THE SPORT OF BUSINESS BLOG WITH COACH BRU
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PRE-SEASON TRAINING
November/December represents a time when at most colleges and high schools winter sports pre-season preparations are beginning to be made. At the same time business leaders should be preparing to transition from the fourth quarter of 2011 to the first quarter of 2012 with new goals, a vision and focused energy.
When your “practice” begins in business it is important to be certain that the team members and departments within your organization are prepared to consistently bring the best version of themselves to the office every day. With this must come awareness: awareness of self and awareness of others. Without self-awareness you are blind to how your actions, thoughts and words impact others around you. When there is an “awareness deficit” you also don’t realize what your teammates need each day to be their best and help take the organization’s performance to the next level.
With this in mind, I present some food for thought about what the leader and the team members must commit to doing each day, each week, each quarter of the year to make the upcoming year the best ever.
The Leader:
Must commit to bring the three E’s – energy, effort and enthusiasm. All three have the ability to spread like a virus. Are your three E’s worth catching??
Must commit to living the six P’s – Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
Must have big eyes: A keen eye for detail and excellence as well as mistakes. Catch people doing something well, don’t just notice things that prevent the team from improving.
Must be the most organized person in the organization. Without organization “at the top” of the organization you will never get the maximum potential of the team in the desired time frame.
Must be “fingers on” more than “hands on” – The leader must have his fingers on the pulse of his team in order to know what they need and when they need it. This involves more listening than talking and more seeing than saying.
The Team Member:
Must bring their three E’s to the office. (If they haven’t, look no further than the leader’s E’s…. they obviously weren’t worth catching)
Must perform without mental clutter. Eliminate outside distractions through the 6 P’s and by having a process to get focused, remain focused and renew focus. Like sorbet cleanses the palate between courses of a meal, you need rituals to provide brain breaks as you transition between tasks during the work day.
Must commit to strive to “get from” work not just “get through” work. Get passion, purpose and fulfillment from your work not just get through the day.
Must elevate their commitment to learn –“ Learners are Earners” -- The beginning of the year often involves more training and learning as new products are often rolled out, new initiatives begin and on occasion new team members join the organization.
Must commit to 3-way fitness: Mind, body and spirit. The demands of taking your performance to the next level and working as a team will require you to be at peak fitness level in all three areas.
One of my favorite sayings on teamwork is a sign in the Butler University men’s basketball team room. It reads “Great Teams Have Great Teams”. My workplace translation is that great companies are ones where leaders and team members capitalizing on every opportunity to help one another improve, grow and work together better towards a common goal. More we and less me!
I wish you success in your preseason preparations and in your quest to make the 2012 year your best ever!!
Understanding
I believe I now understand why my father, Lt. Col. Thomas F. Brubaker, loved to tell stories about World War II. In my youth, while growing up listening to those stories I really didn’t.
I don’t think he enjoyed reflecting on his experience as a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force because he missed the dogfights and the combat. I know he sure as hell didn’t miss being a prisoner of war. I now realize he missed the feeling. Not the feeling of malnutrition or not knowing if he would return from a mission; rather the feeling of caring so deeply about a cause and about the organization he served.
He would get together with fellow retired officers and travel to reunions of the 361st fighter group just to talk with others who shared that same feeling. I know now, the feeling I’ve described is one of caring so deeply about a cause that you would be willing to give your life for it.
While running the Maine Half Marathon on October 2nd I got to glimpse that feeling. Please understand I am not comparing my run to combat or even service in the military; rather through this experience I was able to gain clarity about what a cause really means and what people are willing to sacrifice for a cause they care deeply about.
This was my second half marathon. During the race last year, I was touched by witnessing the many servicemen and women who volunteered there taking photographs, waving flags at us, and passing out water at the finish line. Receiving their support was one of the most humbling experiences I’ve had in my life. They lead a life of service to our community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and they gave of their personal time (probably on the heels of a 12-18 month deployment) to serve the local community in another capacity. Couple this with seeing the effects of deployments on several GI Bill students I teach at the local college and I decided I needed to be the one serving them and honoring them in some way.
I decided to honor my father and these many soldiers by running in 2011 Maine ½ Marathon to raise funds for the MOAA’s American Patriot Scholarship. With the race coming on the heels of the tenth anniversary of the September 11th tragedies this seemed a most appropriate cause.
I believe life leaves signs and clues for us to find and bring clarity to our thoughts. The military personnel volunteering at my previous race were the sign for me. What I learned during this year’s race brought about the clarity.
Was I doing the right thing for the right reasons? Absolutely. I received confirmation of this during the National Anthem when I glanced immediately to my right and saw a member of the United States Marine Corp standing at attention. After the anthem I gave him a quick thank you handshake before the cannon sounded starting the race.
The race was run in a torrential downpour and if the elements themselves weren’t enough, I heard what sounded like a gunshot at mile #3. It was in fact the “popping” sound of me tearing my calf. As I pulled up and moved off to the side to stretch and try “walking off” the pain I entertained thoughts of calling it a day. Those thoughts were fleeting though because when I glanced up whom did I see jogging by? The same US Marine I met at the starting line. My thoughts immediately shifted to “if our soldiers can handle the adversity they endure on a mission I can do this. This, in fact, is easy. Finish your mission John.”
Had I simply decided to enter the race for no reason other than for the sake of running for myself I may not have continued. After all, this is just one race and there are plenty of others that could be run on another day at 100%. This was not the case, not today. I wasn’t running for myself I was running for a cause. A cause my father cared deeply about and a cause I could not let down.
I believe most retired officers probably tell the stories and have similar feelings about their service that my father did. After they retire from the military, most will never find a position working for an organization where they can recreate that same passion and purpose they felt about serving our country. I know this is why my father had a difficult time adjusting to work life after retiring from the Air Force.
In my professional role as a performance consultant, I work with companies to help them develop leaders and build a more engaged workforce. According to the Gallup organization, disengaged employees cost U.S. companies an estimated $350 billion annually. This staggering figure is in a sense “job security” for someone in my role. Really, these companies don’t need me to teach them how to do it, they need the U.S. military. I know one of my greatest lessons on engagement and aligning passion and purpose with your work took place through my partnership with the MOAA.
Becoming A Better Leader
I was recently interviewed by columnist Maria Carter of Connect Your Meetings Magazine for her article on becoming a better leader. You can read her very well written and insightful article here...
http://connectyourmeetings.com/2011/11/15/becoming-a-better-leader/
From Red Dirt To Pay Dirt
How to turn adversity to advantage
What would you say and do if the roof collapsed on your businesses, literally. I’m pretty sure “mahalo” wouldn’t be one of the first words to come out of your mouth. I ask this question because during a recent trip to Hawaii I learned of a fascinating and inspiring story of entrepreneurial resilience.
On September 11th 1992 Paradise Sportswear, a small mom and pop T-shirt business on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, was dealt a seemingly devastating blow. Hurricane Iniki, a category 5 storm, overtook the island of Kauai destroying almost everything in its path. That destruction included the Paradise Sportswear warehouse and printing facility as well as its inventory. After the storm, the owners arrived at their building to find the roof caved in and the entire facility flooded with Kauai red clay and water. For those not familiar with the red clay of Kauai, imagine for a moment your home town being built on a bed of permanent ink. The Kauaian clay is actually red volcanic soil and it is everywhere on the island. The clay is infamous for staining anything and everything it touches. This is the reason Kauaians always remove their shoes before entering their homes.
Knowing the powerful staining property of the clay, the business owner thought all was lost. With bankruptcy looming, out of desperation he decided to try to clean the inventory on the outside chance that he may be able to remove some of the clay from the fabric and salvage part of his inventory. The repeated attempts to salvage the many cases of stained white t-shirts failed miserably and it appeared bankruptcy was unavoidable.
When his efforts turned fruitless, he decided to attempt to use the red clay to finish the job….. completely dying the shirts a consistent color. Despite his wife and business partner advising against it, he felt there was literally nothing to lose. The shirts were dyed in washing machines filled with red clay and he named them dirt shirts. One of the most amazing aspects of this “innovention” (1 part invention+1 part innovation) was that the chemical properties of the red clay, when laundered made the cotton t-shirts velvety soft and smooth.
A day later, he sold the shirts from a booth in Poipu Beach and the product was met with a great response. The locals bought up his entire inventory on the first day! The owner turned innovator had to return to his facility to produce more overnight. Born of a disaster, from that day forward the concept of The Red Dirt Shirt took on a life of its own and has since become the single most desired tourist souvenir from the island.
I heard about this tremendous success story from a local executive during my recent trip to Hawaii. Paradise Sportswear’s discovery led me to thinking about how we approach business problems and other “collapses” in our lives.
Col-lapse: (kuh-laps) verb, To fall or cave in; crumble suddenly. The roof collapsed and buried the equipment.
One of the World English Dictionary definitions of collapse is “to break down or fall down from lack of strength”. Collapses in business can take a variety of forms: financial, physical and emotional to name a few. These each pose unique problems and we can become blinded by our problems which channels our focus in a negative direction. Negative thought patterns often become self-fulfilling and the resulting tailspin is difficult to self-correct your way out of. Look no further than the recent collapse of several major brands: Circuit City, Oldsmobile and Borders come to mind. As sales fell they lost touch with what exactly their customers what they wanted, why they were loyal and then did not innovate to adjust to the current market. They just simply couldn’t get out of their own way.
While a physical collapse is not what led to the demise of these brands they did suffer from an inability or unwillingness to change and evolve in times of trouble and uncertainty. The takeaway here is that in order to maintain forward progress you need to be able to separate collapses such as a roof, a business concept, product or a system within your business from your actual self. If business professionals learned to handle defeat the way elite athletes do, improved results would come quicker and with more consistency. Which in this economy is what we are all seeking isn’t it?
Your ability to maintain forward progress and positive mindset will increase dramatically by embracing these two concepts:
- Detachment. Know the difference between an outcome and an identity. Your identity is not defined by the outcome of an event. Your identity is the sum total of who you are, your unique talents, core values and outlook on life. For the athlete, a loss is merely an event that took place on one day. It does not label them a “loser”. The loss is viewed as feedback received and in turn corrections are made for the future. That loss is then put out of mind. The event (loss) did not define them, they defined the event. Failure is merely feedback and used correctly feedback becomes the breakfast of champions.
- Belief. Maintain the belief that problems are solutions in disguise. Often within our greatest challenges lie our greatest opportunities. Underdog teams understand this concept better than anyone. They are often the only people in the arena who believe they can win and that is just fine with them. They are also smart enough to know their viewpoint on performance is the only one that matters. A team’s belief is essentially shared faith and confidence. Time and time again we see belief trump talent and size in every arena. Why? Because belief allows you to compete without fear. There is no pressure when you have belief. This allows you to stay focused in the moment and be in the zone. You hear the term “playing loose” used a lot in sports. By having belief you can play loose in the sport of business which will help you uncover opportunities not visible to many. The owner of Paradise sportswear found a way to play loose and create opportunity.
The word crisis in Chinese means death and rebirth. Through crisis what began as just another sportswear business died and a brand synonymous with Kauai was reborn. Advantage is born of adversity for all of us. His advantage was developed with zero financial capital rather intellectual capital was the funding source. Yours can be too.
Coaching Points:
What would you have done in their situation? Simply call the insurance adjuster or call upon your grey matter and imagination. How will your business be reborn in times of crisis?
What is your “Red Dirt Shirt”? Examine a current business issue you are dealing with. Like the red clay was to Paradise Sportswear, can the problem itself somehow be the very solution for you?
What is the number one way you can turn adversity to advantage in your industry?
“BRU TIP” - Define the events in your life. Do not let the events define you.
Radio Interview w/ WKRS Chicago- Host Kristin Tews
This is a recent podcast from a radio interview I performed this spring with WKRS in Chicago. The show is called Personal Best and the host is Kristin Tews. She is a business coach and talk radio host whose show is designed to help business owners and entrepreneurs become their personal best. I discuss employee engagement strategies and how leaders can help bring out the best in their people. To download and listen click the following link, enjoy. http://bit.ly/j1kThz
The Science Behind The High Five (and how to make it work at work)
In celebration of April 21st being National High Five Day and National High Five Day's 10th birthday, I am reposting a blog article I published last year on the high five. Congratulations to the team at National High Five Project for creating a scholarship fund to help send a deserving high school senior to college. You can donate to the fund here... http://nationalhighfiveproject.org/sponsor
In business it is often the little things that make a big difference. In sports little things win big games. To achieve success in both arenas there must exist a certain attention to detail and focus on the core fundamentals of a task or project.
This focus involves teamwork and with teamwork communication is paramount to success. Organizations invest thousands of training dollars on verbal and electronic communication. Yet in this wired world we live in the most important connection is the human connection. The most significant aspect of this connection surprisingly is often unspoken. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have proven this, in of all places on the basketball court.
Researchers Michael Kraus, Cassy Huang and Dacher Keltner spent the entire 2008-2009 season coding three types of nonverbal communication on each team in every NBA game (high fives, hugs & bumps). They found that the most successful teams and individual players made more consistent contact with their teammates. To ensure the effect wasn’t just seen in teams because they were already winning the research was focused on the initial months of the season.
Longitudinally, they compared the touch totals of perennial power Boston Celtics with that of the Golden State Warriors a perennial doormat. The Celtics and their leader Kevin Garnett (among the NBA’s touchiest players) were quick to touch often contrasted with Golden State who would go stretches of several minutes without teammates communicating via touch. (It should be noted this research took place right after the Celtics won their most recent championship.)
The results stand to reason when you consider research on personal touch from other areas. Harvard researchers determined the brain development of babies was enhanced by personal touch. Additionally, it was determined by University of Miami researcher, Tiffany Field that students who received a supportive touch on the arm or back by a teacher were almost twice as likely to participate in class as those who didn’t. Numerous research studies have shown the power of touch to alleviate anxiety and decrease cortisol levels. Touch has the ability to trigger the release of oxytocin which is a hormone that helps create a sense of trust in humans. Trust encourages teammates to take intelligent risks and push the performance envelope. Trust can also help you lead people in directions they might not go on their own. Team cohesion and trust go hand in hand in fostering Esprit de Corp and members putting forth greater effort.
Kraus stated that “One of the major touching differences we see is in some of the really good teams when a player has made a negative play, they’ll walk over and give him a hand and pull him up. Some of the other teams, you make a negative play…you can be sitting there for several moments and have to get yourself up.”
This piece of data alone should result in a bit of introspection. How often do you “help up” a fallen teammate at work? How do you address the sales person who has a bad month or the project manager who just made a tactical error? Managers, do your team members only get the proverbial high five after an occasional success? Or is it consistent and frequent regardless of the situation? I am not suggesting the CFO give his accounting team a pat on the fanny as this would pose a serious harassment issue I am suggesting you stay connected through personal touch. A quick tap on the shoulder in the hallway or a high five across cubicles on a regular basis clearly has value.
A feeling of mutual trust can enhance performance in any work environment from the locker room to the board room.
Leadership Interview On Chris Treece Show
Download | Duration: 00:29:42
Teamwork Interview on Mind Your Own Business Radio Show, WLOB 95.5 FM
Download | Duration: 00:54:02
Making Hay Out Of March Madness
According to the Gallup organization, disengaged employees cost U.S. companies an estimated $350 billion dollars annually. A study by Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc, an outplacement consultancy, indicates an estimated $3.8 billion of that is attributed to March Madness alone.
This is due not only to the volume of people calling in sick to watch the games but also because of employees who show up for work in body but are at the games in spirit. “Presenteeism” is in many ways more damaging than absenteeism when you consider the office pools, time spent watching the games online and the log jam of work created by absent co-workers. But smart employers can turn this negative into a positive by leveraging the NCAA Tournament so that it has a positive impact on morale.
Businesses can build March Madness activities into the organization by creating an event around the games. With budgets as tight as they are many companies have had to forgo giving raises, but March Madness provides a unique opportunity to reward your employees in a memorable way that extends beyond a raise in salary. Research indicates money is only the third ranked workplace motivator while appreciation is number one. Seize this golden opportunity to show your team that you appreciate them while letting them support their team.
You can’t outsource morale and there is a strong correlation between morale and productivity. Instead of trying to stop the madness, make hay out of the madness by sponsoring a company-wide office pool. Though the law forbids organizing office gambling pools for cash prizes you can run a company-wide contest offering non-cash rewards for winners. You can create it online using one of the popular sports websites and then display the results on a projector in the break room. Everyone participates and everyone has a chance of winning. While some employees may not be basketball fans, they still get a shot to win and can have fun by being involved.
There are also benefits for business owners and manager beyond eliminating the amount of time employees spend filling out paper brackets and going from office-to-office interrupting co-workers. Try scheduling break times or staff huddles during the tournament to announce winners and who is leading. You can also allow employees the opportunity to watch highlights together. This can be a source of bonding and may result in conversations as well as new friendships among people who may not normally have a great deal of interaction. This could also have a positive impact on work teams and projects throughout the rest of the year.
Employee Morale Ideas:
- If you’re located near a regional game site, take the opportunity to have your employees entertain clients at the games. In 2004, I took a pair of my clients to attend the East Region games in Raleigh, North Carolina. The games provided me with a ton of quality time with important clients and enabled them to discover some synergies between their organizations which wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
- Institute a “jersey week” that encourages all employees to dress down and wear their team colors.
- Hold a tailgate party during lunch hour, perhaps even outside if the weather is good.
Even if there is a minor dip in productivity during March Madness, that dip is overshadowed by the long-term effects of increased job satisfaction. Research indicates that job satisfaction has a positive impact on absenteeism and turnover while also reducing costs and increasing revenue.
While March Madness is a golden opportunity, it is still only one ripple in a sea of disengagement. Also consider what you can do to boost morale and enhance performance year round. For example, create a committee of employees to brain-storm creative ideas to expand employee engagement. Call them something such as “The Engagement Ring” and let them think of themselves as a covert operation. Give them a secret handshake or whatever it takes to get them excited. The simple fact that you are soliciting their input and empowering them is a giant leap in the right direction.
HEART OF A CHAMPION
Friends:
This blog post holds special meaning to me and is, forgive the pun, close to my heart. In July a college teammate of mine was diagnosed with Giant Cell Myocarditis. This is a rare but devastating heart disease that usually affects young otherwise healthy individuals. Larry had no warning signs and up to four days before going to the hospital he was functioning normally. There is an expression, “my heart goes out to you” which we often use to let people know we feel genuine sympathy for them. Well, in August, literally someone’s heart went out to Larry. He successfully received a heart transplant because an organ donor gave him the gift of life. The gift of organ donation is an incredible one because it has the ability to touch many people’s lives. I have listed myself as an organ donor and encourage you to champion the cause as well. April is National Donate Life Month for organ donation.
In addition to Larry, I have witnessed several friends and relatives demonstrate the heart of a champion in beating the odds and winning the most personal battle which exists-the battle for life. This post is dedicated to those individuals, may we all maximize our potential with the heart of a champion as they have.
Imagine, for a moment, that we’re able to approach all of our personal and professional challenges as if our lives depended on it. The results would be phenomenal. Unfortunately, that is not the case nor is it realistic given the fact that we as humans have a limited amount of energy with which we must divide up and to assign to prioritized goals and activities. Given this reality, a starting point in all of my teaching and coaching is one very basic and clarifying two-part question.
What do you want? Based on your answer now….What you are willing to earn?
The biggest gap that exists for people is the gap between knowledge and practice. I call this the performance gap. Many people have an idea of what sort of “championship” they want. The student who wants to make Dean’s list, the athlete who want to be an All-American, the salesperson who wants to make President’s Club, the actor who wants to win an Oscar; but do they have the drive, habits and characteristics to transform dreams to reality? It all starts with an idea; however the best ideas are useless without a plan to turn ideas into action, action into performance and performance into championship caliber results.
“It has to be a mentality before it’s ever a reality.”
Champions approach each day with a performance mindset. Champions of any industry whether it is sports, business or entertainment have an “expect to win” attitude. They create a vision of success in their mind and more importantly employ laser sharp focus on the process of making their vision a reality. The subconscious mind holds tremendous power and cannot tell the difference between reality and visualization, it simply responds to the thoughts that we feed it. It is often said the best leaders are “visionary”. They see their organizations not as what they currently are rather as what they can become. This begs the questions what does it take to become a champion and what do experts deem as the most important qualities that are at the heart of a champion?
In 1999, Dr. Shari Kuchenbecker, a psychologist at Loyola Marymount University performed a research study to determine the top characteristics for success in sports. She survey 658 coaches from 43 different sports asking them to “describe an athlete who is a real winner” by selecting five attributes from a list including 64 physical and 64 psychological characteristics. The results indicated that the overwhelming majority of the coaches described “a real winner” by psychological aspects over physical.
The top five attributes selected were as follows:
1. Loves to play the game (43%)
2. Positive Attitude (33%)
3. Coachable (30%)
4. Self-Motivated (27%)
5. Team Player (26%)
Interestingly, the first physical characteristic, “natural athlete” didn’t appear on the list until #19 and was only selected by 11% of the coaches surveyed. What does this tell us? (Beyond the fact that Yogi Berra wasn’t far off in his statement that 90% of the game is half mental.) I believe it reveals that you can apply the same attributes in other facets of your life to achieve success and reach your goals. You could survey CEOs and replace the word “athlete” with “business person” and the same attributes would rise to the top. Similarly if you surveyed HR executives and inserted the word “candidate”, I bet almost identical results would follow.
It stands to reason that in business if we want to be successful and bring out the best in our people, we need to develop ways to encourage these five specific psychological attributes. To take it a step further, I would add that we also need to be seeking these habits in prospective recruits during the hiring process. There is no such thing as an overnight success and performance is preceded by passion, attitude and motivation. With that in mind, I am sharing with you one of my success strategies designed to enhance your performance. This is something you can begin employing immediately in pursuit of your own personal championship.
Success Strategy: POWER HOUR
Start your day like a champion by waking up an hour earlier. In doing so you are gaining over 2 weeks of healthy productivity time over the course of a year. (365hrs / 24 = 15.2 days)
How to do it? Start by going to bed an hour earlier instead of watching a movie or TV. Sleep deprivation has been linked to an increased risk of heart problems. Final thoughts as your head hits the pillow should be reflecting on and visualizing or replaying in your mind three small successes you had that day related to your goal.
What to do with your Power Hour? Stay in your technology free zone (no email, internet, cell phones) Exercise or take a walk for a designated time (anywhere from 15-45 minutes). Physical activity strengthens the heart, literally. This will set the tone for your day in two ways: positive mindset and focus. Expressing gratitude during this time will put you in a positive mindset. In your mind, spend the first half of your exercise activity expressing gratitude for what you have. (Ex. Mentors, important people in your life, the ability to passionately pursue your goals) The second half of your workout should be utilized as a focusing tool by allowing yourself to game plan and reflect on how you will win the day. Focus on the following two questions:
- What is the single most mission critical activity to be accomplished today?
- How will you go about enthusiastically attacking it to win the day?
Invest remaining time in your power hour by consuming some vitamins for your mind. Read a chapter from an inspirational book or a book that will help you develop expertise in your chosen field. If you feel this time is better invested in exercising, more power to you! During your morning commute, instead of listening to music or the morning news listen to that same book on CD or podcast in the car. (You’re not missing anything in the news any way. At the top of the hour they wish you a good morning and then proceed to spend the next 29 minutes telling you why it isn’t.)
To bridge the performance gap between knowledge and practice, stick to this Power Hour routine for ninety days. By doing so, you’ll make it a habit, see results and won’t want to stop. I guarantee it will be a game changer for you because it is first an attitude changer. It is important to start your day the right way, the quality of your mindset determines the quality of your performance. Remember it has to be a mentality before it’s ever a reality.
6 Red Hot Habits At The Heart Of A Champion
Loves to work & compete
Has tremendous focus & listening skills
Commits to excellence in all aspects of life
Is coachable & commits to continuous improvement
Pays attention to details, take pride in doing the little things right
*Links to Champions: