Choosing your Winning Team
Josh (left) and Zach (right) hamming it up in football and soccer uniforms.
There is nothing like being part of a championship-winning team. Both of my sons have been parts of many team sports since they were little, and whether it was soccer, baseball, football, golf, or robotics, each time it was their turn to deliver, I held my breath. There is nothing like that moment when in the dark of the night with the lights on, at the bottom of the 9th, your son hits a 3-run homerun. But, if truth be told, as proud as you are, none of that would have happened without your child be surrounded by a winning team.
A few weeks ago in my blog, “The Key to Happiness,” I talked about a powerful TEDx talk by Stacey Flowers called, “The Five People You Need to Be Happy.” In this talk she defines Happiness as “releasing your God-given talent to positively impact the world.” Check out my blog to read more about this.
Stacey goes on to describe five key roles that we all need on our team in order to succeed:
Cheerleader-The energetic and inspiring person who has the ability to believe in you when you are not able to believe in yourself.
Mentor-The wise person who points you in the right direction.
Coach-The insightful person sees something within you that you have not yet unlocked and is willing to sit in discomfort with you as you push yourself to achieve your full potential.
Friend-This kind person knows your heart and is connected to your deepest desires.
Peer-This person understands what you do and helps you keep your head in the game.
A few years ago, I had the privilege to consult with a major league baseball team around culture and leadership behaviors. As we spent many months onsite with the client, I learned a lot about baseball, and one of the things that was fascinating to me is that they start scouting players as early as elementary school. It is amazing how intentional they are in picking their team. All of us should be that intentional.
Everybody wants to be part of an award-winning team in sports, at work, and in life. A lot of the work I do as an executive coach is helping leaders identify and optimize the team with whom they work. In my own life, designing my award-winning team has had major impacts on my finding my path to true happiness.
Who is your championship-winning team?
Over the next few blogs, we will dig in on each of those team roles and how they help all of us maximize our potential.
Josh (far left) with his championship-winning baseball team.
