An Army of One

“Be An Army of One” was a short-lived slogan used by the US Army in the mid 2000’s.  The vision of a single individual, bravely fighting off the hoards was thought to be an admirable vision to promote.

The great challenge with an army of one is that no matter how romantic the notion of the valiant solider holding off the masses in Rambo-like fashion is, eventually the army of one runs out of energy, resources and luck and is overrun.

The same is true in Life.  There are times when we must be the army of one, bravely standing up for what needs to be stood up for, striving for a vision that is important or courageously fighting off the hoards until the cavalry arrives.

Many times a situation calls for a leader to step forward whose vision, insight, knowledge, strengths and charisma inspire us and lead us towards whatever we define as victory.

However, once the leader has identified “the hill to be taken”, does the leader charge up the hill without support?

Not at all – because an army of one quickly becomes an army of none.

I am in the process of watching two not-for-profits and three for-profit companies die, taking tens of millions of dollars with them, because their leaders have decided to take the hill on their own.

Meanwhile, the talented, enabled, empowered members of their team who would help them take the hill are waiting for their orders or have been ordered to stand down until needed.  Some have gone AWOL with the hope of finding a better leader.

Perhaps the leaders of these organizations have plans to name the hill after themselves when they take it.  Owning the credit is something their ego-based existence dreams of, even as they deny it to themselves and others.

The thing that these leaders miss is that if they really want to plant the flag at the top of the hill, then they need to take the hill as a team.

Every one of their team members bring strengths, insights, talents and knowledge to the table that will help the team take the hill together.

Leaders who don’t effectively use their teams to be all they can be in taking the hill together soon discover an interesting lesson.

When it’s you against the world, the safest bet is on the world.

Leaders have a choice – they can plant the flag on top of the hill when the team succeeds together.

Or they can choose to be buried at the bottom of it.

The choice seems pretty obvious if the focus is on the ultimate result rather than the promotion of someone’s ego.

But then again, if it were so obvious, I wouldn’t be watching these leaders storm the hill by themselves right now, would I?

Be an army of one when you need to be – but know when the cavalry is needed to carry the day.

The result will be something to celebrate together.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

My Musings-in-a-Minute entry for “An Army of One” is the same as this one and can be found here.

So You're Successful - Now What?

I am amazed and staggered with the number of life coaches that promise success.  The most extreme statistic in England suggests that in the worst case scenario there is potentially one life coach for every person seeking a life coach - a one to one ratio of teacher and student.

With so many life coaches promising success and unlimited financial abundance, I can only assume that many of us are operating at the peak of our potential and are ready to engage in something more profound in our lives.

After all, unlimited houses, cars, jewelry, sailboats and vacations must get terribly boring.  Excuse me but ... do you have any Grey Poupon?

I wonder how long it will take for us to discover that life is more than a collection of "stuff".  After we have compiled a phenomenal collection of baubles, how many of us are left wondering "Is this it?  Is this what my life is all about?"

If the amount of stuff we amass is the measure of our existence, then I feel very sad for us collectively.  Many of us secretly admit that there remains an emptiness to be filled despite our abundance and despite our public message to others that we are at the peak of happiness.

I can also assume with so many empowered people running around that there are no longer issues with poverty, hunger, homelessness, disease and other challenges.

If only it were so.

So we set about embracing this cause or that one.  We embark on a mission to accomplish some great purpose or to leave a great legacy.  Many of us ignore the fact that there are other people who have the same purpose or objective.  "I am smarter than they are", we reason.  "I have more money, more connections, etc.  They don't know what they are doing but I do and can be successful where others fail.  I have greater insight than the other person. I have a greater sense of urgency than they do. They just want to steal my ideas for their own glory.   or ....   _____insert your own reason why you can't collaborate______."

Ah - the beauty of ego .... and the crippling result of "one-man- band syndrome".

Step 1 to leaving a great legacy is:

                          We need to get over ourselves. 

Individually, we aren't as smart, connected, powerful or anything else as we think we are.  If any of us believe otherwise, we are headed for some incredible disappointments.

However, we all bring incredible gifts to the table.  These gifts are amplified when combined with the gifts of others.  The combination of gifts, the old adage that 1+1 can equal 5, is a powerful concept that we seem to not take advantage of although we sure love to quote it.

"Collaboration is the only way I operate", we say and then we go on to do our own thing because we feel that the other person can't contribute to our great vision and would only hold us back or we don't trust other people, fearing that they might somehow steal our thunder.

Self-promotion seems to be the way of the 21st century.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at Twitter, LinkedIn or other powerful social media - 75% of people out there exist to share their secrets to success with you - at a cost.

What wasted opportunity.

Competition does indeed spark innovation in the right circumstances.  However, oftentimes it diminishes our result because of redundancy, unnecessary competitive undermining or failure to share information - all based on our fear that someone else might actually do something useful with the information (maybe even creating a better result than we could have).  "How dreadful that would be", cries our ego.

Some years ago when I was working on some goal setting projects in New York, I attempted to engage with a leading mentor organization to see if they would partner with me.  Their response was "no".  When I asked why, the response was "Don't you realize that if you are successful then we will be out of business?"  I responded "Isn't that the point - to be able to have a society where someday we don't have a need for such programs".  I was told that that was a magnanimous intention but they had an obligation to their employees first and the people they served second.

Very sad.  Maybe they should be totally transparent and change the mission statement on their website to read "We are focused on providing a good environment for our employees.  After they have been rewarded, any money left over goes to our programs for inner city kids".  I wonder where donations would go with such a message.

What would happen if we turned the volume of our ego down just a shade, turned the volume of our humility up just a tad and then sought out ways in which our respective purposes and objectives were so alike that we simply had to collaborate to produce the result we sought.

After all, what is more important - the result or the recognition?  If I had a choice, I would choose an amplified result and shared or no recognition over minimal result and all the glory.

How about you?  When you think of the life legacy projects that are important to you, what is most important - a phenomenal result or phenomenal recognition.  If the latter, I wish you luck - it's a lonely world out there when you go it alone.

If the former, I invite you to think about your ideal life objectives and desired result of your legacy.  Think about the strengths you bring to the table.  Think honestly about the strengths you don't have but which you need to maximize your result.  Find people with a similar purpose and with the strengths that you do not posses.  Focus on a maximized result instead of focusing on why no one else can help you get the job done.  Focusing on collaborative strengths is far more empowering and productive than focusing on the weaknesses of others (the latter process often highlighting your own weaknesses).

If you are a part of an organization that serves the needs of humanity in some way, look for ways that your organization can collaborate with others to enrich and amplify the result and the sense of fulfillment amongst the organization's team members.

You may run into a lot of resistance since many people will feel threatened that collaborating will somehow reduce the result or their ability to be recognized.  Overcoming this resistance won't be easy for you to accomplish but you will discover that it is worth the effort.

But then again, anything worthwhile in life isn't supposed to be easy, is it?

I'm not suggesting that every individual or organization is focused on themselves.  In fact, there are phenomenal people and organizations who are incredible models of unselfish collaboration as they move unwaveringly towards their objectives.

Let's find these people and organizations and use them as a standard by which we can judge our own intentions and results.

Only after that can we really claim to have done our best for others.  Prior to that, we will have done our best for ourselves and our egos with some residual positive impact on others.

The challenges of the 21st century need collaboration and maximized result stemming from that collaboration. 

What is more important to you - the reward or the result?

Yours in service and servanthood.

Harry

When the Student is Ready ....

... the teacher will appear.

So they say.

I'm sitting in a coffee shop, listening to people speak about the problems that confront the world - the economic crisis, poverty, disease, the homeless, depression in people, failing healthcare and education systems, crumbling infrastructure, global warming and whatever else they can think of that strains our confidence and faith in a positive future.

As I listen to this litany of concerns that would challenge some of the greatest optimists that have ever walked the face of the earth, I started to think about how well we apply what we have learned from the most impactful teachers and guides that have entered our respective spheres of influence.  I'm wondering what those teachers would say to us now if they were sitting at the tables around us, challenging us to apply our gifts to take on these global concerns.

From my own perspective, I'm not referring to the obvious list of teachers that come to mind:

• our parents, siblings, spouses, children or other members of our family
• God / Goddess / Allah or other supreme deity we worship
• Gandhi or any other brilliant mind that has walked the earth
• good friends who have been significant in our lives in other ways (that's a series of blogs in itself).

I'm thinking of the people we have encountered in our lives who, with no obligation to us as strangers, took the time to teach us by sharing their knowledge, life experiences and insight in a meaningful and impactful way.

We all have those teachers who arrived at pivotal points in our lives, made a long lasting impression and possibly moved on (or passed on to what follows after our time on Earth is complete).

Sometimes the lessons they taught us have had no perceived impact until we acquired enough life experiences to finally understand the lesson.

I'll share some examples from my life.  As I do so, I invite you to think of your own examples.

When I was in grades 1 to 3, Margaret R. introduced me to the love of reading and learning.  She created a joy of acquiring knowledge within me that burns strong to this day.  If a day goes by where I haven't learned something, then I try twice as hard the next day to make up for the opportunity missed.

Margaret also taught me something else.  One day when I would not stop talking, she asked me to come to the front of the class.  I was terrified - these were still the days when a nice "yardstick across the knuckles" was the common punishment for children who misbehaved.  When I quietly walked to the front of the class, she made me face the class and then informed the class that my punishment would be 5 kisses - the class deciding where the 5 kisses would be planted.

So after the enduring the tremendous embarrassment of being kissed on the forehead, the nose, the top of my head and on each cheek, I sat down quietly and was silent, my ears burning bright red with embarrassment.

It was a far worse punishment to a 7-year old than a whack across the hand.  I would have endured the whack across the hand, felt like somewhat of a hero and moved on.  To be kissed in front of my fellow classmates was dreadful.

Looking back on it as a 43-year old, I realize it was the best punishment I could have ever received.  In that simple lesson, she taught all of us that to make a point through violence was far less effective than to do so with love and humor.

The lesson is more enduring as well.  I may not have remembered the yardstick.  I do remember the love.

Some of the primers that we used back in those days had a lot of content written or edited by Emily H.  The flow of her work and the way it touched my mind and heart without being complex in nature sticks with me to this day.  Her work, which I still enjoy reading (both her new material and the material I read when I was 6, 7 or 8 years old) reminds me of the power of words to inspire, to motivate and to leave a life-long impression on the reader.

When I was in high school, I had a math teacher named Newton M.  Newton had a few simple rules - no gum chewing, no looking at your watch ("It's a lazy man who watches the clock", his voice would boom if he saw you) and if you were done with all of your work, you were to sit up straight and twiddle your thumbs.  If your thumbs got tired, you reversed direction and twiddled them in the opposite way.

Newton taught us that your culture and heritage are integral parts of who you are and that you must learn as much about your cultural history as you can.  "If you don't know where you come from", he reasoned, "how do you know where you are going?"

He also embraced the notion that respect is earned and not demanded.  While many of our school teachers at the time demanded that we respect them because of their title, he treated us like the young adults we were and we loved him for it and gave him equal respect back.  The toughest teacher in the school was one of the most loved. 

I found out after he passed away that he spent every spare dime he had on the kids whose families didn't have sufficient money for clothing, shoes or school books.  He did it without the need for recognition (in fact, he avoided it), he did it frequently and did it even when he had little to give.  He was despised by many teachers for doing it but did it for many years anyway.  This lesson of anonymous, unselfish service to those who need it (but don't request it) and against the beliefs of others who condemned him for it lives with me to this day.

Richard G. was a business associate and mentor of mine during part of my career on Wall Street.  I previously wrote about Richard back in November of 2008 - you can find this blog entry here.  Before he passed away, Richard taught me that even in the cutthroat world of business (and New York is as tough a place as any), good guys don't have to finish last.  He and Bruce P., who I had worked for a few years earlier, both lived by the same philosophy - "Take care of your people, take care of your customer and everything else takes care of itself".  Richard and Bruce also reminded me many times that successful people don't need to be callus, ruthless or cold.   To be successful, Richard and Bruce both insisted on:

• being in tune with your team members individual strengths, skills, talents, knowledge, passion and purpose
• knowing where your team members are in their life journey
• understanding how to find the best fit for each team member within the context of who they are and the needs of the organization they work for - failure to find a place where a team member fit properly was oftentimes more a failure of the leader than the team member
• knowing when to delegate and when to step in to guide (not to take control)
• living with transparency, honesty and humor
• not being afraid to ask for help or admit that a leader has made a mistake.

Richard would say that "applying these thoughts without fear can only produce positive results".  Knowing how to apply this correctly is a a gift that harvests the greatest results personally and professionally for an organization, its teams and the people and organizations they serve.  It's still the model I use when I help organizations rebuild their teams.  Jim, a friend of mine, reminded me recently that this model is not welcome in the corporate world.  He is right but I do it anyway. :-)

When I was working on some goal setting programs for inner city youth a few years back, I was extremely gung-ho to get out there and get stuff done.  I was in a hurry to make an impact, the need was great and so I reasoned that there was no time to waste.

I discovered that being in a hurry and seeing an urgent demand does not necessarily guarantee that things will happen quickly.  My belief that urgency of need guaranteed that everyone would climb on board with the same sense of urgency rapidly hit a brick wall.

At that time, Bret D. arrived in my life, bringing his business knowledge in the space, his passion for education and youth, his love for people and his life experience in the same arena I was working in.  With careful coaching, he was able to reset my expectations without quenching the fire that burned within me. 

He challenged every assumption and assertion in a manner that taught me how to refine my promotion and implementation, all the while increasing my passion instead of diminishing it.  It takes a real gift to guide someone without them feeling that they might as well give up because their initial assumptions needed strong refinement.  It also takes an incredible gift to encourage and teach without crushing the ego of the person who feels that they have it all figured out.  I had been successful in everything else, I thought - how tough could this be? :-) 

Today, I am making a transition from the business world that has provided me with incredible friendships, memories and abundance in many aspects of my life.  My Life purpose is drawing me towards a Life of deeper faith and service to humanity.  As I would expect, another teacher has arrived when I need it.

Dr. Carmel D., who is a chaplain and professor at the theology school where I have been studying theology part time for the past 8 months, brings an incredible calming presence and insightful mind to her students.  Her techniques for guiding students through a discernment process for defining a new path in Life are powerful.  Her strong faith in God and her belief that every person is important and brings God-given, God-inspired talent to Life is inspiring.  Her way of providing the student with the tools to discern for themselves how to bring their gifts to bear for the benefit of themselves and others is life-transformational.  Her relationship with her students is built on respect, love and God's purpose for each of us.

So when I think of these teachers and return my thoughts to the challenges I hear people discussing around me, a few things come to mind.

The teachers I described have taught me some significant things that have strong relevance to today's challenges and the role I can play with others in addressing these challenges:

• Know who you are and where you come from and love yourself for it.  If you can't get past this step, everything else can be very challenging and complicated.
• Loving others can help us overcome our apathy or indifference to what's going on around us - if we truly care for someone else, we know that we must help them.
• Love works better and faster than violence, distrust or dishonesty.
• Fear has no place in our life - we must push forward and expect positive results.  We live in a world conspiring to shower us with abundance - we will never partake in it if we are afraid to lift ourselves and others to share this abundance.
• Knowledge is important to solving many of the challenges before us - we must endeavor to be in a position that provides for constant learning.
• Sharing your knowledge unselfishly and in a way that moves the minds and hearts of others to action produces profound results.
• Give respect to earn respect - demanding respect for any reason is setting yourself up for some incredible disappointment.
• Give unselfishly to others and don't expect payment or recognition.
• Build your life around collaboration, honesty and transparency - it produces much more profound results and is much less complicated.
• Don't try to do everything yourself - there's lots of room to share the credit and provide for opportunities for growth in others. Besides - it's a lot more fun and more gets done when we work together with our respective gifts.
• Put your ego away - we are all equal in Life potential. 
• During times of struggle, listen to what your inner Spirit, your instinct or your faith tells you to do.  Move towards your Purpose without fear.
• Build up the confidence of others.  Breaking others down not only sets them back, but doing so brings you down as well.

In class yesterday, my classmates and I were asked what we would identify as the most impactful story or theme from the Bible.

Mine comes from 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Stand fast in your faith.  Be brave and be strong and all that you do, do it in love.

I think this quote succinctly ties together the themes taught to me by the teachers significant in my life.  If I can live by this creed, I can proudly say that I did my best for myself and others during my time on earth.

Now it's your turn.

Think about the significant teachers in your life.  If they were with you right now, what knowledge or insight would they share with you about your life or the world we live in?

What would they see in you that needs gentle correction or refinement?

What gifts and talents within you would they praise and draw your attention to?

What action would they encourage you to take regarding challenges in your life, in the life of someone else or in the world?

What insight from them can you share with others, to continue the legacy of learning, sharing and loving?

What indeed .............

Yours in service and servanthood.

Harry

John Maxwell's Laws of Teamwork

If you have never had an opportunity to read any of John Maxwell's books and you are in a position of leadership, I would strongly recommend that you go buy every book that you can find that he has written.

His book "The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork" http://www.amazon.com/17-Indisputable-Laws-Teamwork-Embrace/dp/0785274340/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b is a powerful (dare I say profound) read. Here are the laws of teamwork - do yourself a favor as a leader and buy this book.

To your success as a team builder.

Harry

1. “The Law of Significance”

People tend to admire bold, innovative, successful individuals. But while many onlookers identify with great individuals, the reality is that people who work alone rarely accomplish great things. Look behind the great success of any individual, from Daniel Boone to Albert Einstein, and you’ll see that each one had backup from a team. Most great achievers freely acknowledged their debt to the accomplishments and discoveries of their predecessors. A person can join a game, but the entire team wins the large contests. Those who understand that a team can do more than a lone individual readily accept the power of teamwork – and they qualify to be a part of your team.

2. “The Law of the Big Picture”

When individuals become part of a team, they realize that greater issues than their individuality are at stake. The individual has to subordinate his or her selfish ambitions to help achieve the larger goal. Someone who acknowledges the overall goal also recognizes that the team is the way to achieve that objective. A former Notre Dame football coach said he would rather not print player’s names on their jerseys. Instead, he wanted to print only the initials of their positions to subordinate their egos for the team’s benefit. The goal must become more important than the individual. To get people to acknowledge the team’s objective, tell them what must be achieved. The leader should select the right players, tell the team how far they are from the goal and provide the right tools. Leave ego at the door.

3. “The Law of the Niche”

Every person has certain strengths. To produce the outcome you want as a leader, place the right person in the right team position. Fitting the right people exactly into appropriate positions is essential to a team’s success, and it is crucial for the individuals involved.

4. “The Law of Mount Everest”

Sherpa guide and experienced climber Tenzing Norgay understood Mount Everest. A British expedition that needed about two tons of equipment and food carried to numerous base camps hired him in 1953. The expedition sought porters and climbers of various skills to reach their camps at different stations going up the mountain. The higher the elevation, the greater the skill required. As the climbing team approached the summit, two members tried to reach it and failed. They returned to the camp and told Norgay and team member, Edmund Hillary, about the obstacles they had encountered. With their guidance, on May 29, 1953, Hillary and Norgay became the first climbers to scale the top of Mount Everest. The lesson of the law: As a task becomes greater, the need for teamwork increases. Specifically design your team for its task. The size of the team depends on the size of the challenge, but meeting a challenge requires a creative, flexible team. You also need a motivated team, particularly if the situation is unpleasant.

5. “The Law of the Chain”

Any team is dependent on its weakest member. That was the case when the Exxon Valdez tanker went aground off Alaska on March 24, 1989. The ensuing oil spill became the most expensive environmental disaster in U.S. history and cost Exxon its good reputation and about $3.6 billion. Authorities traced the disaster to the malfeasance of the ship’s captain. The lesson: Some people are not team players. This may be because they have other priorities, prefer the status quo or are uncertain about their talents. Coaches or leaders may be able to help team members who are “weak links,” or may be able to trade them for more suitable players. As a team leader, you should fix weak links to protect your team’s synergy.

6. “The Law of the Catalyst”

Once a team is built, it has a natural tendency to slow down. It can lose its focus, vision or key people. When this happens, the team needs someone who can re-energize it, as superstar basketball player Michael Jordan revitalized the Chicago Bulls and the Washington Wizards. Teams need people with energy because they are most likely to achieve results. The path isn’t always easy. These sparkplugs may say things others do not want to hear and may have a superior understanding of what the team needs. They are often energetic, passionate and creative.

7. “The Law of the Compass”

IBM was once one of the world’s top corporations, but by the late 1980s, it had become increasingly unresponsive to new technological changes. IBM was losing $8 billion annually by 1991. In 1993, a new CEO began to build a fresh team. The company adopted a single marketing theme: focus on e-business. It decided to use its existing hardware to meet its new purpose. The idea galvanized the company and helped point it in a single direction. Creating and assessing a vision is difficult, but you can accomplish the same thing by examining your team’s collective moral goals and the visions of your individual team members. Tradition also plays a vital role. To foster better team members, leaders must explain the vision so that everyone can participate in realizing it.

8. “The Law of the Bad Apple”

Teams need many factors in place to thrive. For instance, a good attitude is an essential component. Often, talented individuals lose ground because of bad attitudes. Members’ individual attitudes distinguish great teams from weak ones. Shared attitudes can elevate or denigrate any team, and can be either corrosive or invigorating, because people tend to reflect the prevailing attitude. When Roger Bannister became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes in 1954, other runners quickly broke the magic barrier. Positive attitudes are inspiring, especially in the face of adversity. A San Francisco experiment illustrates the importance of attitude. Three schoolteachers were told that since they were the brightest in the district, they were getting a special class of students with high IQs to see how much the kids could learn. By year’s end, their students had achieved 20% to 30% more than other students. The principal then told the teachers that the experiment was a hoax. They were not the brightest teachers. In fact, they had been chosen at random. Likewise, their students were average, but a positive attitude and high expectations had produced real results. Unfortunately, bad attitudes spread faster than positive ones, so correct them quickly. There is no upside to pessimism or envy, since attitudes color a person’s overall outlook.

9. “The Law of Countability”

Team members have to rely on each other. Personal accountability is critical. The trait of reliability stems from a person’s character, commitment and ability to work with others, regardless of the circumstances. When a team member breaks this bond, the damage penetrates all levels of the team. In contrast, hearing that your teammates know they can rely upon you under all circumstances is one of the highest possible compliments.

10. “The Law of the Price Tag”

When a company fails to spend the money to develop new ideas or buy new talent, it suffers the consequences – right up to a penalty as dramatic as going out of business. A salesman who envisioned selling goods directly from manufacturers to rural customers founded Montgomery Ward in 1872. The company was well established by 1900. It even came to own the biggest skyscraper west of Manhattan. But, over the years, Wards failed to keep pace with changing times and new methods. By 2000, it was out of business. Afraid to pay the price of keeping up, Wards lost everything. Teams must pay a price to win.

11. “The Law of the Scoreboard”

Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, founded their company in the 1920s and it soon earned a reputation for innovation. In 1937, Disney produced “Snow White,” which some consider the most successful movie of all time. But by the mid-1980s, the company was losing money. Under the threat of a hostile takeover, it hired a new chairman and CEO, Michael Eisner, who restored Disney to its creative roots by being objective and setting new goals. Every team has goals and ways to measure success. Winning teams change their plans to manage new situations, and then they consistently monitor the results. When a team operates at a very high level, it has to make only minor adjustments to stay successful.

12. “The Law of the Bench”

Great teams are built on the backs of great players. Sports teams have strong starters and players on the bench. But having a deep bench, or a number of very qualified substitutes for the starters, allows teams to do well over the long term. Alternately, a team that has great starters and no substitutes often will not last the entire game. Do not dismiss people on the bench as having limited potential. Given the right coaching, motivation and opportunity, substitutes can become key players. Developing a deep bench requires good recruiting. To build a legacy, teams have to attract very qualified new people and continue to find fresh challenges for important players.

13. “The Law of Identity”

Shared values form the common bond that makes a team cohesive. These values can stem from common priorities and a mutual vision. Teams need a bond of common beliefs or experiences. When people with mutual values unite, they attract others who feel a kinship with those values. A team must define and communicate the values that shape its identity.

14. “The Law of Communication”

Interaction is a basic component of winning teams. When leaders communicate with their team members, they build new bonds and make it easier to implement change. Share good and bad news with all of your team members. Failing to share news with each other can undermine the team’s harmony, decision-making capabilities and personal interactions.

15. “The Law of the Edge”

When two teams have equal capacity, but one achieves more, the quality of leadership usually makes the difference. Leadership provides the edge in competition. In the late 1990s the Los Angeles Lakers had good players, but they did not have a successful season. In 2000, the team hired former Chicago Bull’s coach Phil Jackson and became the NBA champions. The team was the same; new leadership made the difference. Good leaders let their team members do what they do best. Often, each person is highly trained and wants responsibility, even though people incorrectly assume that a team can have only one leader. Leadership roles should be rotated based on the situation at hand. Good leaders provide an edge by preparing the team for the future.

16. “The Law of High Morale”

When a team believes it can accomplish a goal, it can. High morale psychologically prepares teams for difficult tasks. A winning streak often is due to team members’ strong belief that they can accomplish anything, even in adversity. But morale comes in various strengths. When team morale is low, the leader often becomes responsible for the team’s work. When morale builds, the leader should get more members involved. Once morale reaches a high level, the leader should keep the team focused and build on its successes.

17. “The Law of Dividends”

A team’s successes compound over time, like well-invested dividends. Coaches invest time in their team members, and develop the talents of the best people they can find. Collectively, these team members develop into their own community. When each team member has the authority to act at the top of his or her abilities, the entire team gains power and success.