Welcome Back To Together UP!

I’m on a mission to have as many people as possible say
"I'm on the best team, I love it here and I love coming in every day"

In Together UP! I write about what I know helps you get closer to that.

How you define “team” is your context. Business, Athletic, Family.

It starts with Leadership and it starts with communication. It can start with you.

When you have a team that loves coming in and contributing together,
you have a motivated, engaged, and high performing team.

You do it together. 

On a personal note - my goal is to double the number of subscribers by the end of September.

If all 11 of you invite just one person to subscribe, we can get there - Together!

Everyone has ‘em.

Everyone hears ‘em.

They’re the “Ya gotta haves.” Which can also be “You gotta be’s”

I was talking with an NCAA Head Coach about some of the more common requests I get for areas of improvement. I mentioned a couple but when I mentioned “Resilience” he jumped on it.

“YES. My team needs resilience, can you come and give my guys some of that?”

I thought to myself “Come give your guys some of that? Coach, it starts with you. You should be asking, how do I help my guys be more resilient, can you come work with US to help US be more resilient.”

Your “Ya gotta haves” are traits that you as a leader or teammate or colleague of any kind emphatically proclaim to be missing or deficient, based upon what you observe and experience. 

• “Ya gotta have more discipline!”

• “Ya gotta be more resilient”

• “Ya gotta communicate better”

• “You all have to be more accountable”

• “You have to be more responsible”

• “Ya gotta listen better!”

• “You have to do the little things!’

They are very important to pay attention to.

Because
1) If there is such conviction in the benefit of the trait, then it’s probably worth at least paying attention to how it can impact your group.

2) It’s important to understanding why it’s lacking and how to improve it.

BUT

What I see as a common mistake, is that if you feel so strongly about your people having this trait, are you asking yourself the most important question?

“What am I doing to GIVE this to my people so they have it!?”

Where I See This

In the case of this coach, his “YES. My team needs resilience, can you come give my guys about resilience?”

He may be right, they may need to be more resilietn.

Here’s the problem.

His immediate reaction was that his team needed to “be it” without first understanding what he could do to instill it. 

Whatever you want more present in those around you starts with you.

Why You Might Care About Your “Gotta Haves”

Two very interesting elements play a role in what you view as lacking or needed in your teams.

In a really interesting study in Science Advances titled “Kids These Days: Why the Youth of Today Seem Lacking” - by John Protzko and Jonathan W. Schooler, two enlightening findings came out.

1. That the traits that were viewed to be lacking in youth were directly correlated to what traits the person excelled in.
   

2. That people develop “memory bias”, projecting one’s current traits to their past, and past generations.

Consider yourself a reader?
“Kids these days don’t read as much as they used to”.

Consider yourself disciplined?
“Kids these days need more discipline”

Value communication?
“We gotta have better communication.”

What we see, is that the lens you see things through has first to do with you and the trait(s) that you excel at.

In my work with individual clients, we start with approaching who they are through a lens of their own defined strengths. “Strengths” are talent themes that when put to use come very naturally to you. You execute them flawlessly. You find fulfillment, flow, and energy when performing them.

Talents are your natural patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

We examine these through the use of the CliftonStrengths owned and managed by Gallup.

What we start with when guiding clients on their own talents is that “Strengths” can be viewed as your inherent needs in your life. When you lack them, where there is a void, you notice it vividly. You even grow frustrated that others can’t perform these to the way that you do or can.

The same relates to things that you believe your team “has to have.” Because when it comes easy to you, you

1) Notice it more clearly

2) Feel that others need to have it to also be successful. (Your bias is to say, this is what made me successful, so it will make you successful).

As a result, you are more likely to not look internally and say “how can i administer this, how can I GIVE my team the gift of this?”

“What is holding us back / me back from this being more fluid and consistent in our team?”

Resilience, Engagement, Motivation, Communication, Doing The Little Things, Great Teammates. These are carrots that are dangled in front of all teams and leaders as a way to perform. I agree.

I believe you “gotta have” these.

I also believe if you think your team has to have them, you first ask yourself - do I have the skills to deliver this to them?

You do.

You will do it Together.

Together UP!

I’d love to hear your feedback on other ideas or on what you think about my points of view.
Tell me. [email protected]

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