In Belichick, Ian O'Connor says that's a question asked of everyone in the Patriots' organization, from the secretary answering the phone to the star player. Bill Walsh taught similar lessons in his Standard of Performance. John Wooden said it as "never confuse activity with achievement." And Catholic author Matthew Kelly restates it as becoming our better version.
Most players at every level are role players and contribute through excelling in their roles.
Bill Walsh’s Standards of Performance:
- Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement (see Japanese Kaizen)
- Demonstrate respect for each person in the organization
- Be deeply committed to learning and teaching
- Be fair
- Demonstrate character
- Honor the direct connection between details and improvement, relentlessly seek the latter
- Show self-control, especially under pressure
- Demonstrate and prize loyalty
- Use positive language and have a positive attitude
- Take pride in my effort as an entity separate from the result of that effort
- Be willing to go the extra distance for the organization
- Deal appropriately with victory and defeat, adulation and humiliation
- Promote internal communication that is both open and substantive
- Seek poise in myself and those I lead
- Put the team’s welfare and priorities ahead of my own
- Maintain an ongoing level of concentration and focus that is abnormally high
- Make sacrifice and commitment the organization’s trademark
Don Meyer distilled this laundry list of worth values to a shorter list. I use the acronym PUSH-T (push through).
PASSION - commitment, energy, and focus on the details
UNITY - Team First... balance individual excellence to pursue team achievement
SERVANT LEADERSHIP - how we lead the community of individuals forward
HUMILITY - "do not think less of yourself but think about yourself less."
THANKFULNESS - gratitude for our opportunities and situation
From Robert Greenleaf (1970) - "The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first...The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons?"
"Push Through" requires intent. It's a starting place that works for us every day.
Summary:
Lagniappe: Frank Martin teaching defending cuts.
PASSION - commitment, energy, and focus on the details
UNITY - Team First... balance individual excellence to pursue team achievement
SERVANT LEADERSHIP - how we lead the community of individuals forward
HUMILITY - "do not think less of yourself but think about yourself less."
THANKFULNESS - gratitude for our opportunities and situation
From Robert Greenleaf (1970) - "The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first...The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons?"
Servant leadership is inclusive, bridging both secular and religious communities of all faiths.
Gratitude has proven benefits both interpersonal and intra-personal.
Research reveals gratitude can have these seven benefits:
- Gratitude opens the door to more relationships. ...
- Gratitude improves physical health. ...
- Gratitude improves psychological health. ...
- Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression. ...
- Grateful people sleep better. ...
- Gratitude improves self-esteem.
- Gratitude improves mental strength.
"Push Through" requires intent. It's a starting place that works for us every day.
Summary:
Be intentional.
PUSH Through.
Serve to lead.
Gratitude benefits us and others.
Doing good makes the team stronger.
Lagniappe: Frank Martin teaching defending cuts.
Lagniappe 2: Positive psychology and unicorns, the 21 day gratitude challenge
Don't coach to create average. "Move the entire average up." 12 minutes that can change your life...90 percent of happiness is determined by our processing the external world. "If you can raise somebody's level of positivity...then their brain experiences...the Happiness Advantage...intelligence rises, creativity rises, energy levels rise...every single business outcome improves."
