Falling behind on tasks can create an overwhelming amount of anxiety that doesn’t help us rally to overcome the situation we find ourselves in. The best comebacks in sports history happen when someone decides that they won’t quit, panic, or lose control. All of those emotions make it much more difficult to see the way out of
Every great team that falls behind has a clear idea of how to mount a comeback. It usually requires a little luck but also some timely execution. A case could be made that a determined team that refuses to quit makes their own breaks by playing to win. The same is true in life when we find
Everyone is busy. We all wake up every day with something to accomplish. We all fall behind on our tasks at times as well. The key is to remain calm about it. This is easier said than done because pending items on our “to do” list can raise our anxiety to unhealthy levels. It takes discipline to
Not all ideas are good ideas. Bad ideas are useful when they are developed into better ideas. Not developing an idea is a lot like drawing plays in the dirt. Drawing plays in the dirt is risky and unprofessional. Often times teams that get too creative with their real-time adjustments only compound their mistakes. The best thing
The best time to make an adjustment is in a place where the development of an idea can happen. For football teams, that is what the practice week is for. For businesses, this should happen in an effective meeting that facilitates the discussion of idea development. Unilaterally implementing an idea is not the best way to gain
Teams that properly plan prepare for specific contingencies. Those contingencies are designed for known possibilities. What does a team do when they experience something they did not expect? The instinct is often to make an immediate correction. That’s isn’t the best idea because the team may not have enough data to make an effective correction. If the
There is no substitute for hard work and effort. There is no magic pill to replace it. That being said, not everything has to be so hard. Our effort should not be the measure of our achievement. Just because I worked hard on something doesn’t mean I did a good job. Just because something came easy, doesn’t
Great teammates are secure enough to truly celebrate the success of others. There may be a competitive streak in all of us and that can contribute to internal competition within a team. This is healthy and normal. My level of emotional security is on display when I get out-shined by another. If my first response is “Well
Who am I accountable too? If I am a teammate, I am accountable to my leader and other teammates. If I am a leader, I am accountable to my teammates just the same. I may be the first among peers but I am not above them. When I choose to pull the leader card too often by
I like to measure things that make me look good. Don’t we all? I like to weigh myself when I am meeting my fitness goals. I question the reliability of the scale when it tells me something I don’t want to agree with. That’s a simple example, but measurement is vital to evaluation. How honest is our