Welcome To Together UP!

Curated insights shared with you to lead, build better teams, and do the little things that make a huge impact on performance.

I am a leadership and team development coach who believes that teams are better when build from the bottom up and everyone feels valued.

I WOULD BE GRATEFUL IF YOU SHARED TOGETHER UP! WITH THOSE YOU THINK WILL ENJOY IT!

The goal is to inspire. Lead better, be a great teammate, create great teams and great teammates! No matter what team you’re on.

We use “Teammate” interchangeably between athletic organizations to corporate organizations. As they should.

It’s happening.

Each week, I receive more and more examples shared with me from the Together UPPERS. (We really need to come up with a better name for this community).

Thank you! It’s how a community is built when people feel connected to it and are eager to share.

These are two awesome stories. A star helping a teammate, and a teammate helping a star!

Both are awesome.

Once A Teammate Always A Teammate

Viktor Hovland is a 25 yr old Norwegian (Woohoo! Go Norway!) professional golfer on the PGA tour, currently ranked #5 in the official world golf rankings and former Oklahoma State Cowboy.

Last Sunday, Viktor won the prestigious Memorial Tournament, at Muirfield Village in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio and is affectionately known as “Jack’s place” for the legendary Jack Nicklaus, the founder of Muirfield Village and the host of the Memorial tournament.

For his work, young Viktor received a 1st place bag of sheckles worth a humble $3.6 million, or for my ancestors out there, 39,242,808 Norwegian Krone.

Pretty awesome.

Why it matters
Where it all becomes more than just pretty awesome, and indeed awesome, has to do with where we found Viktor very early the next morning.

Now, Viktor made it pretty clear in his post-win conversation with Jack Nicklaus, that he’d be enjoying more than a few celebratory beverages to celebrate his “Viktory”.

He was all over social media and the news the next morning.

But we did not find him on the front lawn of an Ohio State Fraternity house.

We did not find him getting canceled on social media because he flexed his stature in First Class of an airline and acted inappropriately towards a flight attendant.

Nor did we find him the subject of a desperate late-night Snapchat message with the hopes of truly “memoriaizing” the Memorial.

Because once a teammate always a teammate.

We found Viktor at 7:30am in Columbus, OH carrying the bag for his former Oklahoma State roommate and teammate Zach Bauchou in a qualifying round for the US Open.

For 36 Holes!

Carrying his bag, cleaning the clubs, tending the pin, doing it all.

Big star wins $3.6mm in a prestigious golf tournament and values being a teammate above all else.

Once a teammate always a teammate.

That’s Awesome. 

A Golden Nugget In A Golden Knight

The Hovland story was pretty much everywhere and was sent to me by multiple Together UPPERS. Thank You! *Note we’ll have to come up with a good name for you all, the Together UP! community.

But in the nooks and crannies of twitter, we found another awesome little nugget.

If you know me enough, you know I like to dig for gold on the benches of athletic teams, or in the less celebrated roles in the corporate world.

Golden nuggets can be found through the actions that take place in these often overlooked arenas. Role players, body language, degrees of enthusiasm, coaches doing coach things, trainers doing trainer things, back office staff cleaning up the messes of their highly paid producers…

You can learn a lot. It can inspire you.

This week we found a golden nugget in the form of a Golden Knight.

The Vegas Golden Knights are currently in the Stanley Cup Finals vs your beloved Florida Panthers. (Find me a Panthers fan and I’ll caddy 36 holes for you). It’s 2-1 VGK as I write this.

Watch this. You, like me, may need 4-5x times to really grasp the sequence of events!

You don’t need me to break down the intricacies of why this is awesome.

We’ll let the images and events tell the story for you and let you experience it how you experience it.

The two main characters:

J.W. Aiken, the Assistant Equipment Manager for the Vegas Golden Knights.

Mark Stone, Vegas Golden Knights Captain.

Sidebar, knowing Hockey culture, there is no such case, where Mark Stone is not referred to as “Stoner”. Your name either ends in a “Y” or an “Er”.

These 35 seconds capture SO MUCH awesomeness.

• Teamwork

• Engagement. Extreme focus from the top of the captain to the asst equipment manager.

• Execution. The sequence looks like they had rehearsed it for months (maybe they have?)

• Recognition by Stoner, coming straight to Aiken at the end with the high five.

• Performance. Winning a Stanley cups requires everyone. EVERYONE to have every single area of body and mind to be at the top of their game. Everyone. 

Did you make sure to catch the 34 second mark? Go watch it again.

This is awesome.

“Just Doing Their Job”

In my tireless mission to deal with one of the most common things I see plaguing the cultures of teams and organizations - the fear of recognizing someone who is “just doing their job”.

Let’s ask.

Was Viktor Hovland just doing his job?

Was J.W. Aiken just doing his job?

For Viktor, obviously not. Nowhere is a PGA professional required to do anything of the sort.

For J.W., kinda sorta? And if interviewed (I tried), knowing Hockey culture, I’d bet another 36 holes of caddying that you’d hear him say such. “I was just doing my job”.

But for Viktor, you might hear the grizzly characters out there say “Big Deal I woulda done the same thing. Or “the guy just made $3.6million, he could help a brotha out and be there for him.”

For J.W. I’m sure there are those out there who say “that’s what he gets paid to do”.

In either case, I’d hate to be part of the team where the leader sees it through either lens!

Wouldn’t you?

Distilling It Through Spiritual and Emotional Filter Of The Awesomeness

In both cases, if you distill this down to what it is that you actually love about it.

Think deeper.

Stop for 10 seconds and put yourself inside the mind of Zach and J.W.

Think of the message received by Zach, when Viktor stuck to his commitment.

Think of the feeling J.W. had when “Stoner” skated straight to him with that High-Five.

Zach mattered to Viktor.

J.W. mattered to Stoner and the VGK.

In its purest form, distilled down, that is the essence of the awesomeness.

Great teammates help each other feel valued.

Great teammates and great leaders acknowledge their team - even for “just doing their job”

We don’t do any of this alone, so don’t push individuals deep into a corner of feeling that their job sits in a silo and doesn’t matter.

And oh by the way. Viktor won, and VGK is in the Stanley Cup Finals.

It’s no surprise that both are doing things right.

Because

Together UP!

Where To From Here?

3 Things we can take away from this and start doing TODAY

1. Stick to the commitment you made to a teammate. Even if it’s coming off of the highest of highs and it’s inconvenient.
   

2. Examine all of the nooks and crannies of your team.
   
   How are the top performers treating the unsung heroes?
   
   How engaged are those at the “end of the bench?”
   

3. Self-reflect.
   What would it feel like to acknowledge someone on my team for “just doing their job”
   Would it put you out?
   Do you see a risk for yourself?
   Is that risk worth the reward of the upside you’ll receive from that person?

Keep Sharing!

Keep sharing stories and examples that strike you in the context of Together UP!

Keep sharing Together UP! with others.

If this resonates with you each week, let’s grow the message!

Thank you for spending time with me today.

I appreciate you for being here.

By spending this time, we get to be Together.

We are Better Together!

For more on what I do with teams and leaders see it here!

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