Are You a Teammate or Team Member?

What’s the difference? Participation.

True that just by including the name TEAM into the title there is a sense of being a part of something. There is some inherent involvement included. Understand there is more to it. Think a point guard, distributing the ball, droppin dimes, or chalking up assists. Think involvement, partnering, working together. Think small, between the spaces, filling gaps. Think teammate.

Teammates show up differently.

Teammates study and analyze, strategically anticipate what’s next. Teammates help the next customer in line. Teammates say what they can do. Being a teammate is hard.

Team members show up differently.

Team members cram and react, tactically execute in the moment. A team member reluctantly involves others. Team members choose their next customer. Team members say what they can’t do. Being a team member is easy.

Are you a teammate or a team member? Would those around you agree? What could you do (differently) today to make sure you are who you or others want you to be? How could you be a better teammate and less a team member? Think hard and go do. Now!

“The participation in the success of others is my single driving force.”

(V- Thanks for being a great teammate!)

Silence Is Golden

Sometimes it takes a break from talking, asking, engaging to confirm understanding. Sometimes it’s vibing to music, scouring a book, or viewing a movie that helps to gain understanding. Sometimes it takes silence to understand.

Silence has power. Silence has wisdom. Silence is learning. Silence is inspiring. Silence won “Best Picture”. Silence won world records. Silence makes sales. Silence makes connections.

Think about the role silence plays in your day. Maybe more is needed to think clearly, even objectively. Perhaps it’s just action not words that help you learn. What could listening, reading, or watching in silence be for you?

A cool quote (one of my favorites), now has a new and different meaning.

“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Go be silent.

Dig

A good friend of mine frequently reminds me the importance of this. You cant just consume what is offered to you.
 
See the surface is the norm, it's standard, the status quo. There's something very safe about staying on the surface. Just do what she does, say what she says, write what she writes.... yer good. Taking things for "face value" is easy, no need to involve, just follow the directives issued. Comfortable. Basic. Straightforward. Like cruise control on life. _______! (Go ahead you name the blank...)

There are layers to everything, everyone. Yeah it can be difficult, even hard. You have to engage, ask, involve, or participate. Explore the unexplored, complicate the uncomplicated, flex the inflexible. It's uncomfortable, painfully so at times. It's frustrating, in-explainable, even undefined. It's paths that don't cross and answers that aren't predictable. ___________! (Go ahead name this blank...)

See I studied "digging" in college, some call it History. Inquisitive was my mind, obsessed with finding out why people did what they did, what and who influenced them to do so. I was, maybe still am, driven to find out why and how something occurs. It's in my DNA so maybe its easier to explain and see, but trust me, now more than ever there are tools to assist. Get crazy and Wiki, Google, or Yelp something. Don't take life for what's just on the surface. Don't do just because someone says to or its convenient. Ask what else it could be. Learn what is possible. Involve yourself. Engage.

"The best MC's will never be heard." or so I have been told. I get reminded of this often in different forms throughout my days. Many of us error on the safe, easy, or path of least resistance for fear of rejection, disappointment, or failure. We go with what's advertised or what others say is acceptable as to fit in or be accepted. Of course there is some boldness required to step out from behind a curtain and perform, but there wouldn't be any new or next if somebody didn't. If we only stayed on the surface we wouldn't learn. There is so much more out there to be heard, seen, experienced than just what gets dished up to you. Cease those opportunities. Ask one more question. Take one more step. Write one more page. Play one more note. Explore. Live. Dig.
   

Heart

It's not a stat, a metric, or a number. There isn't a test or a score. It’s not tangible, or something you can touch, or even something you can always comprehend. There's no magic formula, no book, no instructions. It's not a specific word, phrase, or speech memorized. You know it when you see it.

It's the champions, the winners, the record holders, but not the ones that are supposed to be. The best come from those who aren’t supposed to win, not supposed to achieve, the one everyone doubts. It happens when the deck is stacked against them. It's winning when everyone counts you out. It's defying the odds, annihilating a point spread, and driving your TEAM down for the winning touchdown (Eli). Just know it shows up when it matters most.

Trust it's in the undrafted and the #1 draft pick, the unsigned and the biggest of contracts, the unwanted and the coveted. Their measurement however comes when opportunity is presented and how they react. It’s what someone puts on display when they are backed up, counted out, or forgotten. Bottom of the ninth or the last round, seconds left or the last hour, it’s about what happens as time expires that defines.

Everyone has a little. Arguable whether it's taught or something you are born with. Coached or God-given? Studied or spontaneous? Learned or DNA? Hard to know for sure… but believe it when you see it.

Forget the stats, forget the metrics. Forget the favored or the expected. Give me the underdog. Give me the forgotten. Give me heart.

Sledding

Some of life's best lessons come from the simplest of activities.

This dawned on me as I watched my children hit the sledding hill for the twentieth time of the day. It was the excitement in their eyes, the ear to ear smiles, and the laughter that ensued as they came to a stop. The pure joy that came from such an innocent activity.

Admittedly I began the day by coaching my kids to go down a certain way and stay away from certain jumps. I realized after the first five runs this was their time to sled, not mine. Half their fun I think was getting stuck, trying something new, or seeing how far down the hill they could make it before they came to a stop. There was strategy involved as I often would see my kids watching other kids and eyeballing the next path to blaze or sledding position to emulate. They tried feet first, hands on either side of the sled to steer. There was tandem with one sled, with multiple riders or hanging on to multiple sleds each with one rider. Then was my personal favorite, face first, hands tucked, and as fast as the sled would take you. (There were even times the sleds became optional, served a purposed, but not advised.) All of which brought smiles and laughter to each of their faces. Pure joy.

As our time on the hill passed one thing really began to set hold, everyone needs to take a "sledding day". Heck maybe its an hour of a day, nonetheless, everyone needs to go "sledding". You see we take life too seriously, too scheduled, too careful, too advised. Sometimes we need to take the time to let our hands and feet up, jump on to our sleds, and see what happens. Better yet, take the fastest track, face first, hands tucked and go as far as the sled will take you!

Service

Today is a day for just that.

Your service may be different than others, it may have deep rooted meaning or it may just be a simple gift. Your service could be thoughts spoken or words read. Perhaps your service is organized and with a group of like minded, or maybe its individual, focused on a specific cause. Regardless, your service is needed.

Serving is about contributing. It's about helping others, doing for others, thinking of others. Your service is honoring those who you serve. Your service creates, challenges, even instigates action of others. Your service provides different thinking, different doing, and different results. Your service is needed.     

My service is not always shared with others by physical nature, nor is my service always organized or specific. My service is often deep rooted in thoughts and ideas, challenging the norm and being different. My service is passionate, involved, and inspired. My service is personal. 

It's possible that today may not mean the same to you as it does to me. In fact my service started because of today, nearly 25 years ago. A person, a movement, a legacy... so profound, so enduring.
  
Today is a day for service.

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?" - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Name It

Practice makes perfect. We have all heard this a time or five. The reality is, the more we practice something, the more we own it.

One of my favorite things to practice is having a conversation. So much learning takes place in a conversation it is important to me to make sure I own this skill. Much of the success or advancement of a conversation is a direct result of honing specific components within each dialog. Conversations are about asking questions, listening, participating. They are about exchanging ideas and being present. It's seeing something and saying something. Needless to say there is a lot to a conversation and its hard work to have a really good one. One of the most underrated pieces of a conversation is the name it component.

To see it is one thing. To name it is completely separate. Naming isn't just describing or telling, illustrating or explaining something. Naming is specific, your very own definition of what is happening through your lens. Naming is your words not your bosses or some fancy lingo you got from the company website. Naming it isn't calling out some buzzword or corporate slogan but a real authentic description of what is actual. Naming is content of what you see and the context of who you see it with.

We underestimate how powerful this single component can have on a conversation. Naming it is so crucial to uncovering what happens next, creating ownership and accountability, and giving you a platform to build on.  Practice this single skill over the phone, on your sales floor, or with your kids. Take 20 minutes to name what is happening around you. View your surroundings through a new, unfiltered lens. Giving life to the world around you.

The result of your findings will amaze you.

Your ideas, thoughts and actions will be different.

Your conversations will forever change.

How you see the world has officially been altered.