You can ask any athlete what the secret to a successful team is, you’d find the answer is quite surprising. It’s not limited to recruiting the best in the game or teammates who get along, owners which pay the highest salaries, fans supporting whether you win or loose. Truth is the key to a successful team is leadership. Same is true in business…In sports a coach is vital to a teams success, understanding each element of the game as well as how to inspire all those who play.
A coaches job is not for the faint of heart. One must possess the ability to recognize shortfalls and individual limitations. Extract extraordinary qualities from the players-address problems and inspire for better each day. Understand limitations and work within reasonable possibilities. Look at the team as they are…Not worse than they are. Not to dwell on an area which might be holding them back, a view of reality and possibilities.
Vision is an element all those who wear the same shirt must see, without a realistic view the team becomes unable to improve. A great coach shapes the future of possibilities within reach as long as a constant effort is applied. There is an old saying…No pain no gain…You get out what you put in. Proper strategy is key to unleashing individual, effort, courage, faith, as well as transforming limitations into future success. If a team looses faith in leadership, the team begins to become complacent and the will to strive for better diminishes.
Same is true when a coach pushes a team beyond limitations. If each day we’re asked to give 25 percent more how is that possible? Can each of us push beyond our limitations every day? How can we have faith in leadership if they expect that which is impossible? Sound familiar? Have you ever had a boss who sets unreasonable expectations? Is this encouraging? Many questions race through my mind…
Over this past weekend I’d spent time with an old friend who was telling me this same story, a new boss with an eye for the impossible. However stretching ourselves a little bit each day helps us grow. This was not a little bit. This new leader was out for making a name for himself, not for helping employees over come challenges and limitations. If he were a coach of a professional team he’d have the team looking down on him.
New work hours, reduced day’s off and reporting directly to him were all I could hear, you wonder what a person thinks when all they are after is their own advancement at all costs. My friend had worked there for nearly twenty years and was very successful. Listening I could tell he was very upset and didn’t know what to do. Like on a loosing team in the last quarter of a game with no plays left to win. Not a good feeling for my buddy.
When you get right down to it, winning a game and winning in business is very much alike. However some don’t see it that way, they believe the best way to get things done is to put a little fear in someone and they will become motivated. Yet if we’d use a successful coaches philosophy to set realistic expectations and just raise the bar a little each day, you’d find employees would be much more interested in getting the job done better and faster.
We can set a personal goal to become just one percent better every day. What would a company of twenty employees who set that same goal every day look like? There would be a twenty percent improvement in production.
How amazing would that be!
~ Stay Strong~
Did this help you? If so I would greatly appreciate it if you commented below and shared on Facebook.
~Steven~
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