Surprise Your Team & Bring The Joy!

What coaching football has taught me                 I remember looking out at my team of seven- & eight-year-olds the first night we huddled after practice and wondered what in the world I had just signed up for. Until that reality check, I had been admittedly, envisioning famous movie scenes of football glory.  I had thoughts of Coach Yoast’s sideline speech from Remember the Titans and the Clear Eyes Anthem from Friday Night Lights. I had completely overlooked the hard work, patience and dedication it took to coach a team of children. Much less, the despair that came with losing, which was inevitable in the game of football. As I zipped the orange practice cones into my duffel, I realized that I was going to have to muster some courage to give this thing a fighting try. For the sake of those boys, if anything.   Now, I can see how much of what I learned as a coach actually also applies in the business world. Coaching, like leading a business, is often associated with a whole lot of glory and not a lot of actual hard work, sweat and tears.   Most of the moments of coaching are hard ones. Teaching kids requires mind-numbing repetition, breaking concepts down to their simplest forms, dedication, and tons of patience as their attention spans seem to be getting shorter and shorter these days. I won’t say it went well all the time, but it had its glory moments. Even small ones, mostly small ones.   Like the time one of the boys had never tackled a dummy before. Each time it was his turn to do so, he would run up but then freeze in fear. It wasn’t until I demonstrated tackling the dummy that he found the courage to do the same. That night I went home feeling like I had just won something. I had helped a player overcome a paralyzing fear. That meant something to me. That was a glory moment, making all the hard stuff worth it. Just like running a business.   Here’s a couple things I learned coaching that helped me better understand how to lead my business:   You can’t just sit on the sidelines: The game requires 100% of your attention all the time. From the sidelines, you have to be constantly strategizing, calling new plays, and maintaining cool under pressure. I had to learn to control my emotions as I watched my team triumph and fail knowing that I couldn’t do the work for them. Instead, I had to teach them how to do it. I couldn’t explain concepts just once and then hope they got it. I had to get in the dirt to show them, then watch them do it, explain it again, and watch again, until I knew they knew what they were doing and could execute plays with confidence. Leaders teach their team how to execute business strategies the same way. It usually looks like getting in the dirt and pushing that tackle dummy around for awhile until the team finally gets it. There’s no such thing as explaining something once and then watching from the sideline.   Lead from the front: You have to position yourself as the leader,  the one your team looks to and trusts. Your team needs you to be the one who knows how to get the job done, to make the large strategic decisions, to see what’s coming and plan for it, and to take responsibility when things go well and when they don’t. Kids on a football team look to the coach. The coach knows what to do, how to do it and how to win. Without a coach, the team is chaos, running around like wild animals on the field. That won’t win any games. If a leader sits at their desk all day, is generally disengaged or absent from the innerworkings of the team, doesn’t take responsibility, and doesn’t develop trust with their team, then the team is chaos, running around being unproductive. That won’t lead to success.   Understand its hard work: Playing football is hard work. No one shows up to games, having never practiced and expects to win. Business is similar. No one wakes up each morning and simply succeeds. There are practices in the driving rain, and there are practices in the beautiful sunshine. There are plays that get perfectly executed and there are plays that just stink. The point is that the team works together, learns together and commits to the hard work together. When things don’t work out, no one leaves or walks off the field. Instead, they get to work, to be better, stronger and faster.   Working together as a team: Lastly, it’s the team mentality that’s a real winner. It’s not really about winning although it still kinda is, of course. But the true beauty comes when teammates begin to work together as a team. That means they anticipate each other’s movements, they figure out how to help one another, they each take turns scoring touchdowns, they celebrate wins together and band together after loses, knowing there will be more wins on the horizon. The true glory for a coach is not the score, it’s the team working together.   Coaching football, like leading a business, is not for everyone. Some people, like me, find themselves staring down into the expectant faces of their team and realize they had no idea what they signed up for. And if they had known ahead of time, they wouldn’t have signed up. I have to say though, like coaching, leading a business is worth it. At the end of the day, the rewards are far greater than the challenges.

Whoops! On Making Mistakes   I was working as an intern at a Public Relations and Marketing firm during my final year of college. I was tasked with creating an Excel document that showed one of our biggest clients how valuable our services were. It showed them, in dollars, how effectively we had carried out their campaign.   After compiling and calculating all that we had done, I discovered our final ROI number had six figures! My boss was elated. We celebrated with Guinness beers around the conference table, toasting to the fruit of our hard work.   A day later, my boss came back to me with the document and showed me an error I had made. In creating the Excel formula, I had accidentally doubled the final number. The ROI was a much more modest number, not six figures.   I still cringe thinking about that disappointment.   The highlight of the story, however, is that my boss was incredibly gracious and kind. She had every right to be angry. She was the one with egg on her face in front of the client. She  was the one who sat there while they pointed out that the math didn’t quite add up. Instead of passive aggressively taking me off additional projects or relegating me to endless Excel trainings, she calmly showed me the error and we talked about how to avoid it in the future. She continued to trust me and allow me to do work that was valuable to the firm.   This was the greater lesson to me—her excellent leadership. Not only did she handle my mistake with kindness, but she also gave me the space to learn from it. I worked much harder after that, double checking and rechecking the documents I created.   Over the years, I have come to see that these are some of the most important moments in leadership. These are the moments that define a leader, a company and a culture. A good leader chooses to teach and guide an employee in the face of an honest mistake instead of addressing it with frustration, ignoring it, or letting it impact that employee’s position in the company.  A good leader even turns that mistake into a very important opportunity.   Here are 3 quick tips on how to be a good leader in the face of others’ mistakes:   Don’t be surprised: People are human, mistakes are going to happen. There is no avoiding them. This is especially important for those of us who strive for perfection and think it is attainable. We must learn that no amount of planning, preparation or hard work is going to keep mistakes from happening. They are a fact of life and everyone makes them. I’ll say that again for those in the back. EVERYONE makes them.   Instead of treating mistakes like a nuisance, like a boulder in the middle of the road, or a stain on your favorite shirt, treat them like a welcome family member at a dinner party. They are good. They are necessary, and they will make your employees, and your company grow. They teach us important things and lead us places we did not even know we wanted to go. Let’s embrace them instead.   When they happen, handle them with tact. It’s best to address mistakes in private with the employee directly. Do it quickly and with discretion. Communicate what happened, any consequences of the mistake and the handling of them, and how it could be an opportunity for growth and change.   If it’s necessary to communicate with the entire team about the mistake, do so with thoughtfulness. Don’t forget to address the possibilities it has created or the positive outcomes. Be honest and open, but remember you frame the narrative. Think about what you are creating and how you want to lead through this, then choose your words, body language, and message accordingly.   Hold people accountable, coach them toward understanding and growth. Remember that mistakes are a part of growth so they should be welcomed and, in some cases, even embraced. Make sure you are not ignoring or avoiding them. Accountability is necessary. If the same mistake is being made over and over, that needs addressing. There will be no growth or learning if employees are not held accountable for their actions.   Remember that the same mistake might be made twice, coaching and leading requires a lot of patience, especially when working with employees who operate quite differently than you do. Bring in help from outside leaders or other coaches if needed. Notice pain points among your team where there might be a lot of mistakes being made. Large group training and coaching can also be helpful.   It may go without saying, but how you handle your own mistakes will say a lot about how you handle others’ mistakes. When you mess up, if you are quick to dust yourself off and try again, then you are more likely to have that same attitude with your employees. If you are hard on yourself, berate yourself and wallow in the failure, then you may have more trouble giving others space to make mistakes.   Consider these things and may you be the best leader you can be.   ###   This post is based on the IOL Podcast Episode #159: Embracing Economic Growth with Nicole Ryf. Listen for lots of good takeaways including more on leading through mistakes.   This blog was written by Ashley Buenger