LifeLong Learning Journey Experience #1 Nov 2021

… from my 8-year old son’s football team and all the analogies I establish with the corporate world.

1.??????School Coordinator and Team Coach as main sponsors for Success?

My son’s team plays as part of an outstanding ecosystem?headed?by a great school coordinator and a remarkable team coach, who?are the ultimate?responsible?for the success of these kids. Their purpose for the school can′t be more clear: along with the intention of developing?football players, this “project”?has the ambition of give rise to excellent human beings and team colleagues. With the right values at?its?core, this training school appeals to the right sense of education and ideals.??

If you are led by someone who is a role model in terms of principles and conduct, your path is intelligible. If your leader has a vision and a strategy?that?can be clearly conveyed, you′ll be pleased to follow them. The leaders should be the main ambassadors of the project they?represent (not by talking, but ultimately by doing).?

2.??????Respect and Trust??

The?coach's final?decisions?are?not?questioned?but?respected?and followed.?They?listen?to her attentively,?with?the?respect?of?someone?who?is?listening?to?a person?they?trust, admire?and?care for, greatly.?She explains to them the Why and the How. She gives them a clear aim: to play better every time.

In the?corporate world is identical.?As long as?the teams feel?cared?for, protected and empowered by?their?leaders, they will trust?them?and follow?their?strategy. Leaders?have to be trustworthy. They?should care for?their?team players, know?them?well,?and support them?at?the best and?at?the worst?moments.?In their achievements?and their?missteps as well. Most importantly, a purpose is needed. If you feel the Why you will support the How.

3.??????Play for the Team?

During the games, she screams forcefully “Team! Team!”,?in order to?remind?them they′re there to play as a team and not individually. In their team,?there is no room?for?selfishness. Or they play for the whole, or they do not play at all. They are encouraged to help each?other?every single minute?of?the game, besides their individual aspirations and beliefs.?They are?asked?to think and execute as a group and they are dependable on one another because they trust each other.?

In corporate teams is?very common?to?have “stars”.?A character that outperforms and stands out when compared with other elements. Someone who is more “gifted” than the others. No matter how good individual elements are, if we want our team to succeed, we?need to prepare them to incessantly think “Team”, above all things. Each element needs to know which role?they?play in the team?and?how they can contribute. The leader should set the framework?for them to?interact towards?the goal,?and it might sound a bit cliché,?but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.???

4.??????Sweet Hard Love?

They are coached and led by a great professional?who is?very critical?and competent although warmhearted. She is pushing and yet loving. She heals them and yet hugs?them every time she needs to take one off the field, congratulating them on the work done. She is what I call a?‘hard loving leader’,?who is there to push and help them to be better as football players, but more than that, as kids and as teammates.?She gives them psychological comfort and safety to risk and to err but lead them to their best.

As a leader,?you should not have the aspiration?to be?a friend. You′re mission is to?leverage?the individual and group potential. You are there to guide and to serve. Be demanding and rigorous, yet close and available. Be admired not feared. Set the pace, don′t throttle. And always, always be kind (if not by words, by attitude and actions).

5.??????Goalkeeper to Emerge?

Despite some?energetic pressure from the?parents asking for a goalkeeper to be?appointed, the coach is waiting for one of the kids to volunteer?for?that field position. She believes this is the best way to?make them?commit?to?a role that is not easy to?take on. If (and when) one of them asks?for it, this player will?fully?commit and be determined to assume the responsibility. It will be his mission because he wants to and not because he was appointed.?

Every so often in teams,?you?tend?to give?tough?tasks to the highest performers - you?are biased,?as a leader,?to think you?know?who?the best element to do something that?is?hard to commit to is. In these situations, wait.?Regardless?of?the pressure to decide, wait. Ask each element to take the assignment rotationally. Let them try and perform. And then ask them?to carry it out?voluntarily.?At the right time, the proper profile will perform the role. What has to be, will be.

6.??????The Right Skills at the Right Place?

My son is an amazing center-back and a right defense. He plays magnificently in this position. He has the calmness and the strength to perform that role with almost no flaws, most games. Everyone recognizes his talent in this position. The problem? He has the dream to be a striker and importantly score for the team. The reality? He is not a fast runner and when he is further along the field, he rarely scores a goal. He wants something that unfortunately he is not skilled for. By this time, it′s not the way he can significantly contribute to the team and the team needs him at what he does best. Nevertheless, every day at home he trains to score goals and we encourage him to do so.

When I think?of?all the teams?I have?managed to date,?I often?came?across similar situations. Someone?having?the ambition to play a role they weren′t?gifted for, feeling frustrated by performing what they were good at or where the team needed them to be. What to do? Be fiercely honest (yet kind) as a leader. Try to make them understand the importance of that personal capability and how to transform it?into?a higher mission for this person, taking into account the team goal.?Once in a while, allow them to contribute to some of the tasks they would like to be performing and push them to enhance the skills needed in order to be at the place they want to be, one day - who knows... Self-commitment and determination do miracles.?

7.??????Lose to Learn?

At the end of all games, the mister gathers the team to analyze the match: what was good, what went wrong, what?they could?have done differently. They review together some game events,?in order to?learn. She gives them feedback and they listen to her cautiously. In the last game, she told them they needed to lose, because they?were?getting?too used?to?winning. And sometimes?loss?brings learning and growth. And modesty.??

A high-performing team should embrace failure?in order to?succeed. From time to time, mistakes occur and that means teams are trying, they?are?taking risks. Teams that perform at their best, not often fail. And that′s ok, but the team should be prepared for setbacks. They should incorporate failure as part of learning, and they need to know how to cope with it, with a positive attitude. Teams should?turn the learnings from the disappointments and frustrations of a lost “game” to their good advantage.??

8.?????Rain or Shine?

During the last Sunday′s game,?it?rained?heavily. And they were there. With the same readiness to play as if the?Sun shined. Why? Because they know, no matter what happens they need to perform. And they want to. Because they are sure they′re ready to play despite?the?weather?conditions,?the field?circumstances?or?the?eventual?absence?of some players... They are prepared.

Teams encounter during their “lives” a lot of challenges and setbacks. And high performing teams prepare in advance for whatever arrives. No matter how hard. Despite?any hassle. They feel ready to face whatever comes. They embrace it, they deal with it and they overcome it, with strength and determination.

9.??????Parents Community?

Following this incredible journey of?almost 3?years, there?is a group of enthusiastic parents. We?support?our?kids every game. With or without benches, under intense?Sun or facing heavy Rains, there we are. By the goal, besides the line, giving suggestions into the field, as “secondary” trainers. A lot of us. Bursting with joy with every team′s?goal, suffering after every attack on the goal of our kids. We gather every weekend to support them. And they love to feel that we are there to encourage them. They love to feel that we live that?team?as?our own. We drive them to each game with the same enthusiasm and eagerness they experience.?

Corporately, I find?relevant?the fact that people have the support of their “closest ones” towards their professional responsibilities. It′s important to associate to our job positive feelings and?perceptions?from people we care about the most, with the ones we share our personal lives with, because in this way we guarantee emotional connections and balance between all the fields of our lives.??

10.??Good Things take Time??

Why are they one of the best?teams?of the class/year? Because they?have been playing as one?for 3 years now. They?are?growing as a team, collectively. They?have been?led by their coach for many months now. They know each other and she knows them well. Individually and as a group.??

High performing corporate teams also take time to be developed. It′s not only about practice and results consistency. It′s?mainly about?connection and trust. It′s about team purpose and relationships?which get stronger and deeper.?It′s about collective purpose and group intelligence towards the Why and the How.

Thank you Kids, Thank You!

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A Heartfelt Leadership Believer. A People and Culture Missionary. A Talent Intelligence Activist. A High Performance Follower.

Those Who Can, Do. Relentlessly.