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“To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don't isolate.” – Michael Jordan
Selfishness is one of my pet hates, particularly when it’s combined with rudeness. Now that really gets my blood boiling!!! However, being selfish should be balanced with what needs to be done when striving for success as we’re sometimes required to be selfish on the way to being successful.
“The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves” - Ray Kroc
Great teams consist of a wide variety of personalities with different skill-sets who collectively strive to achieve a common goal. A challenge for leaders is to unlock everybody’s potential within the context of achieving team success. It’s a delicate balancing act that leaders don’t always get correct. This is especially true when leaders are misled into thinking people pleasers are high performers.
“If we didn't have deadlines, we'd stagnate” – Walt Disney
Recently an exasperated CEO bemoaned to me how his senior leadership team consistently missed 50% of their deadlines. I asked why he thought this was the case and he explained how they just always take on too much. To me this was a cliché, so I paraphrased with “hmm despite your team having the right intent, they’re just not doing what they say they’ll do for 50% of the time.” He responded with “um, yes!!!”
“It happens; incompetence is rewarded more often than not” ― Jeff Lindsay
A productivity meme is to “get it right the first time.” It’s why real productivity is more about outcomes and less about speed. However, it’s hard to be productive when the same or similar mistakes are made over and over. Does repeated incompetence frustrate you?
“Don’t talk it, walk it” – Lars Ulrich
For just over 40 years I played basketball at many levels that ranged from a social game through to playing in a semi-professional league. Regardless of the level I played, the teammate who frustrated me the most was the player who talked a good game, but their level of play couldn’t back it up. In some cases, they were blissfully unaware of it, whereas other occurrences saw the player always having an excuse for why they were unable to do what they said they would. Players like this were the teammates I knew I could trust the least when it really counted with the game on the line.
“The majority of meetings should be discussions that lead to decisions” - Patrick Lencioni
The Number 1 complaint I get from busy workers is they waste too much time in meetings. It doesn’t matter whether they’re face to face meetings or virtual meetings, workers don't have enough time to actually do their job. Does this happen to you?
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. - Henry Ford
Teams come in all shapes and sizes. Over the years I’ve been a member of many teams at work and in sport. Essentially, I’ve been involved in both high performing teams and teams who have struggled to function cohesively. I know that business and sporting teams cannot be treated the same way because there are particular aspects where they’re uniquely different ie. passion, a sense of belonging to a tribe etc. However, there are also principles that can apply to both.
