Lessons From Fans

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Attend a major sporting event and you can watch more than a game. You can watch people.

People who are excited, loud, demonstrative.?

People who might be wearing things they wouldn’t wear any other time.

People who are willingly paying more for food and beverages than they might budget for a week’s groceries.

People who have painted their faces.

People who are fully engaged.

People who are fans.

I saw all of that before and during the NCAA Men’s Final Four games.

Babies.

College students.

Sometimes four generations of family attending together.

I was one of those people (no face paint and I was with family, but all the same generation).

I won’t bore you with my Boilermaker story – or the stories of those I came with or sat around. And I won’t tell you about the games. But there are three things all leaders can learn from the fans:

• They believe. It doesn’t matter how much of an underdog their team might be, they believe they can win.
• They care. The reasons they care are different, but usually they care in deep and meaningful ways. When people care enough, they will do all sorts of things, travel to all sorts of lengths, and deal with wide ranges of emotions. And still care even when it isn’t fun or easy.
• They invest. Yes, they invest money (sometimes lots of it), but they also invest their emotions and their time willingly, because it matters to them.

Fans at these events are passionate, committed, and engaged.?

All of these are things we want to see in our teams at work.?

How do we create that?

Help people find a personal reason to care and give them something to believe in. Don’t tell them, let them discover the why for themselves. Their reasons are more important than yours.

No one will be engaged without making an emotional investment. If we want people to be more engaged at work, remember the lessons of the fans. Give them something to cheer for and care about – and you will have a more committed and engaged team.

[A version of this article first appeared in the Creating Remarkable Organizational Results email newsletter.? You can subscribe here]

What Do You Think?

Share in the comments – what is something you are a big fan of?

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