When teams lose confidence in the midst of adversity they are demonstrating a few possible attitudes that will limit the team’s progress. These include: The Doubter The Defender of the Status Quo (DSQ) The Pleaser The Quitter These people all mean well but if they win the day, the team will take steps backward in their attempt
Perspective matters and leaders must maintain the proper perspective. Experience can help a leader know that what their team is attempting is possible even if no one else thinks so. The leader must see past the current circumstances so that they can push the team through both good times and bad. Someone has to act like they
What if we could fast forward through life like we do when we watch a recorded TV show? I think we too often treat the tedious aspects of our life like the commercials that “interrupt” our favorite show. What if the commercials are the point of media and our shows are just gimmicks to motivate us to
I think great teams are often separated from ordinary teams by how they view an experience. Great teams take the good with the bad while ordinary teams focus only on what makes an experience good, fun, or enjoyable. Labeling an experience in the extreme based on one aspect is what gives us the excuse to settle for
We somehow delude ourselves that our responsibility for an outcome disappears when we replace action with debate. As if debate is somehow more wise than that first experimental step into the unknown. Wisdom is never found in theory. Wisdom is reserved for the discovery that is found in the risky steps that sometimes fail and sometimes strike
It’s lonely to see things others can’t. It’s isolating when everyone on the team doubts that the vision can happen when you know that it can. The path forward is scarier to those who see it as theory and not something that has already been possible. Teams that believe are much more inclusive to the dreamer than
Every team should have a set of core beliefs that help drive their goals and ambitions. This is easy at the start of something but the grind found on the path to success is a test of those very beliefs. Beliefs are easy to cheer for and profess but less easy to integrate into a practical way
When people give up on a best practice because of the difficult path necessary to reach it, they miss the fact that the difficult path is what makes the best destination better than the alternative. Powering through difficult to go to the best practices is what builds the character necessary to appreciate a best practice as the
As leaders we must find those that want to move and move with them. Every leader will have to deal with naysayers at every turn. Naysayers are not bad people. They are simply those that care enough about the team to express a different opinion or even concern about the direction or vision. The truth is that
It takes commitment to develop others because of the people factor. Walking alongside someone as they go through growing pains can be enormously fulfilling. Unfortunately, it can also be extremely painful. When people struggle they may not always own those struggles. Our effort to help can be seen as exactly the opposite and we can be labeled