Letters on Leadership #12 - Sacrifice

Letters on Leadership #12: Sacrifice

Talent wins games. However, “that much better” – put your index finger and thumb two inches apart – allows us to compete for championships on whatever your chosen battlefield may be.

How do we get “that much better?” We do so by making a commitment to being better team leaders and better teammates each and every single morning that we awake.?If we want to do well, we first need talent.?If you want to win basketball games, a talented Point Guard really helps.?If you want to reach whatever revenue amount you have “budgeted,” have a talented sales force.

However, to compete for a basketball championship or to reach our revenue “goals,” we need that talent to also make a commitment to being great team leaders and/or great teammates.?Why? Because we accomplish nothing as an individual.?Everything we accomplish in life is done as a member of a team and on those teams, we fill one of two roles: that of team leader or that of teammate (and sometimes both).?Furthermore, lots of teams have talented point guards or talented sales people.?Very few have great team leaders and great teammates too.

We have stated in previous emails (and if you have ever worked with The Program, you know) that The Program holds leaders to two standards: 1) Mission accomplishment and 2) Taking care of your teammates. “Taking care of your teammates” means you make every decision you ever make thinking about your teammates’ best interest at heart first. Great teammates are held to two standards as well.?Great teammates: 1) Set high performance standards for themselves and 2) Hold their teammates accountable to achieving those same high standards.

The reason so few teams compete for championships is not because of a lack of talent.?It is because of a lack of great team leaders and great teammates.?The theory of being a great leader or great teammate is relatively easy. In our experiences at The Program, lots of individuals with whom we are privileged to work can remember the standards to which both leaders and teammates are held while sitting in an air-conditioned conference room or classroom.?However, those same individuals fail miserably in holding themselves and their teammates accountable to those standards when they are laying in 6 inches of water at 5AM in the morning during Small Boat Judgment Day.

The reason they fail to do so is the same reason why there are so few great leaders and great teammates: to get “that much better,” you must sacrifice.?The best leaders and teammates sacrifice for their teammates and their team.?They come to work at 5AM in the morning after being awake all night taking care of their newborn baby with a smile on their face, ready to work hard and demand their teammates do the same.?They may want to be well-liked and they may hate confrontation, but even so they hold their teammates accountable in order to challenge those teammates to get better.?Their teammate improving is more important to them than their own feeling of well-being.?They are not satisfied with simply giving effort or working hard.?To quote Coach Butch Jones at Tennessee Football, “‘effort’ is the weakest word in the English Language.?Everyone gives effort.?I want to find out who is willing to ‘take strain’ from their teammates…”?

My teammates and I at The Program hope you are…

Attack!

Eric Kapitulik

Founder and CEO

"Letters on Leadership" are published periodically by The Program, a leadership development and team building company that works with the nation's leading corporations as well as professional and collegiate athletic teams.

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For information on developing better leaders and more cohesive teams at your organization, visit https://www.theprogram.org/corporate.