(This post is written for alumni of LEAD365, although all are welcome to read it.)
It’s a good time to be a Spartan fan. I’m sorry if this posting is too much about sports or about my favorite team. I don’t normally want to do either of these things unless there is a good reason to do so. I believe in this case there is such a reason. Let me explain.
Because I’m a sports fan I am exposed to a lot of leadership lessons about teams. Performance in the world of sport is highly measured and as such you really get to observe the best. Not the best based on some subjective opinion but based on real measurements and real data. I like real data and tend to trust it a lot more than people’s strongly held opinions.
Because I am an MSU fan, I’ve been getting a lot of sports wisdom lately due to the current success the Spartans are experiencing in my two favorite spectator sports. One is men’s basketball, where the Spartans are coming off a final-four season are are ranked number one early in this season. The other is football, where I just got to witness the Spartans win the Big Ten title and qualify for college football’s version of the Final Four.
Due to this excitement, I’ve been watching way too many interviews of players and coaches. I believe I’ve heard one form of the following question asked a dozen times of various coaches and players in the last week: “What is it that makes this team special compared to other teams you’ve had (or been on)?”
I’m surprised at how often the answer is so very similar, whether being answered by players—some of them Heisman Trophy candidates—or by coaches. Their answers usually focus on two things: The first is something along the lines of, “We know our identity as a team.” The second is something like, “We trust each other and have each others’ backs.”
As these figures speak about the importance of identity, I hear a lot about what we call clarity around purpose, vision, and values. These teams are clear about who they are and where they’re going. They embrace this clear identity and push themselves to live into it fully. It’s so cool to see how this works with the human spirit, whether they are my beloved Spartans or other teams that are achieving amazing seasons, like The University of Michigan’s amazing turnaround in football catalyzed by their great new coach Jim Harbaugh.
As these players and coaches speak about the importance of trust, I’ve heard several of them, from several different teams, even use the word love. “This year is amazing, and we have gone undefeated because of the love we have for each other on this team.” This isn’t a verbatim quote, but it’s pretty close to what I’ve heard several coaches and players say.
Wow! We’re talking about big, smelly, performance-driven men who have all the reason in the world to be cocky and make it all about themselves, and yet when they talk about their teammates the word love comes up a lot. Just like the Spartans, as I saw the Iowa Hawkeyes come on to the field on Saturday night for the Big Ten championship game, they were all holding hands. Wow!
These two themes of clear identity and trust (or love) come up in these interviews over and over. Could great success really be that simple? What do you think?
As I reflect on all of this this I’m left with a couple of questions:
- If it is this simple, why don’t all teams do it? Why do these special teams have a greater sense identity and trust than others?
- What would business teams look like that have these two things?
To be an amazing leader of amazing teams in West Michigan requires the same thing. Personally be clear about who you are and what you are doing in this game we call life. Be clear about who your team needs to be and what they need to do in this game we call business. Communicate it seven times in seven ways—largely through your decisions and actions—and then over time watch your team become champions.
I have no doubt that our team of LEAD 365 alumni—you who are being someone worth following, you who are building amazing teams around trust, and you who are creating clarity around purpose, vision and values—are building West Michigan into the best place in the country for leaders. I believe we will be known as the Silicon Valley of leadership. Jeff, Meredith, and I are incredibly humbled to be able to play our coaching roles in this amazing endeavor.
Thanks for being a leader worth following! I hope your week is a great one!
Rodg
Image by Monica’s Dad. Used under CC By 2.0 license.
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