals – what you do well, who you are surrounding yourself with, and how you deliver value in areas of your life of work, family, and community.

Rather than just be a look alike, why not become your own vision that people can notice. Stand out or get passed over.

Why not just be yourself?

Onward!