There is no I in Team
If you have not heard the quote "There is no I in Team" before, where the hell have you been living? This is one of those lines that every coach of every team sport at every level from t-ball to the major leagues has used over an over again to try and get the players to buy into the vision that the team is more important than the individuals on the team.
Long ago when I was a senior in high school there was a brand new football coach. And that season the players had shirts and shorts that they would wear that had the word "TEAM" in large print. But lower and off to the side was also the word "ME". The thought behind this was that while the players understood that they were part of a larger team, their contributions as individuals was also important and valued. This really stood out to me as it challenged the concept of the team first AND team only philosophy. It worked, that group of kids played beyond everyones expectations. This is not one of those mushy stories where I tell you through this team mantra they won titles and ended the season toting some huge trophy off the field. But is one about how by getting all of the individuals on the team to buy into the vision, they were able to do some amazing things together not the least of which was they had a lot of fun. You could tell they had fun in the way they wore those shirts with pride all through the week, and that no matter who you asked on the team from the starting QB to the bench warmer about the TEAM/ME shirts, all of them could instantly explain what it meant and why it was important. For the first time ever I regretted not playing football, and not being able to be part of that experience.
I asked the folks on twitter a while back, "How do you teach passion?" The majority of the responses agreed that there is not way to teach passion, instead you must inspire it. Jennifer Day wrote a great follow up blog post on the topic as well. She states:
“You don’t teach passion, you inspire it ...kindle it. Like building a fire – passion as a burning thing is pretty apt.”
I do love the quote above, it speaks to my core beliefs and philosophies. But then I think back to high school and I say that the new football coach taught those kids on the team passion, and he did it by address not only the importance of the team but the importance of the individual as well. Maybe it is that shared focus on the value of the individual that is the key, and by highlighting that basic need in all of us to feel valued, accepted, and part of a group/team/family is the way to "teach" passion.
Value the team. Nurture the individual. Provide the vision. Provide a stage/field for the team and the individuals to show others what they can do when a group of talented folks come together with a common goal. To paraphrase a line from Jennifer's article....build the fire.
There is no I in team. But there is in passIon, vIsIon, drIve, and fIre. Go light some fires.
Perception is Reality….revisited.
Sometime back I wrote a post titled the same as this one. But this time I want to look at this quote in a different light.
Perception is Reality
"Perception IS Reality" I have found myself saying this to my team members over the past few weeks and again today it lept into my mind as I watched a video on my friend, colleague, and frequent co-conspirator Jason Thompson's blog about living up to the Cowboy Code. If you've not seen the video or read the code, go do that now. I'll wait.
The section of the code that spurred Jason to post the video was #6 When you make a promise keep it. Seems pretty simple, but how often have you been let down by someone who did not keep their promise. How often have you let down others when you did not keep a promise. I have been on both sides of this and I know the shame and disappointment I have felt when letting others down so it still stuns me how easy this seems to be for others to do and still sleep at night. When I have let others down I do my best to make it up to them. You want to feel low? Make a promise to your 8 year old son, and then not be able to come through. It sucks.
But what sets people apart is wether or not this is a pattern or some random anomaly that could not be avoided. When you let down your loved ones or friends they already know if this is part of your character or not. When you do this to colleagues, customers, employers and the likes they like most humans will assume this is how you are all the time. Their perception of you becomes the reality of you are perceived. Let me say that again. Their perception of you IS now your reality.
“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” – Abe Lincoln
When you are in a dense forrest surrounded by thousands of trees your shadow is less important as there are so many overlapping it is hard to see a single issue. When you are one of a few cacti in the middle of a desert your shadow is long, clear, and easy to pick out. And unlike Peter Pan, your shadow, your reputation, your new reality will always be right there. Casting doubt over everything you do.
Perception IS Reality.
"If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem" . -Abe Lincoln.
Perception IS Reality. It was true 200 years ago, it was true 2000 years ago, it will still be true tomorrow. Where will your shadow be tomorrow? What is the reality you are projecting to the world? Does it reveal your true self?
Perception IS reality.
15 minutes of fame can kill you
I love food. And I love all kinds of food from swanky fancy meals to hotdogs and fries. So it should not be a shock to anyone that I love the Food Networks show, "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" Hosted by Guy Ferri. I am such a fan that anytime I am traveling to a new city or even cities I have been to in the past I look on the web site flavortownusa.com to see if any of the places that were on the shows are there and I try my best to get to them. This little "hobby" has led me to some amazing food discoveries, the Red Iguana in Salt Lake City, Pats BBQ in Salt Lake City, Magnolia Cafe in Austin Texas, Marietta Diner in Marietta Georgia.
But then I was planning a trip to Maine and I saw the episode on The Porthole, in portland Maine. Here, you watch the segment and see if you are not just drooling at the thoughts of the food there.
So, I talked the family into trying the place and we showed on a Wednesday summer afternoon in Portland, hungry from a long flight and we were excited to try the place. I took a picture of the sign to add to my facebook collection of Triple D ( Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives) adventures and entered the place. The chef from the segment could been seen in the kitchen and I was geeking out at being there and even saw the "Guy ate here" sign on the wall. So we waited to be seated for our turn to try the tasty treats, and we waited, and we waited. After a good 15 mins of standing there while the staff whisked back and forth they finally took notice we were there and told us to sit anywhere. It seems they had a hostess stand outside if you wanted outside seating but if you wanted inside it was a free for all. So we sat.....and waited some more. Another 15-20 mins passed before someone from the staff graced us with their presence. The family and I kept getting more and more frustrated as the time went by. Normally I would have already walked out, but we really wanted to try the food. After some dismissive comments from the waitress about the delay we got up and left. I was very disappointed.
The problem with having your business profiled on a national stage like that is the expectations that are set for people that see that and then seek you out, expecting not only the great and amazing products they see but a great level of customer service as well. We did manage to give the Porthole another try a few days later on our way back through town and yes the food was very good, but the service was still slow and there was this "you are lucky we let you eat here" attitude in the place. I will not be going back there again. Promises of excellence that are empty or fall short of that expectation are failures, pure and simple. It matters not if you now think you are great because of what you did in the past, or because the one day a film crew was there you had the staff be polite and attentive. What matters is how you treat the current customer, and how you treat the next one.
Too often you see businesses that may have been these fantastic companies in the past, that now are failing to live up to their past standards. Sure these businesses may continue to have some success but they will never be that special company that people talk about on and on to their colleagues and friends. What will happen to them? Some will continue on serving up a mediocre experience and both they and their customers have accepted that, some will fail and shut their doors, few will turn it around.
So if you or your business gets featured and reaches that 15 minutes of fame are you going to try and just ride on the coattails of that fame? Or will you say...ok that was cool... what are we going to do next to improve upon that. That is where the challenge and real fun is.
Thoughts from Thirty Thousand Feet
I have written and deleted and re-written this opening paragraph about six times already as I try and pull together my thoughts. It being Mother's Day I thought of writing a post about all the life lessons I learned from my Mom. But as I got into it, I got a little emotional as the last time I saw my mom was two years ago on Mothers Day. So then I thought I would do a post based on the "Wind in the Willows" and go about mocking folks while referring to them as Mr. Toad or Mr. Mole or Ratty. That was a fun 20 minutes of writing but I ended up deleting that too. As as I am sitting here on this flight after spending a glorious weekend with my family I thought about what I would say to my son about the recent events. So this is what I ended up with.
1) Be proud of yourself. The things that you have worked for are great things and you should be proud of accomplishing them. I know your Mom and I sure are.
2) Stand up for what you believe in. Don't be afraid to draw a line in the sand and hold to it. You are descended for a long line of stubborn folks and despite a few bumps in the road, that determination will serve you well in life.
3) Do not begrudge anyone else for the things that they have accomplished. Just because you do not have the same things as others or are not able to do the same things, it is no reason to whine and complain and pitch a fit like a three year old. It makes you look foolish and people will wonder how your parents would let you carry on that way.
4) Choose your friends carefully. People that hang around only when things are good will soon vanish when times are tough. Find a friend that will not only bail you out of jail, but most likely be sitting there next to you. You know what I mean here.
5) Do not be the "I'm taking my ball and going home kid" no one likes him, he gets picked last at the playground, and ends up taking a cousin to the prom.
6) Stealing this one from Abe Lincoln. "It is better to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
7) If you poke the 400 pound bear with a stick long enough, he will rise up and remove your head from your shoulders. Think carefully about your actions and the reactions they will cause. I am not telling you to not stand up for yourself, or to not react when provoked. Just to think about whether is this a fight you want to get into. Are you willing to try and take that hill?
8 ) Lawyers are for wills, house closings, and for keeping large corporations in line. Any other use of the legal profession is shameful ambulance chasing and equates to calling for "mommy" when you pick a fight you can not win.
9) When someone kicks your friend. Do not stand by and do nothing.
10) There are just some things in life you will perceive as unfair. Suck it up. Rub some dirt on it. Move on to something else.
So now that I have typed this up and I am reading back through this, I know without any doubt that I would indeed tell these things to my son as these lessons were passed on from my parents. If only all kids these days had the benefit of a solid foundation.
Death and Taxes and ?
“in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” - Ben Franklin
140 characters is enough to impact an entire industry
Jason Thompson will cook amazing things and then taunt people by posting the pictures on the interwebs.
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