 What Details Matter?Story Catalyst
Is how you do anything really how you do everything? The message from the text of a former player is clear: this is NOT what we do. It’s 9pm on a random Thursday night in April and I receive a video from one of our former players who happened to be in the gym working out. The video scans our locker room showing various items laying on the floor - a cardinal sin in our program. The video was followed with a series of messages:
The message came from one of our “guys” - a ten year member of our program, who worked his way to the top, who earned his influence and impact with the way he showed up every day, who made one of the biggest shots in the history of our school, and … is a state champion. The coolest part: he’s been out of high school for three years and he still cares. Our locker room is a sacred space - he knows this. Not only for the experience and relationships forged inside those four walls, but for what the room itself represents. He knows that room was given to him by the guys before him. It’s not something he, or anyone on the current team, earned. The guys that came before him played and carried themselves in such a way that someone wanted to donate money to build the locker room for them. They’re reaping the rewards for work they didn’t do. That calls for gratitude … for being thankful. And, how do you show you’re thankful for something? That’s right - you take care of it. You handle things like a prized possession you own, not a cheap commodity you rent. You pick up trash, whether it’s yours or not. You keep your area clean out of respect for your teammates and the guys that came before you. A simple, yet profound, observation is the connection between the attention to details on the court and the attention to details in the locker room. Sloppy locker rooms almost always translate to sloppy focus and play on the court. Our ‘guy’ knows this well. He believes it fully. So much so, that he wants those coming after him to gain the same appreciation. The correlation between details and results occurs so often, coincidence can be ruled out. A more appropriate question would be - is anything a detail? Insight Trifecta Below are three questions that dive deeper into the topic at hand. My responses are included. I hope they will generate some thought and prompt you to take the time to explore your responses to each as well.
I will add, from a conceptual framework, focusing on details and seeing the big picture are both critical. They must be merged rather than approached individually. The best I’ve been around have made a focus on details an integral part of the big picture … and the big picture a daily touch point.
Do the best you can in the moment. When you can do better … do that.
An investment in the details, and their connection to the big picture, is viewed by people as an investment in them. Without them a leader is viewed as incapable of helping them reach their goals. Question to Carry A final question for you to consider over the next week: How does my attention to detail shape both what my team focuses on and what they might be overlooking? Detailed people tend to be detailed. Lazy people tend to be lazy. I wouldn’t say it’s a guarantee, but it’s not far from it. What we do matters - even the things that we don’t think do. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!
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 The YoYo LifeThe season is off to a great start. We’ve competed at a high level in every one of our games so far. The guys really seem to be getting it. They’re sharing the ball, executing the game plan, and defending on every possession. It’s such a fun group to coach.
Two days later … We’re awful. We have no idea what truly competing even looks like, let alone possess the ability to actually do it. Just about every guy on the team is indifferent, terrible at basketball, or both. We have no passion for anything. The season can’t get over quick enough. OK, I think we can all agree that we spend the majority of our time somewhere in between. However, for most of us, our perspective, attitude, and emotions fluctuate so much it’s really hard to maintain a consistently accurate view point. We’re distracted by any number of things, few of which we can do anything about. More often than not, life resembles a reasonably calm sea with a few waves from time to time. Some are bigger than others and sometimes we have a bunch of them in a row. The waves are unavoidable, but the vessel and the way we navigate is a clear choice. Unfortunately, we typically fail to realize the choice before us or operate with the intentionality to allow our choices to steady our boat. We’re left with simply dealing with them instead. Such is the YoYo Life. Why Should We Care? An anchor would be helpful. Anchors serve to hold a boat’s location, to prevent it from drifting. We need to minimize our drifting. That’s what happens to us as leaders, isn’t it - we drift? From year to year, month to month, day to day … heck, hour to hour; we drift. What we establish with good intentions as the priority at the start of the project on Monday is all but forgotten by the time we wade through all the bureaucracy and personal challenges and get to Friday. We don’t mean for it to happen - we don’t want to drift. It’s more a matter of us not knowing how to recognize that we’re doing it or how to stop it when we do. By the time we know we need to drop the anchor we’re so far from where we want to be that it’s too late. Of course, the next question we have to answer is: what is our anchor? REAL TALK - Action Steps The good news is we have no shortage of options for potential anchors and the world has all but exhausted all of them at this point. Some, of course, are better than others. A lot of the anchors will keep you from drifting in shallow water, but if you’re going to be venturing into the depths of leadership you’re going to need a stronger anchor than most. Here are a few of the most common anchors I’ve noticed people choose to drop:
A solid foundation is what we are all looking for - to lead and live. Who or what is that for you? We all need an anchor. Some are far stronger than others.. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!  The Race to SaturdayMy alarm pulls me from my slumber. I jump out of bed, eager to see what the week holds. Mondays offer opportunities. I look forward to the unknowns of the week ahead. Uncomfortable, yet exciting, with something to discover. I know I’m going to struggle and stretch myself. Those first few years of teaching are as exciting as they are scary.
My alarm drags me from my temporary coma. I slink out of bed, creeping into another week. Mondays are the beginning of the end. All I see is the monotonous repetition of the daily grind - same day, different week. I’m trapped in a recurring cycle of senseless routines that add value to no one. The next few years of teaching are merely a race to the weekend. My alarm jolts me from my sleep. I spring out of bed, ready to attack the week ahead. Mondays are another day to make a difference. Each of those precious days holds its own opportunity to serve and impact the people around me. I’m present and intentional, giving and grateful. The rest of my years teaching, and doing anything else I choose, are simply a platform for me to live out my purpose. It’s a ministry, not a job. What a work-life cycle! Grateful to not be counted among the lucky few who get stuck in that dreadful middle stage. Why Should We Care? How many people do you know who spend the week working their job so they can do what really matters to them on the weekends? They repeatedly sacrifice the one hundred-twenty weekly hours for the measly forty-eight the weekend offers. Living forty percent of life doesn’t sound like that great of a proposition to me. Too many miss out on the meaning and direction an overriding purpose can provide. Most of us begin exploring our purpose out of desperation, when we realize everything we’ve done and accomplished is basically useless. In this moment we realize we know everything about life except how to live it. Make no mistake, it is a strong purpose that offers us full access to those one hundred-twenty weekday hours. Without it we remain prisoners to the weekend. With too small or vague of a purpose we end up being driven by someone else’s mission. We need nothing more than something to bring life together and provide focus for our daily actions. Our purpose is a matter of the soul, not the mind, and a confused soul offers no guidance. When everything goes sideways only what’s in the soul will count. When the monotony and trivial headaches of worklife surface, the soul is the only thing that can find meaningful purpose on a daily basis. REAL TALK - Action Steps All days are meant to be lived. All jobs are meant to matter. All roles are meant to impact. With the right purpose we can maximize all aspects of our life, every day. Here are a few questions to consider in identifying just the right purpose:
Weekends are great. But, when we’re living in line with our purpose, so are weekdays. All offer the same opportunity when viewed through the proper lens. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!  When Your What's Your WhyTen years into my coaching career was the first time it even crossed my mind.
The room is about three-fourths full. Most have notebooks open on the table in front of them. A few stand, leaning against the wall ready to make a quick escape if the message isn’t worth hearing. At the front of the room, I sit at a small desk taking one final look at my notes. I brush off some natural nerves that anyone speaking in front of their peers experiences and stand as the MC approaches the microphone to introduce me. He begins with my career record followed by a few accolades. No one in the room cares. But, for whatever the reason, the introduction registers with me. It generates a simple, but profound question that I continue to wrestle with from time to time, even now: Is that really who I am - a series of numbers and meaningless awards? If I were to be honest at the time, the answer was definitely yes. My identity was absolutely tied to my coaching performance. Unfortunately, the introduction suited me perfectly. My ‘what’ was clearly my ‘why’. Why Should We Care? I realize now that I’m not the only one that has suffered from this skewed perspective. Almost everyone experiences it and virtually every leader must choose to intentionally fight it. When we are dedicated to our craft we often never even consider the hours we put into it. For most, it’s not even work … it’s who we are (ope!). Of course, sometimes the dedication itself becomes our identity. Our purpose may be nothing more than being viewed as a hard worker. All high performing people value achievement. As the leader, production is naturally important. The extent to which we prioritize the results provides a clear window as to the location of our ‘why’. It’s often easy for a performance-driven leader to become enamored with the label of leader. When we are living in-line with our why, what we are doing almost becomes irrelevant. At our best, our why can be applied to all aspects of our lives. The ‘how’ becomes the differentiating factor. The process and experiences are elevated. The results and outcomes are surrendered, yet often surpass even our own expectations. Unfortunately, when we aren’t living in-line with our why, what we are doing becomes irrelevant also. We may be well-known (for a while) or achieve great things (to soon be forgotten), but the resulting emptiness we are destined to feel will lead to questions we desperately wish we would’ve answered years earlier. When your ‘what’ is your ‘why’, you are a far cry from the success you are looking for. REAL TALK - Action Steps This isn’t a box to check and move on. Being sure your ‘what’ is not your ‘why’ requires a high level of self-awareness and intentionality. Not to mention continuous work. Here are few thoughts on consistently re-evaluating your intent:
When your ‘what’ is your ‘why’ your impact is compromised, but more importantly so is your self-worth. You are more than what you do as long as you choose to make it so. Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here! |
About bcI'm a teacher, coach, and parent seeking excellence while defining success on my own terms. Archives
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