Blog Archives

BCG BLOG

3/25/2021

Know Your Role

I’m convinced that the willingness of team members to not only accept, but embrace, their needed role on a team is one of the most telling signs of that team’s potential for success. The question is, what makes it so hard? Why do so many team members balk at the role they are asked to fill? What makes the success of the team so dependent on this commitment? And, how do we help team members become more willing to embrace the roles we are asking of them?

I don’t have the answers. I’ve tried different things. Some have worked, some haven’t. What has worked well with one team member makes no impact on another. Leadership is an art, not a science. There is no answer, no formula. It’s a messy process, but it’s a messy process we must be willing to wade through.

Why Should We Care?
The main reason we need to become better at helping team members embrace their role is simple: everyone has a role. No one on your team is without a role. For some reason, we think of role players as being less important, less valuable, to the success of the team than those out in the spotlight. It’s a misconception that must be changed because it’s blatantly not true.

We’re willing to acknowledge it - a quarterback or running back is only as good as his offensive line - but we rarely think of it that way when building our teams. Just as a quarterback is looking for linemen that are not only willing to block, but love the opportunity to block and protect, the best teams have members that desire to excel in their role.

And, remember, everyone has a role. The salesperson that’s out in front of the people and on the billboards may be the face of the company, but that’s her role. That role comes with benefits and challenges, just like every other role.

Society loves to overvalue the public role - the leading scorer, the highest earner, the top salesman. If you want your team to excel, it would benefit you to flip the spotlight.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Every team, and role, is different. It’s never the exact same from year to year or position to position. We must approach each situation as its own, separate encounter. Here are few ideas that do remain consistent when helping team members accept roles.

Crystal Clear
- Be clear. Much more clear than you need to be. If you think it, say it. Provide explanation, explain why, help them understand how it helps the team be at its best - but say it! Far too often we assume, or hope, they understand. They don’t. Clarity creates consistency and speed. Say it so the message can not be misunderstood. Then say it again.

Celebrate the Single
- Everyone doesn’t need to hit homeruns. Teams don’t work like that. A team full of homerun hitters will strike out far too often to be successful. You need people that will hit singles day after day. The paper writes about the homeruns. Be sure you are singing praises about the singles.

Recognize Your Role
- As the leader of a team, you have a role too. Everything is not your job. You’re not good at everything, nor can you do everything. Become self-aware enough to know where your role begins and ends, then operate within those boundaries. It’s empowering to those you lead to see you deferring to a team member that thrives in a certain role.

Roles are the linchpin to the success of every team. The better we are at helping our team members understand their role, the closer we will be to guiding our teams to maximizing their potential. That’s our role as a leader!

For more information on building excellence in your teams, visit us at www.bluecollargrit.com.
We would love to know how we could help!

0 Comments

Bcg blog

3/18/2021

0 Comments

You Only Get One (Re-post)

You’ve probably played for several coaches at this point in your life. Coach Pine, Coach Bailar, Coach Middleton, Coach Graves, Coach Reed, Coach Hollingsworth, Coach Casey, Coach Ramey, Coach White, Coach Lewis, Coach Goodwin, Coach Holwager, Coach Croci … I’m forever grateful for the opportunity these men provided and pieces of themselves they poured into me long before I realized they were doing so.

But, you only get one “Coach”. No last name needed, no description required. Anyone that knows you immediately realizes precisely who you are talking about.

At least, I hope you get one.

Z was my Coach.

Now, I could introduce him as Dave Zeller, the backcourt mate to Wayne Embry at Tecumseh HS or the back-up to Oscar Robertson for the Cincinnati Royals but that doesn’t pay him the respect he deserves. Ask any of his former players, Z was in a class all his own.

Why It’s Important
As with any mentor, it was Z’s actions, not his words, that meant the most. The handwritten scouting report, the wooden charge balls he cut and painted, the piece of pie he would randomly bring, or the winning scratch off lottery ticket he would give away were all his way of saying he cared.

I’ll never know if Coach took a special interest in all of his point guards, or if I was just lucky. I tend to think he had the gift of making everyone feel like he had a special interest in them. In any case, I am forever grateful. Aside from my parents, Coach had the largest impact on my life of anyone I’ve ever met. I’m sure you could say the same about your “Coach”.

Here are a few of the most important life lessons I learned from Coach.

Deal Hope - Coach believed in me, unequivocally and without hesitation - and he told me. He started me as his varsity point guard my sophomore year, 135 lbs of skin and bones. Through middle school and freshman basketball I had scored more than 12 points one time. In my first varsity game I had 16 points including 4 straight free throws, down three with under thirty seconds to win the game. A week later I had 26 points and made a shot with 3 seconds left to win the game. I’m not sharing those memories as justification of my basketball talent. I was an average high school basketball player, but that’s not what I believed. He believed in me before I did.

Prepare. Always. - Practice schedules to the minute, scouting reports with everything short of player blood types, and repetition repetition repetition. At no point in my high school career did I ever think the other team was even in the same galaxy as we were in regards to preparation. And, at no point did I ever think he told us everything he knew about the opponent. He always knew more than necessary and we always prepared more than necessary. Always.

Be a Lifter - If you took a charge in a game, the next day Coach would bring you a cut out wooden basketball painted with the game, score, date, and your name written on it. It wasn’t until my senior year that I realized the amount of time he had to spend doing just that. He also made one for the player of the game. Why? Because he wanted players to feel special, like they contributed to the group. He was lifting others up. It’s what he did. He never complained about the time it took or how much money it cost him. He just served, humbly.

Make it Personal - At the time, I didn’t understand what Coach was doing. That’s the beauty of it I guess. Every player was special. Everyone had their own needs, own interests, and own troubles. Coach knew them and bounced back and forth from one to the other with ease and grace. For me, it was pouring confidence in. He did this in a variety of ways but there is one I remember clearly. Coach taped my ankle before every game - yea, All-American & former NBA player taped a random, average basketball player’s ankle before every game … see humbly serve above. When he finished taping my ankle he would always write a message on it - “Shoot the ball!” was the most common. Think what you do doesn’t matter? I still have the one from my last game.

Coach Your Team - This was actually advice Coach shared with me early in my coaching career. Things weren’t going well, parents were mad, and officials were seemingly out to get us. I called Coach and started in on a laundry list of complaints, to which he patiently listened to. When I stopped for air, he calmly asked if I was done. He paused for a minute and said “Just coach your team.” He told me to stop complaining about officials, stop worrying about parents and focus on what’s important - my guys and our team. I got the message.

Define Your Own Success - Reflection has allowed me to discover this, now cornerstone of my life, from Coach. I can’t imagine playing high school basketball for anyone else in the world. I’ve now been a high school coach for over twenty years. I’ve never met a better coach than my Coach. Yet, society judges the success of coaches by wins and state championships, a mindset of the masses I fell into my first seven years of coaching. Well, Coach never won a state championship so something had to give. Either he wasn’t the best coach I had ever seen or the barometer I was using to measure success was wrong. Over a decade removed from this life changing realization, he’s still the best coach I’ve ever seen. Wins and championships are goals of course, anyone competing wants to win. And Coach was no different in this regard. But, his priority was always impact. That was success to him. That was his legacy.

This blog was cathartic for me but my hope is that it spurns you to action in two ways:

Thank your “Coach”. Let them know how much they mean to you and why they are so important. Talk about them and share their impact on you with your loved ones. Call, write, and go out to dinner. Time is our greatest currency. Spend it with them. It may seem like time you don’t have right now, but it will be time you wish you would have spent soon enough.
Recognize your impact. If you’re leading, you are likely someone’s “Coach” - and possibly several people’s “Coach”. Acknowledge that gift and intentionally pour into those people. Don’t focus on helping them get the promotion or scholarship, those things will happen if you commit to impacting their lives as people. Help them with their view of the world, their confidence and self-esteem, and clarifying what they value - not what everyone around them values.

My Coach passed away on September 2. His impact is far from over.
Find your impact. Give your time.

For more information on building excellence in your teams, visit us at www.bluecollargrit.com.
We would love to know how we could help!

0 Comments

BCG BLog

3/11/2021

0 Comments

Your Old Friend Grace

You remember her don’t you? From back when you were a little kid? You remember her, right? She was the friend that was always telling you things would be ok, no matter how bad you messed up. She would forgive you over and over and over, and still great you with a smile and a hug. She always thought the best of everyone and, for some crazy reason, felt that others, deep down, always had good intentions.

Not only would Grace accept others, but she always found a way to help you accept yourself. There would be times when you hated yourself for something stupid you did or said. You would wallow around for a while in self-pity, but eventually Grace would always come through with at least a glimmer of hope.

And, remember how Grace always made you feel? Like you were a good person. Like you cared about others and wanted them to do well. Like you were strong and could survive any adversity and struggle that came your way.

She would always accept you, and others, while intentionally moving forward with confidence and hope.

Why Should We Care?
The willingness to show grace to others is a choice, an important one for a leader. The opposite of grace is judgement. As a leader, this is a critical distinction. The more we move towards judgement, the less trust we build with our people.

The distinction between judgement and accountability is also important. We can hold people accountable without judging them. We can hold people accountable and still show them grace. We’ve all done it. We just need to do it more. A lot more.

Consider for a second the amount of judging that is taking place in society right now. It’s everywhere. How could our team and those we lead not be sucked into that darkness as well? It requires intentional thoughts and actions. And, it requires the courage to be different.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Our actions are a result of the feelings our thoughts create. Those feelings are not a result of what has happened to us, rather a result of the story we tell ourselves about what happened. That narrative is the deciding factor on choosing grace.

*Much more detail on each of the points below can be found in Brené Brown’s book “Dare to Lead”

The Rumble
- Take the time to recognize your story and that what you are telling yourself might not be completely true. You don’t have to do anything with it yet, just recognize that there is a story involved. Few people are willing to do this which leads directly to assumptions and judgements.

The Reckoning
- Dig into that story. Is it true? What information are you adding that you aren’t sure about? Do you really know the intent of the other person? What more do you need to know about the situation, the other person, and yourself? This is where we decide between judgement and grace.

The Revolution
- This is where the rubber meets the road. Once we’ve wrestled with the story and gotten comfortable with it, now we take action. Hopefully it’s a revolution and an action you will be proud of. Choosing grace and acting on that grace are two different things. Having the courage to give grace sets us apart from the rest of the world.

It’s easy looking at it from the outside, or in retrospect. Which leader do you want to work for - one that consistently extends grace or one that consistently extends judgement? Of course, we may get burned sometimes. It’s still the right way.

For more information on building excellence in your teams, visit us at www.bluecollargrit.com.
We would love to know how we could help!

0 Comments

BCG Blog

3/4/2021

0 Comments

The Original Instagram

We like to think of the advances in technology over the last few decades as adding so much to our lives. Of course, that’s true in many cases. Wireless devices, computers that will fit in your pocket, and interactive media are all extraordinary inventions and can add great value to our lives when used appropriately.

The cell phone has led to apps beyond our imagination with the potential to connect us to people we will likely never meet. Unfortunately, our phones can also lead us to isolation and out of the present. One of those incredibly popular apps is Instagram.

Instagram allows people to capture their thoughts and experiences, then share them with the world. What an innovative creation - like nothing we’ve ever experienced before.

But, is it really new?

Why Should We Care?
Our body language was our Instagram before Instagram was a thing.
Our body language captures our thoughts and displays them for all the world to see.

As a matter of fact, our body language conveys those things better than Instagram. On Instagram, we never know what is true. We never know if what is being displayed is the real you or the one you want everyone to think is you. That’s not the case with your body language.

Sure, you can ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ but eventually the truth is going to come out in your body language, no matter how hard you try to hide it. Given that approximately 93% of all our communication is non-verbal, your body language is your personal billboard - sorry, I’ll use Insta-lingo, your personal ‘post’.

You are making it every day in every interaction. No time to get your shirt looking just right or to arrange your food perfectly for the picture. Life isn’t waiting on that. But, you can be sure that those watching are either liking or scrolling on based on what they see displayed in your body language.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Intentional body language is difficult because it happens so fast. Our body is reacting to what our mind is telling it to do. So, the point of attack isn’t the body at all. It has to be the mind and the thoughts we generate from each experience. Our thoughts are what gets posted in our body language.

Stay Present
- Poor body language is typically a reflection of our concern for something that happened in the past. Learning to allow those thoughts of judgement and regret to pass go a long way in helping us listen to positive, empowering thoughts that will result in positive body language. Be still. Breathe. Meditate.

MTG
- Manage the Gap. The Gap is the time between something happening and us responding to it. The better we are at staying neutral during this time, the better we will be at intentionally choosing our response … rather than getting pulled into our emotions. Your emotions are not the direct result of an event. They are the response to the story we tell ourselves about the event. Managing the gap gives us the opportunity to control that story.

BCD
- Blame. Complain. Defend. Don’t do it. Ever. Much of our negative body language is a result of listening to one of these excuses. That’s what they are, an excuse. And our poor body language is us puking on everyone around us.

You would never think of posting your worst picture on social media.
So, stop posting bad body language. It never whispers. It always screams.

For more information on building excellence in your teams, visit us at www.bluecollargrit.com.
We would love to know how we could help!

0 Comments

BCG BLOG

Know Your Role

Bcg blog

You Only Get One (Re-post)

BCG BLog

Your Old Friend Grace

BCG Blog

The Original Instagram

About bc

Archives

Categories

BCG BLOG

Know Your Role

Bcg blog

You Only Get One (Re-post)

BCG BLog

Your Old Friend Grace

BCG Blog

The Original Instagram

Subscribe

About bc

Archives

Categories