Team Core Values=Success

A successful team seat atop a foundation of core values. These accomplished teams rely upon their core values to ignite purpose-driven vision. When these collective principles are faithfully adopted and manipulated real team success occurs.

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“If there are no common values, there can be no image of the future.”

Robert Bundy

When you see a successful team you are witnessing this poetry of core values in motion. I am fortunate enough to have spent 30 years involved in football in some capacity. As a former college and professional player, youth, high school coach and athletic director, I can say without doubt, a successful team has unshakable core values.

Without cemented core values teams lack cohesive function and execution. We all have witnessed dysfunctional teams, they flounder about, are disorganized and lack direction. Unfortunately, some of us worked these teams which lacked core values, it was not pretty.

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Learning How to Winning

My football career at Eastern Illinois University produced the best training implementation of team core values I ever received. Our ability to adopted and accept the core value principles of our team produced unprecedented team athletic success.

We practiced a way of life. As a two-time 1^st Team All-American, it was one of my responsibilities to keep core values in the team’s focus. The Eastern Illinois football teams of 1980-83 produced the highest win percentage in school history. I am grateful to have played an intricate role in our team success.

However, it was not enough to talk core values, I also had to live it. No action resonate more than a leader whom walks the talk. Values like honesty, team unity, and practice ethics were vital to my success. There are many more values that shaped our success, however the five core values below etched an eternal mark in me. 30 years after arriving at Eastern as an unheralded walk-on these five values continue to shape my core value training.

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5 All-American Team Core Values

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1. A Commitment to “The Purpose.”

The most important question to ask a team is “Why are we here?” Whatever your team’s purpose the team must comprehend their existence in the organization. The purpose of our football teams “Win a National Championship.” Our opponents, fans, and everyone involved in the program understood that purpose, if you did not you learned quickly.

2. Work Hard

Nothing replaces hard work. Coach Knolls would say, “Potential aren’t worth a damn,” Coach Knoll was right. However before I played at Pittsburgh I understood this in college. Many employees are selected for their potential, yet they lack the willingness to work hard. Team members who lack a work ethic will be flushed out by a core value driven team.

3. Stay the Course

If we believe what we do is right, than our work will provide our success. Strong winds do not rattle harden philosophy which surrounds successful teams. As a matter fact, agitation is welcome and desired, winner do avoid problems they run toward them. Rather internal or external, problems are to be solved quickly and timely, they cannot linger. Stay the course, even if we lose some alone the way.

4. Perseverance Through Adversity

Nothing worth anything comes easy, put your team to the test frequently. Compliance erect softness and lack of effort, however difficulty builds resolve.  A great fight is better than an easy win.  Show me a team who wants it easy, I’ll show you a team with no core values.

5. Accountability

“Do your job.” Sometimes we forget our role and this result in poor individual performance but more important, poor team performance. Each person team member has a responsibility to carry out their duties with precision. Practice hard, study hard and perform hard. We need over-achievers, game-breakers, and playmakers. Be your best and the team wins.

In sum, I love how well-organized teams function, I enjoyed the team cohesive as they drive to success. If you are building a team in business, athletic or social groups the 5 All-American core values can help secure team success.

Leadership boils down to one essential: “Getting people working together efficiently.” Leadership is the art and science of organizing multiple personalities to achieve a mutual purpose. 50-75% of failed leaders could not organize and run an effective leadership process.

After all was said and done, dismissed leaders lacked emotional awareness to empower people. The bottom line is organizational achievement. The transformation leadership theory is the most popular model today in organizational leadership processes.

What is a Transformational Leader?

Who me, lead.

Research indicates transformational leaders have more success in achieving organizational goals than other models. Leadership is relationships. By formal or informal appointment, leaders are expected to have relational wisdom. The 50-75% of leaders who failed, failed not because of lack of competence, but who they were.

When leaders are poor performers usually they are the last to know. Here’s one example, deprived leaders over-estimate their skills to handle stressful situations. Their inept reactions to stressful situations befuddle members and leaves them wondering about their leader’s inner wisdom.

“The leader who exercises power with honor will work from the inside out, starting with
himself.”
- Blaine Lee, The Power Principle

The Wise Leader

Leaders who lack emotional intelligence will find it complex to form effective organizations. It is beyond their scope. Leadership is about relationships, positive relations which empower group members. It influence members to achieve, to reach for a higher standard, this is transformational leadership.

To empower others you must know yourself. By knowing yourself you can deal honestly and truthfully with group members. You can express empathy without it being stressful. People work their hardest for people they “honestly see” they care about their well-being.

Are you a Transformational Leader?

Agree or Disagree:

• Are members inspired by your vision?
• Are you compassionate by deeds?
• Do you motivate members?
• Do members avoid requesting your guidance?
• Do you challenge members to be authentic?
• Do you micromanage?
• Does others disagreeing offend you sometimes?
• Do you light up a room?
• Do you build a culture of leaders or followers?
• Are you formally evaluated yearly as a leader?
• Do you influence?

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Robert Williams

Oscar Levant,

What we know about leaders.

Failing organizations are the direct results of the person/people who create, manage and lead them Finkelstein (2003).  Contrary to popular notions, most leaders who failed were not incompetent, lack talent, or not hard workers. Failed leaders possessed advance skills and intelligence, and higher educational accomplishments, which justified their appointment in most instances.

Leaders fail because of “Who they are” more than what they know. More than any factors, the leader’s character is the major factor to derailment. Character is an intangible variable, also one that is hard to define. Self-awareness, relationship intelligence, social competence, and authenticity are some traits of a sound character.

Leader’s behaviors is the primary indicator to organizational success or failure.

Reasons Leaders Derail

There are many points not covered below in building a powerhouse team e.g., Cohesiveness. creativity, innovation.  I am in graduate school so my writing gets a little shorter while I study.  However these five components are great to utilize in building any small group or large team for that matter.

Right to the point.

(1) You need a vision

Your vision must have attractiveness for people. Unless you intend on working by yourself, you need team members and so you need a contagious vision.  A vision where others benefit from the purpose, in other words, “Show them the Greatness.”

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(2) Create a Unyielding Process

You need a compass which is guided by a system of success. Powerhouse teams can change on the fly, they are flexible and no nonsense. They have a mission and they are going to carrying it out. They trust the process more than their own intuition at times.

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(3) You need horses

Exceptional people create exceptional results. Great organizations are saturated with above average people, who possess with intelligence combined with toughness. Proven winners face challenges like a walk in the park. Great leaders are motivated by the inclusive process, their thoughts and commitments are a valuable assesses to the team.

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(4) Provide a Winning Atmosphere

Winners must have the proper setting to develop their greatness. A mental or physical revile structure sends a signal of defeat. You must build a powerhouse from the cup they drink from to the bus they ride on, they must know there winners. Everything they do should resemble greatness.

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(5) Let ‘em Loose

You cannot keep great people strapped down, you must let them loose. Nothing gets in the way of a powerhouse team than a coach in the way. Move aside and let people work in the process without micromanaging their every move. Trust in the vision, the process and the team’s hard work. Now, move all fear aside and take the field.

Robert Williams

“If you build it they will come.” Yes, but why are we not succeeding?

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You have a clear vision however your team members are stagnant and lethargic. Each failed project began with energy but dwindle into ashes of incompleteness. When teams do not produce results, lack of inspiration may be one cause.

Inspire, 1 a : to influence, move, or guide by divine or supernatural inspiration

The art of inspiration is a leader’s unprecedented ability to influence others. If a leader lacks skills to inspire, team members begin to act accordingly. Influence is a supernatural force unseen by a microscope but visible when exerted. Leaders whom can influence without the threat of power or compensation are irreplaceable.

Consequently, when team members are in the presence of an inspirational leader, they feel a sense of euphoria, self-empowerment and cohesiveness. The inspirational leaders resonates an, “We can do anything attitude,” and team members not only believe it, they but in to it! This commanding attraction can occur even when the leader is foreign to the team.

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How to influence change agents.

The inspiriting leader attracts others because of an egoless attitude. Unafraid to share power, the inspirational leader attracts members for inclusion and not obedience to their power. Within seconds a workable relationship will exist, team members feel self-greatness. The ultimate influence of a leader is, “how he/she uplifts the spirit in others.”

If you are a leader ask yourself. How do people feel after speaking with you? Do they boost about your interpersonal skills? Are they excited about the vision? Do they trust you? Are they better after being in your presence or confused?

Leaders are responsible for inspiration. The successful team has leaders who engage their members’ spirit. Caring and nurturing team members personalities, characteristics and talents is influential. People care when they know leaders care about them. Nothing will ever get done when apathy remains a part of the team.

What are ways leaders could inspire their team?  Can we learn how to inspire others?  How important is inspiration to group success?

Robert Williams

rawthoughts@gmail.com

Yesterday I had a conversation with a coach prodigy of mine. He indicated how the 2009 football season was a bust and present dissonance that exist between some of the coaches. Several incidents had him seething and his public reputation confirmed the sour relationships.

e.g., Coaches blatantly disregarded instructions, sabotaging his past leadership process and did not execute his vision which made him a successful coach and innovator.

He asked what went wrong, I politely replied…you…you were the problem!

My leadership specialties are small volunteer social groups like his, business and educational organizations. In these small environments, I place most persons in the leadership process for examination without having to walk a corporate ladder.

Volunteers create different variables than employees; for one reason; they do not have to be there. I hypothesize volunteer leadership may be the least understood. When you have volunteers a leader must be sound as a board. Let’s look at costly mistakes by leaders involving volunteers as active followers.

“When the Buck stops with a Leader.”

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(1) Believing your vision is their passion

Your vision is not the prerequisite of motivation to all people. Here is where many leaders fail. A volunteer leadership process must be strongly inclusive. Unlike employee managerial, supervisory or even parental, people can walk away or worse stay and be disruptive. Most Volunteers do not have the threat of losing compensation as motivation.

It is the responsibly of the leader to possess skills to expound upon a group’s vision. The leader must create a foundation of mutual trust where others feel safe to become involved in the process. Just being who you are does not work with volunteers; you must be sincere in collaboration. There must be a shared vision.  If you see an ineffective group it’s the leaders and a faulty leadership process occurring.

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(2) Lack of Social Awareness.

A leader who lacks self-awareness lacks social awareness. Some of us are not leaders by nature. A genuine leader must be honest with one’ self, they should possess the fortitude to challenge their personal short comings. People do not care if leaders have faults but they hate denial and dishonesty.

Leaders who lack personal humility disregard others and masquerade a transparent silhouette. They treat people with no empathy, a sure sign, they are unable to work through their own emotions.

Group membership encumbrance a wide range of social dynamics, these social variables are important to the volunteer. A leader blind to social variables chance being charged with apathy and non-caring; which may entail mistrust by followers. No one follows a leader who they perceived does not care about their inspiration.

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(3) Lack of Self-Management

When groups experience a string of failed attempts at achievements, lack of motivation and creativity, it’s the leader’s fault. Leaders who possess an inability to plan, lack critical analysis and evaluation and also flies by the sit of their pants lack self-management.

The group mimics these behaviors, the leader, consequently looks at the group with distain, complex by their behaviors. Unaware the behaviors are her personal beliefs she becomes lost for answers.

You are what you do. Management is a vital component to all successful ventures taken on by groups. Groups must possess discipline; I use former Indiana’s head coach Bobby Knight’s definitions of discipline when operating in a group, “Discipline is during what’s right and doing it that way ever time.” Undisciplined groups are a reflection of their leaders. You cannot manage a circus disguise as a group.

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(4) Fear

When a leader is afraid to make tough decisions they compromise. The conciliation occurs in what I like to refer as, “Ignoring the obvious.” Fear of disappointment, failure and apprehension consume the de facto leader. My friend acknowledged he had lost good people and settled for some unsavory coaches.

These coaches were allowed to circumvent his leadership process because he felt, “I needed them.” What eventually happened was his worse fear becoming a reality, “Mediocrity.”

When a leader is in a state of suspended disbelief they are useless. Frozen with what others may think, they pretend that success has occurred. However the bar for success has been lowered. They have settled for a running organization instead of challenging the lack of achievements. A fearful leader must be immediately replaced or their consciousness must change. If neither occur, bucket up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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Some have learned the hard way being a leader comes with great responsibilities and humility. Leader comes from all walks it has absolutely nothing to do with position, authority or fame. Being a leader is tough. However, it can be mastered with self-examination, humility and personal growth. Leadership is all about relationships, relationships are built on sound individual emotional stability.

Robert Williams

My position about the Great Man/Woman theory is duly noted, those days do not exist, as former Boston Celtics coach, Rick Pitino so eloquently stated, “Larry Bird and Kevin McHale ain’t walking through that door.” Our fascination with the mystical “leader” figure may be laid to rest. There’s a new game in town.

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No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.”

— Peter Drucker

If such supermen or geniuses ever existed can be argued, however Drucker’s correct in his proclamation, humans forms the process known as leadership. This prehistoric phenomenon has existed from the time humans began to hunt and gather. We are social creatures and working together is nothing new. Unfortunately, we adopted the lone leadership hypothesizes from mythical herculean stories when the phenomenon was not observed correctly.

Some never appeased this preposterous notion while others swear by the mythology. Groups, teams, and organizations cannot be successful operated by one person at the top in the 21^st century. The multi-cultural knowledge-base America is not your grandfather’s America.

“Leadership is an action, not a position.”

- Donald H. McGannon

I would add to McGannon’s timeless observation, leadership’s a process of people not something a leader does. Working together for a common purpose, be it, sales, a Girl Scout cookie campaign or changing a city ordinances, in numbers is strength. Laziness and apathy is created when one person has total autonomy over a group.

The most creative innovations in America’s history were all carried out by teamwork. Yes, the influences may been unequal as with Edison, Ford, or Gates, but they never would have accomplished much without a team.

“Good leaders make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference…when that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.”

- Warren Bennis

Albert Einstein remarked that “the significant problems that we have cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them,” our 21^st century will not be altered with antiquated tools in the sandbox. The paradigm of the lone leader guiding followers into a new frame of thought is creatively stillborn. Only by adopting an old but new way of understanding leadership as a process can groups, organizations and our country move forward.

Tiger Woods and perceived leaders as we come to expect must demonstrate a higher standard of morals and values than the rest. Whether by election, positional or implied our leaders are to be flawless. History has illuminated the losers whom deeds did not match their rhetoric as well as risen perceived victors to mythological status.

I will not chronicle the exhausted list of individuals whom achieved either distention. Recently, Woods placed himself in very hot-water for his extra-marital affairs, as anticipated he was marginalized overnight.

What Tiger apologized too did not match his persona, his professionally-tailored image and some people’s unfounded perceptions. Although, just an athlete and commercial-pitchmen in the public’s windshield, he was elevated as a de facto leader of sort.

He was a simulated leader in what we hoped was “the good in all of us.” His poor behaviors agitated our feeble consciousness of what we distinguish as goodness. Those impulsive actions of Tiger informed others what we ourselves may be thinking.  If wrong about Tiger could we be wrong about others or ourselves?

Our Lesson if we listen…

When de facto leaders/heroes fall something in us fall with them and illicit immediate condemnation. We desire our leaders/heroes to be better than us. Our insatiable appetite to subconsciously live through others drives us into fanatical gyrations as we soak in each sordid detail. We need to blame and cast out these scoundrels when our expectations are not delivered for our comfort.

Although a perfect stranger outside of television in most our lives, we experienced disappointment. Why? Because, Tiger and (celebrities) are supposed role models. The role model argument is a simplistic definition of hero worshiping. We have no right to straggle perceptions upon other’s back. Role model you, I say!  Get off other people’s wagons and become your own shining beacon.

Tiger is a golfer, MJ was a basketball player, President Obama is a politician, and Glenn Beck, a television host, if you look for meaning in them that is unfortunate. You will repeat the grade of hero-obsession in the school of life more than once.

Tiger is exactly who you are…that’s what hurts most for some.

Within these small groups I believe leadership can be examined more intensely and also they are willing to think outside the box. In corporate America, the bottom line always comes first; consequently profit for some may trump group cohesiveness and social responsibility. We are naive if our thoughts follow a different path in that matter.

The leadership book and training markets are saturated with cures to leadership deficiencies. Most suggest that leadership problems originate with a poor leader. This unremitting partial misconception immediately fuses the definition of leader and leadership.

I do believe a positional/assigned leader has a responsibility to engage the process of leadership but active followers are also responsible for group’s real intended changes. Nevertheless, if  selected or implied as a leader the first responsibility is to erect a leadership model that signal active followers’ roles in the process.

Some simulated leaders never accomplish this inaugural step to effective leadership. And so they flounder about until their eventual demise or unfortunately the groups’ and never comprehend the foundation of the problem.

***Leadership is a process that can be ignited by one but only accomplished by many.***

5 Essentials Signs of Ineffective Leadership…

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(1) I Leader, You Passive Follower.

No act sabotages a group’s moral than the know-it-all leaders and the passive followers.

No one wants to engage in the leadership process with an egotistic individual. The misguided ego-centered leaders drives the group to follow his/her personal vision and the ego-centered passive followers accept whatever comes from their mouth as inspirational. The blind following the blind.

The leadership process is a relational activity between leaders and active followers, if leadership is defined in any additional manner it is a flawed definition. Good leaders and active followers are paramount to the leadership process.

Good leaders/active followers are emphatic, motivated, and ego free, each understanding that no success can be guaranteed without the other.

Which leads to our second signal…

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(2) Lack of Self-Awareness

Leaders and followers whom are unaware of their personal attributes and how they impact their characteristics are doomed. If naive about strength and weaknesses these leaders/active followers are unequipped to begin the process of cohesiveness which is a prerequisite to the process of leadership. These leaders/active followers’ verbal and non-verbal signals of ego-centered methods, low self-esteem, control-freakish acts, and Napoleon complexes send the leadership process into the realm of “wasting time.”

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(3) Undefined Purpose

With a lack of self-awareness by leaders/active followers comes poor communication. Poor communication, damage the ability to convey (1) what is our purpose, (2) how do we intend real change and (3) what methods are we uses to change current circumstances. Leadership is the process of real intended change among leaders and active followers.

When groups cannot define their purpose/s and describe definitive values and methods you have an ineffective leadership process. Poor communicators diminish hopes of any substantive projects with ineptness. They are staring at a map when a destination has not being determined.

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(4) Misuse of Talent

An ineffective leadership process consists of misplaced talent and over-burdened individuals. The chronic missed-opportunities to designate people’s talents in incompatible work assignments become the norm. These groups unfortunately believe a willing person in charge is the act of leadership. With no script this person does a good job of managing or facilitating the group’s undefined purpose. Before long he/she will be stretched thin and apathy will soon follow them out the door.

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(5) Group Emotional instability

Group members who pretend their allegiances to a cause are a morbid signs to group’s emotional paralysis. It is like a marriage in the final stages of divorce, the couple (members) goes through the motions. These groups are dysfunctional and on respiratory devices to support breathing.

Effective leaderships groups enjoy the process of leadership when relationships are multi-directional and influential. Active followers become disenfranchised when efforts are not identified as vital components to group growth and slowly reverse their participation overtime. These talented individuals will eventually exit the dysfunctional group.

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These are some of the signs of poor leadership processes. If you are serious about leadership and intend real changes review your group’s leadership process. If you notice ineffective signs become proactive. Study leadership from a process paradigm instead of the Great man/Woman paradigm.

We all are leaders and followers in the process of real leadership. It is a cycle between leaders and active followers involved in real intended change rotating roles throughout the length of the process.

Robert Williams

If you have other signs of ineffective leadership let me hear from you,…if you believe I am totally off-base I want to hear from you also…

Happy New Year!!!

It is evident our fixation with leadership as a “Influential Person with extra-ordinary social and intellectual skills” garners most simulated discussions.  These conversations appear scholarly but they are infested with novice anti-theoretical suggestions.  We are bombarded with metaphoric stories, and grandeur of futuristic celebration as we wait patiently for the next great leader.

While the enormous list of scholars and practitioners also parade this misnomer the unsuspecting public remain in the dark.  We are cocooned in a bowl of intended disagreements.  The disorganization which surrounds a consensus definition has creates the perfect storm for fictitious shenanigans.  Each definition is considered as good as the next, and so we labor in deciding which best suit our personal and organization growth like a suit or dress.

I have compiled a list of inaccurate leadership definitions from periodicals, books, online forums and conversations.  I will supply in segments for frustration and boredom would  accompany the full list…

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25 Things Leadership is not…

(1)  Leadership is not what a leader does…

(2)  Leadership is not the ability to lead…

(3)  Leadership is not a appointed political, educational, business or social position….

(4)  Leadership is not the ability to get people to follow you….

(5)  Leadership is not one person’s vision…

(6)  Leadership is not getting someone to do something that’s right for them…

(7)  Leadership is not the use of persuasion, influence, coercion or power to
convince a group do something they otherwise would not have done…

(8)  Leadership is not a famous athlete, celebrity, politician, or clergyperson…

(9)   Leadership is not getting someone to think…

(10) Leadership is not something we know when we see it…

(11) Leadership is not a book written about how to influence people…

(12) Leadership is not guidance…

(13) Leadership is not dominion over others…

(14) Leadership is not a person who has command over followers…

(15) Leadership is not a state or condition of a leader…

(16) Leadership is not a group…

(17) Leadership is not the President of the United States…

(18) Leadership is not the 100 wealthiest people in the world…

(18) Leadership is not a CEO…

(19) Leadership is not social changers…e.g., Martin Luther King, JFK, Ronald Reagan

(20) Leadership is not the management of a group…

(21) Leadership is not inspiration…

(22) Leadership is not a charismatic person…

(23) Leadership is not the art of inducing others to do things against their   will…

(24) Leadership is not the art of dealing with human nature…

(25)Leadership is not mentoring…

A Holiday bonus

(26) Leadership is not one person…