#JerseyDay

“I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.” ~Mia Hamm

Is your August off to a good start? Mine is! I’m back in Dallas now after a terrific week in SoCal spending time with my teams, clients, and partners. I love spending time in the field, amongst the action and with my people in the market. It energizes me and makes me so proud to be part of the team.

While on the west coast, I had the opportunity to webcast my quarterly town hall gathering from AT&T’s El Segundo campus. August is a pivotal month for us. The progress we make now is critical to meeting our year-end goals. In particular, the groundwork we lay today in creating new customer relationships and serving existing ones across the market is foundational to set the stage for future growth. And given we have responsibility for DIRECTV for BUSINESS, it’s also an important time to ensure customers are aware of our NFL SUNDAY TICKET offering in advance of football season. All are critical to delivering value to our customers, both in the short term as well as the long term. Because of this, we decided to ask local team members to wear their favorite jerseys.

As a fairly recent transplant to Texas, I know some folks thought I’d be sporting “America’s Team.” While they’ve been a great customer of mine for many years, it wasn’t their jersey that I wore. Being a “Jersey Girl” at heart, I know many thought that I’d show up representing the East Coast in some way. While I have countless friends who are diehard members of those fandoms, I am not. I’ll admit that I loved surprising most everyone when I sported my jersey representing the “silver and black.” I’ve been a fan from the ‘70s and continue to be one today.

What is it about wearing our team jerseys – and being part of a team – that connects us and makes us proud? Being part of a team is amazing, don’t you think? For my team, National Business, we are the #NationalBizNation; I believe that my “team members” know the value of being part of this team – and it’s my responsibility as leader to ensure that they understand our strategic mission as well as how what they do contributes to our overall team goals. I view being part of a team as a choice. Professionally, it goes both ways – they choose you, and you choose them. And simply being a member is not enough. We have to continuously work to be an active, engaged, contributing member of the team because, after all, that’s what teams are all about. We each need to do our part, and we’re each part of the collective whole.

Personally, I would suspect that we all want to be part of high-performing teams – do you agree? And for me, this means that respect, trust, dedication, camaraderie, and fun – surrounded by passion and purpose – are infused in all aspects of the team I’m on. How about you? What do you think are the characteristics of a great team? Think about the teams that you’ve loved being part of – please share “why”? How about those that you didn’t – there are for sure learnings in the “why” as well.

Everyone should be proud to “wear the jersey” of the team they’re on? (Figuratively and literally.) If you’re not, you might be on the wrong team. Does that make sense? Here are some of my favorite team quotes that capture so much of the essence of what I believe great teams are about:

• “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” ~Babe Ruth
• “Chemistry is a very important element for any team that wants to be serious about winning.” ~Scottie Pippen
• “I think, team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed.” ~LeBron James
• “The secret to success is good leadership, and good leadership is all about making the lives of your team members…better.” ~Tony Dungy
• “The strength of the team is each member. The strength of each member is the team.” ~Phil Jackson

Do you have a favorite quote about teamwork that embodies your view? Fortunately in our lives, we’re not restricted to being members of just one team. There are countless teams that we have an opportunity to be part of… whether they’re with our family, friends or fellow fans…and with our colleagues, customers, or communities.

I am part of a tremendous team…and so thankful for it. Go Team!