bcg blog

Conviction is Currency

I’ve made several mistakes over the years in coaching. I’ve said the wrong things, called the wrong plays, and given the ball to the wrong players. I can’t even claim to have always hired the right coaches, but I do stand by one hire: Rex Brooking. Rex was incredible with our guys, brought decades of head coaching experience to our staff, and operated with a humility that perfectly illustrated what we believe competition at the highest level should look like. 

He also owned a Chick-fil-A restaurant. If I ever had a doubt based on his other qualifications, the free chicken sandwiches on game days completely erased it. Even if I would’ve wanted to, mutiny by the players would’ve ensued had we ever chosen to part ways with Coach Brooking!

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Chick-fil-A is one of the most powerful leadership models in the world either.  Thanks to founder Truett Cathy and his unwavering commitment to his core values, Chick-fil-A is the gold standard of culture.

When Cathy opened his first small diner outside Atlanta, he worked long hours, seven days a week. The Dwarf Grill was the name of his first endeavor, but something about the seven day grind pulled on him. So when he opened his first Chick-fil-A in 1967, he made a decision that made no business sense at all. He would be closed on Sundays, forever. God’s chicken was born.

Everyone told him he was crazy. Sunday was one of the busiest shopping days of the week and every restaurant would be full while his would sit empty. The warnings never stopped. Stay open, you're leaving money on the table, he was told over and over.

Cathy never budged. Not when the company grew into thousands of locations. Not when it became the second-largest quick-service chicken chain in the country. Not when the math started saying the closed door was worth well over a billion dollars a year in lost sales. Cathy wanted his employees to have a day for rest, for family, and for worship. That was the value. And once he was clear on the value, the decision was never a decision again. It just was.

That's what real conviction looks like. It squashes negotiation.

Why Should We Care?
We tend to admire conviction like it's a personality trait. Some people just have it and some people don't. That's a convenient story, but it isn't true. Conviction isn't something we’re born with. It's a byproduct. It shows up automatically once we’re clear about what we value most.

Conviction is simply clarity. The people we call the most convicted aren't the most stubborn or the most confident. They're the ones who did the work of figuring out what they actually value, ahead of time, before the situation that calls it to the carpet shows up. Cathy didn't discover his conviction when the criticism started to fly. He already knew what he valued. The pressure just revealed it.

Most of us want the conviction without doing the work of defining the values underneath it. So when the critical moment comes, when staying open on Sunday would make us millions, we fold. Not because we're weak, but because we never actually decided. You cannot borrow conviction in the moment. You have to build it in advance, out of values you've already settled on.

What you value most is what you'll be convicted about most. Everything else is negotiable, and that's not a flaw. You can't hold the line on everything, so you'd better know exactly which lines are yours.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Conviction feels like a mystery until you realize it's actually a discipline. Here's where to start building it.

• Name Your Non-Negotiables 
  
  • Most people can't tell you what they value until they're already being pressured to abandon it. Sit down and write out the two or three things you will not trade, no matter what it costs you. Get yours on paper before you need it.
    

• Expect The Tax
  
  • Every real value comes with a tax, and conviction is just your willingness to pay it. Stop being surprised when the tax arrives. It was never a sign you made the wrong decision. It's just proof the value was real.
    

• There Is No Small Stuff
  
  • Nobody holds the line in the big moment who hasn't already been holding it in the small ones. Conviction is a muscle, not a switch you flip when the stakes get high. Find one small place this week where your values and your convenience are pulling in different directions. Choose the value. 
    

Get as clear on your values as you possibly can and you won't have to manufacture conviction. It'll already be there, just waiting on you to use it.

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!