Team Health always starts with the Team’s Leadership

If, as my mentor John C Maxwell quotes, "Everything rises and falls on Leadership" then I have to accept that wherever the team's health is today can be attributed to leadership decisions of the past and their health tomorrow rests on the leadership decisions of today. So my first question when attempting to diagnose the reason behind a team's health (or performance) issue is, "Am I the problem?"

We'll mush through part one of the questions that I take in the discovery process today and cover the second part tomorrow:

Is there something that my team has needed that I have not provided?

This can be detailed into many different sub-categories such as financial provision, training, empowerment, opportunity to provide feedback, and even to my interpersonal responsibilities of affirmation and connectivity. So I walk down more detailed questions:

Have I built my team strategically? Teams that are built with purpose and players that are placed with purpose (with the insight of interpersonal team dynamics) are much less likely to fight 'Team Health' issues. Creating a team full of superstar, individual performers may prove to be no match for a good, cohesive team. The superstars may spend so much time fighting each other or fighting for the limelight that they fail to remember the mission and the PURPOSE behind the race.

Have I trained my team for the journey? A rag-tag, undisciplined, untrained team usually only wins in fairytales and children's movies. Sled Dog teams are trained canine athletes – that are trained just like any other top tier athlete in the world. If they have not been trained for the situation – we cannot expect them to perform at the professional level. One of my favorite sayings is, "Amateurs practice until they get it right, professional practice until they can't get it wrong!"

Have I invested the time to create team synergy and buy-in? We can't, always, operate a team that we have a long and purposeful relationship with but, over a period of time, we can't neglect the immensely important factor of relationship and buy-in. When they buy-in to you and when they buy into each other – they buy into the race and will run with greater purpose, greater commitment. We'll unpack more on Buy-in in a latter blog.

Have I empowered my team? Nothing frustrates and de-motivates a team of highly trained, highly capable athletes more than an insecure leader that either tight-reigns the team or won't set them free to run with the liberating communiqué of, "Hike!"

Have I resourced my team? The team is going to need to eat – to feed on the right fuel physically, mentally, emotionally and they are going to need the right equipment. Malnourished dogs can't run – and it they don't have the right footwear or outerwear they are going to suffer injury or hypothermia and the race will be over!

Questions can be painful – but they can also be insightful and beneficial to leading us to a higher level of performance and achievement!

Here's to team health – that starts with looking at us, as leaders, first!

Team Health

Overcoming obstacles and facing down the storms is mission critical for successful teams. However, not all teams are successful and many are downright sickly. It is one of the musher's top priorities to create and maintain a healthy team.

In Chapter 6 of IDITAROD LEADERSHIP, there is a female, professional musher(Lizzie) that is giving instruction to the novice mushers and going through a time of Q&A. The exchange picks up with Lizzie answering a question around team performance. She responds:

“Adjustments with me and/or my plan are going to relate to conditions on the trail such as bad weather, is the trail icy or snow covered, or even is there a lack of snow. In recent years, we’ve had a lack of snow in some parts of the trail. The condition of the team, also, impacts the strategy. Some dogs might be fighting illness, do I need to drop them? Are there dogs not pulling their weight or who are causing problems with the other dog? Is another competitor pushing me? If you have any of these conditions and you don’t evolve your plan of action, you won’t win. Pure and simple. In some cases, you may not even finish the race.

Now my interest was piqued(Michael thought) and so he asked, “So, wait a minute. Is it hard for you to drop a dog?”

Lizzie replied, “Make no mistake about it, I love my dogs. I’m committed to my team. But if a dog’s not performing or it’s in their best interest health-wise to drop them, I have to drop them. I’m not willing to sacrifice the rest of the team, or the race, for one dog. I have to make the hard decisions and it’s just a part of mushing.”

This exchange leads the discussion to Team health and it’s many different areas. Is it the team? Is it players within the team? Is it team dynamics? Does it relate to the Mental, Physical, or operational components of the team?

If your team pulled into a checkpoint and were, immediately, evaluated for their health – where would the negative reports come from? What would be positive?

Underperforming teams come in many shapes and sizes. If your team falls into this category – are you aware of the why? It may be easy to see the symptoms, easy to look at the numbers and tell the team they are not measuring up, but do we know why?

The position of the Musher (being behind the team) is an incredible place to monitor the health of the team. From their vantage point they should be able to discern, not only the effect, but the cause. Discernment becomes a key leadership competency.

Is the team lazy? Are the mentally fatigued? Are they undertrained or improperly trained to handle the conditions of the race you're in today? Is the team in complete disarray? Are they resistant to your leadership? Or are they simply bored and lack purposeful motivation.

I would like you take some time to just consider you team - have you thought about their health? I know (or at least hope) you've looked at the performance numbers, but if the performance numbers are not where they are supposed to be – how do we trail back to the causes of the less than desired results?

This week we unpack the health of the team and work to increase your skills of discernment, care taker, veterinarian, and finally, performance coach. It's going to be a great week.

The Psychological Power of overcoming

Whatever you yield to – is what you give power to… Yield to the obstacle or difficult situation and you give power to it – stare it down and overcome it and the power becomes yours – not just for the day – but for your entire future – it is a stake in the ground that you will continuously point back to and say – on such and such date – in this situation – I faced down the giant and I won.

Every situation builds on the previous. Failure and defeat can lead to more of the same – every time you give in – you shrink – every time you endure or conquer – you grow!

In the historical Chronicles of the leaders of Israel, as well as children folklore – they tell the story of David. You have probably heard the tale of David killing Goliath. This Teen had the courage to take on someone purported to be towering over all other men in the Israeli Army – and was not even being confronted by the King. What gave David the courage to confront this enemy?

David was a mere shepherd boy – a kid who watched his family's sheep. What did he know about being a warrior?

What he knew – was how he grew!

While watching the sheep – a lion approached the herd to kill and eat a sheep. David confronted the situation, grabbed his sling, put in a rock and flung it directly at the Lion. The rock hit the target and the Lion was defeated. At another point – a bear attacks in a similar manner and David – growing from the situation of overcoming the Lion – leaned on that victory and defeated this Bear. So when faced with this Giant (Goliath) – David had grown to the point of being able to point back to previous (lesser) successes and say with all confidence – I defeated the Lion, I defeated the Bear – this is just another similar adversary – that will fall to the ground. And just like what we talked about earlier this week – he faced the storm. In fact, the records say that he ran TOWARD Goliath.

The rest (as Paul Harvey would say) is history…

Step by step – one obstacle at a time – feed your inner power – feed your inner energy and face down the obstacles and enemies.

What gave Lance Mackey (3 time Iditarod winner) the courage to overcome his obstacles? What gave Dee Dee Jonrowe courage? What gave Lance Armstrong power? They overcame disease and the rest could seem like child's play.

What do you need to face? What can we help you face? You need to overcome this obstacle – face down this enemy – because it's not just an enemy of your path – your race – your day –it's an enemy of your future – an enemy of your soul!

Fight the good fight – stay in the battle – kick this obstacle in the teeth – and stand with those that have slain Giants in the process!

Turning on the light

When you're running the race and darkness has closed in around your sled – you can stay on the sled and worry about the darkness, think about the darkness, talk about the darkness – or you can turn on the light!

When running the race at night, mushers will turn on their headlamp. It allows them to see things they would not otherwise see AND allows others on the trail to know they are there. In business, part of moving from fear to persevere is to move things from the unknown to the known. This process is "turning on the light" where there are only shadows and where fear or discouragement is running high.

When fear and uncertainty grip us, we need to move as quickly as possible to unraveling the mystery and revealing the trail conditions. As leaders, this process is rarely pleasant, but it's our sled, our team and our responsibility.

When moving to turn the light on a "dark situation" pull over to a checkpoint or create a camp site and walk through the following:

Look for the 'You are here' circle on the map.

Assemble the team and list out all knowns on a white board. This is probably not the time for the timid to hold their peace. From a personality stand point, those with the greatest knowledge through analysis are, also, usually introverted and may dislike confrontation. This means that you are going to need to give them permission to be rigorously honest and work to draw the information from them. Use communication that lets them know that their honesty and communication are vital to save the team from harm and they are not hurting the team – but may be providing life-saving information.

Don't "Beat the dogs"

Reacting negatively or exploding on the team as they are giving you vital but unpleasant information will only serve to hurt you long term. The rest of the team will certainly withhold their opinions and the next time there is negative information they will let you take the hit, instead of being beaten for trying to help you.

List out the trail choices.

With the help of your team, run through all the possible scenarios (trails), follow each to their natural conclusions, consider best and worst case.

MUSH!

Pick the best trail, given the existing knowledge and start running. If you stay put, you'll freeze to death. If you choose a wrong path, but you start soon enough, you will discover the error and make the needed correction! And if you get it right – you've saved valuable time and options. Problems rarely work themselves out and delaying decisions only limits the options. Great leaders make decisions timely and change them quickly if need be. Mediocre leaders change their decisions so slowly, they reduce their probability for success.

OWN the choice.

You are responsible for your life and your team. What that means is that you are Response-able. You are Able to Respond to whatever the situation is and work to yield the best results possible. When I say you're responsible – I'm not discussing whose FAULT the situation is – only that you have the power, the ability to respond in that situation to work and move to the best possible outcome!

Be open, honest, collaborative, and empowered. When the storms hit (when, not if) we have more safety in numbers…As the Proverb goes, ".. in the counsel of many, a ruler's throne is made secure"

Turn on the light! You are Response-Able!

Owning the right perspectives on problems and obstacles

No one can affect your thoughts on a situation or event, unless you let them…

So now we are to the "How?" question. If the problems and obstacles are there to help separate the tenacious competitors from the casual competitors, how do we own the right mindset?

1. Check the mindset

When you are in the middle of a battle, pause and ask yourself "what am I thinking about this situation?". It seems silly to ask you to do this – but the purpose of the exercise is to give you momentary pause to "check your thoughts". It will interrupt your thinking about the situation and allow you to think about your thinking. What am I thinking? Are they the right thoughts?

2. Keep the sled light

Keeping the sled "light" means I don't pile other events on my sled. The times that I have the most trouble with my "mental game" is when I find myself connecting unrelated events. I have an obstacle or fail to meet an intended result and I, immediately, start to fight thoughts that tie every other failure in my life to this situation. This situation is THIS situation. If the thoughts attempt to spiral you into rehearsing of all previous failures and short comings, try to arrest the process – STOP THE RUN AWAY SLED!!!!

IF (and it's a big if) you discover through looking at the situation that there are some bad patterns or choices that do connect some dots – then work to identify the pattern. That's it – Identify the pattern and work to correct that pattern. Your "lot in life" is not to ALWAYS be the losing sled. Start owning the mindset that you can win – even if you've never won before – there is always a first!

3. Evolve

If you remember, the Evolve stage is where we look at the lessons learned, understand the needed course corrections and immediately work to implement the changes into our daily running. John C Maxwell has an incredible book called Failing Forward and it is, absolutely, recommended reading. One of the take-aways from this book is that when people fail – they usually forget the lesson that they should have learned and hold onto the emotional pain of the failure. He goes on to counsel that we should forget the emotional hit from the failure and work to remember what the failure will teach us. This has led to an internal mantra for me that echoes – "Learn the lesson – forget the pain"

This doesn't mean that we don't remember the hit – we just don't allow it to become emotional baggage that weighs us down – remember point # 2 – keep the sled light! I am a firm believer in pain being one of the chief teachers in life – we want to avoid the pain – so we don't do whatever action caused us the pain last time. It doesn't mean we choose not to race again – it means we improve – we get better and we try not to make the same mistake twice.

4. The Champion's mindset

What would the top competitors be thinking in this same situation? In order to change the outcome – we have to change our action. In order to change our actions – we have to change our thoughts and beliefs.

Consistently asking yourself, "What would the best leaders think and do in this situation?" can lead you to an elevated thinking, action and outcome.

But the first step is to take ownership of this area (your thoughts are your thoughts) and a thought cannot be removed – it can only be replaced with another thought. Whether that thought is good or whether that thought is self-defeating is up to you.

Choose with me to "Own" the winning mindset today!

What is your belief about obstacles and problems?

What makes one team quit, only seems to inspire another…

Another excerpt from that same interchange that we started in yesterday's blog (Joe is continuing the conversation with Michael):

"One year on the trail, we had a blizzard come in. I couldn't even see to the front of my team dogs. I stopped them and created places where they could at least have some break from the blowing snow, and then I did what my father had taught me. I knelt down in the snow and I faced the storm."

"You didn't turn your back to the storm?" Michael inquired.

"No! Joe responded emphatically, "You must turn your face to the storm. In this position, it causes the snow to blow around you and pile up behind you. It forms a mound that you can then dig into and create a shelter. You can hollow it out, like a miniature igloo, and last for a couple of days.

"If you turn your back to the storms, you will be covered and most likely die. But facing the storms creates a place of refuge.

What do you teach business people? Don't you teach people some of these things?"

My mind immediately went to a large framed picture that I had heard hangs in the boardroom of a Fortune 500 company. The sign reads,

"PROBLEMS ARE MONEY. SOLVE THE PROBLEMS, AND YOU GET THE MONEY."

I rode the rest of the night with my weight on the left runner. I was drenched and half frozen but thankful for Joe's support in bolstering the mindset that I could overcome what seemed to be relentless and overwhelming problems.

I thought often over the next 30 miles about Lance Mackey. He had gone through throat cancer, had a good chunk of his throat cut out, had lost part of his saliva glands and had to carry a water bottle just to keep his throat moist. Only three years later, in the 2007 race, he went 200 miles on a broken runner and WON!

This year in the Iditarod storms were predicted to hit the trail hard. One of the mushers remarked that he hoped it to be true. He said the strength of his team was to run in impossible conditions that would make other teams quit. Conditions of a severe blowing wind pushing the temperature to -50 F below would give him a competitive edge.

Can we learn to own that mentality? That problems and adversity only serve to differentiate the weak from the strong – that we need to "face the storm" if we are to survive…

There are many storms in business that we are facing right now. Embrace that they will only serve to separate you from the competition and that it is only on difficult ground that are reputations are made and our respect earned.

Problems are not problems – problems are opportunities disguised as discouragement.

Run the race – Face it down – Overcome!

Obstacles, perseverance, and perspective

We'll start this week a little late – it's been a day of travel, re-connection, and synergy with my partners in Leadership at Giant Impact. A great group with great hearts who's "Burled Arch" is to Impact the hearts and minds of leaders. The day is ending in Augusta, Georgia as I finalize preparations for tomorrow's session.

On my heart tonight and for this week is the next logical step from last week – meaning that, inevitably, at some of the checkpoint times when we 'E-valuate' we're going to fall short. There will be times when the path is difficult and we'll need to handle obstacles or the performance didn't deliver desired results and we'll process the failure.

Iditarod Leadership is written in Business Fiction or Business Parable style and is meant to convey business truths that I've learned over the years through events that occur as a business consultant is on an Alaskan adventure, where he learns to mush a team of dogs. He and fellow executives end their journey by competing in a 3 day race and one chapter deals with this topic of challenges, problems, and obstacles. To get us started for the week I thought I would throw in a teaser and give an excerpt from and exchange in the book between the main character (Michael) and his mushing guide (Joe):

The second day proved to be some of the most challenging of my life. Problems and personal adversity seem to be lurking around every corner. Sometimes I feel like it is trite to use the phrase, "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger," and yet I'm finding myself using that to keep me moving forward.We went through over Gus Pass and down through Rondy Falls. Rondy Falls is a steep descent that has several drop downs. There could not have been a worse position to be running than last going through Rondy Falls. The other sleds in front of us – all with Novice mushers had proven to be brutal on the condition of the trail. The steep decent had caused everyone to stand on their brakes hard and caused ruts in the snow and ice that were 8 – 10" deep in places. On the last step down a hinge on my break came loose, throwing my right runner against the wall of the rut. My stomach twisted as I heard a crack.

As soon as was safe, I parked the team to look at the damage. My right runner was broken.

I felt like I was the guy on the side walk that had just been drenched by a car driving through a puddle as the snow started to alternate into a miserable freezing rain.

How do they do it? How do they make 1100 miles? I'm struggling after 2 days – they last 10 days over worse terrain.

Did I really expect this to be easy and sail through this without having challenges?

Did my early win exempt me from any of this?

Just as I was teetering on throwing in the towel, Joe stepped in.

"So what?"

"What do you mean so what?" I shot back.

"So what? – it's cold – it's hard – you broke a runner – so what?" Joe said as if it was insignificant. "You teach people about business, right? Aren't their problems in business"

"We have a saying out here that frustration comes from your expectations. If you expected to run a race and be problem free – you're going to be frustrated. This is how racing is – this is how life is – you face problems."

The question is more about our perspectives and our will to persevere and we'll unpack both this week.

E-valuate and E-volve

"Experience is not the greatest teacher – evaluated experience is the greatest teacher. "

This simple saying has echoed in my mind since I heard it from my mentor, John Maxwell. I have broadcast it to many audiences around the planet and, yet, I am still passionate about the concept. We have to get better. We have to improve performance, daily, where possible.

Finally, for the R.A.C.E. model, the E stands for Evolve. If we fail to evolve, if we fail to change, if we fail to adapt, we will die. It happens in creation, it happens in careers, and it happens on the trail.

"No strategic plan survives the battlefield."

The goal of the race should be to finish the race – to reach your 'Burled Arch'- in the best place possible NOT to have finished the race with your plan intact. There is a balance between – stick to the plan at all costs AND the plan is just a piece of paper (a guide or suggestion). The plan has to be solid and everyone on your team needs to know that this is the plan, "This is the way that we are going to run AND where the plan is not succeeding we will evaluate and see if it is right to 'E-volve' the plan." As the leader, you get to make that call – what needs to evolve now and what do we believe will yield results if we continue on the same process (or trail) for a little longer. This is where your 'Evaluated Experience' from the past comes in. The leaders with the most 'evaluated experience' are going to know what to change and what to stick to. Rookie mushers: you and your team are going to pay the dues for your 'on-the-trail' leadership education (we all do! – and my heart in consulting, writing the book, and in this blog is to help – just because you have to learn the lessons doesn't mean they have to be YOUR mistakes – learn from others!)

OK – so HOW do we E-valuate and E-volve?

At the Checkpoints (Have a meeting just for lessons learned)

Evaluate the plan…

What went right? What went wrong? Why did it go right / wrong? Where did the plan fall short? Where were circumstances different on the trail than we thought? What misconceptions did we have about our competition? Or what did we see others do that could be a 'better practice'?

Evaluate the team…

Where did WE fail to implement the plan? Did I team the right dogs together? What did individual performances look like and why? Is everyone on the team still engaged? Do I have Buy-In or a Buy-in problem? (Team Culture suggestion: have this as an open discussion with the team and allow a peer / team review – Safe peer review – no biting LOL)

Lessons learned (for now or later?)…

What do we do different for the next stretch of trail? What do we record to change for next year's race through the same section we just went through? What are we going to do differently that will yield a BETTER result? (not just a different result)

Implement…

The value in the Evolve stage is where you look at the information you learned at the Checkpoints, you evaluate your experiences AND you implement them – you, immediately, put it to use in your daily running. If nothing changes – we just had a nice mental exercise. To help with change – get the teams commitment to holding each other positively accountable for the behavior and performance changes and add that to the list of evaluations at the next checkpoint.

Wrap up for the week:

R- Ready

A- Action

C- Checkpoints

E- Evolve

RACE to win AND enjoy the journey!

Checkpoints: Keys to Achieving the Dream

There's no good way to sell a team or yourself on running 1100 miles. On the other end of the spectrum – if you're just going to the corner market – you don't need a tremendous team OR strategic planning.

"The C in R.A.C.E. stands for Checkpoints."

Being able to break down an incredible vision, mission or even a project into goals, steps, and processes is a key competence for a leader that gets things done. Benchmarks and checkpoints along the way allow us to measure our progress and make needed corrections early enough to 'stay on course'. Again, you may or may not know, there are 20+ checkpoints in the Iditarod and all serve a purpose on the way to achieving the dream. For each segment, the terrain is different and that piece of the journey can stand on its own. String enough of them together and you've done it!

For those that recall the HAB 22 model vision execution model, the B 22 stands for Break the vision down – break it into 22 pieces, if you have to. So, it helps when we break up our vision or dream into 20+ segments (training runs). The reason I like calling it training runs is that it needs to be broken down into its' simplest form – simple enough for your team to run with it. There is a reason relay races are run with a baton and not a shopping cart! Simplicity increases speed and at each handoff – you can evaluate your progress.

Practical thoughts in creating checkpoints:

1. Constantly be thinking next logical step (see yesterday's post)
   
2. Consider time as an element (we could run the race over 3 months – but everyone will have gone home!)
   
3. Consider your resources (Resources are not finite and we need to know what we need to do in order to get more – so that we can continue the race)
   
4. Employ 'A before Q' thinking (when thinking in steps consider which comes before what and work to make sure we keep dogs before sleds – or A before Q)
   
5. When will you and the team rest / recreate? (At some point we need rest in order to complete the marathon. It is not practical nor healthy to build your plan around all members of the team running until they burn out. Giving the team time to rest and regenerate will produce the best results in the long run.)
   
6. What will you eat for nourishment along the way? (feeding the team physically, mentally, and emotionally are critical)
   
7. What will you be judged on? (In order to finish you need to stay in the race – if your boss, board of directors, bankers, or family have criteria that need to be met along the way – meet those! This is Iditarod Leadership – doing life and business for the long haul!)
   
8. Keep Score (tying in with #7 – in order for us to know where we are, what progress we've made, where we are in our race, where we stand in relation to our competition, being able to evaluate present performance against prior and desired performance)
   

At each Checkpoint, or at the end of each segment, so that you can run the race next time better, you have to take the Checkpoint to evaluate your experience over that terrain, and Evolve. Evolve is the last component in Race and that is tomorrow's topic.

Without Action there is no R.A.C.E…

"Good things come to those who wait" – but wait long enough and your dreams will pass you by and be experienced by the man or woman of action!

This is the part where we work the plan and we get the team members doing their part. In my teams, I emphasize simplicity and Action. Without Action, we're just thoughts, without simplicity, it will never get out of the kennel. The best race strategy left in the lodge and not implemented is always trumped by a margin strategy implemented to the fullest.

Your TEAM needs simplicity AND they need a job to do – they are the happiest when they have a job to do and they are allowed to do it without a lot of interference. It's dogs before sled, not sled before dogs. It's simplicity and Action. I had a mentor a long time ago tell me, "I'm not judging you on your intentions or your efforts, I'm judging you on your outcome." I thought it was hard at the time, but it has served me extremely well over the years.

For years, I have encouraged leaders that it's time we put 'Execute' back into Executives. Wall Street doesn't pay for intention – the pay for Action and Results – for Execution. I Love what Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan say about 'Execution' – that Leaders don't fail for lack of vision – they fail for not executing the vision that they have. Fire, Ready, Aim doesn't work – but neither does Ready, Ready, Ready…..

All of us have things and/or pieces of our dreams that we don't know how to bring to pass – that's natural. If we could bring it to pass, completely on our own, it might be too small of a vision. The success lies in taking the next known step – thinking in processes and asking yourself, "What would a successful person do in this situation? What is the next step they might take?" Then take that next step – evaluate whether you are closer to your vision or farther away and act accordingly. The key is action! It's classic success principles, "Who – does what – by when"

Two things that I consistently remind myself:

• "Start" what needs to be started

• Finish what I start

"Don't just be a hearer or thinker – be a doer – act on what you know to do!"

Lewis & Clark remarking about their expedition said, "We didn't always know the entirety, but inevitably someone on the team knew the NEXT thing we needed to do."

Today's thought: What's the next thing? Not then next 10 things – the NEXT thing – let's do that thing and not get locked up! Don't fear failure – fear being paralyzed by fear!

"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

R – Let’s get Race Ready!

Leaders (Mushers) in the Iditarod Race have to plan and prepare months in advance of the race. For most, they may take a few weeks or month off and then they are right back planning next year’s race.

Thinking, planning, preparing constantly – this race becomes as much an addiction as an adventure or business. For many of us in business, could we not say the same?

In the minds of mushers are many components as they think about the upcoming season: Who will my leaders be? Does my kennel have a deep enough bench strength? Can I be more strategic about where we pushed it and where we rested? Where was my team stronger / weaker? How can I make my team stronger? What training can I do in advance of the race to prepare them better? Do I have them on the right ‘diet’? Is there a way I can become more competitive with Lance?

Weeks and sometimes months in advance they have to compile and ship supplies and resources to the 20+ checkpoints throughout the race course. Food, dry clothing, and everything else under the sun that is needed to run this grueling race. Lack preparation and ‘Readiness’ on the Iditarod Trail and you’re likely to die or be so frost bitten that you’ll lose a part(s) of your body. (Not to mention what you’ll be putting your team through) If we are going to succeed in this business era of limited resources and global struggle, then the team that takes the time to get it right on the front end and executes well is going to survive.

For those that like my HAB 22 model (see 5/11 – 5/15 posts) the RACE strategy is very similar. For those that may not have seen HABB 22, it basically says we start with H (Having a vision), A (ABC simplicity), B 22 (Break it down into components and stages/ checkpoints). For the R in race we bridging all of the components in that we are thinking about them and strategizing each step.

So what lessons can we learn from them and how can we improve our strategy development?

1. Simple Clarity

Simple questions like: who or what are we? What business are we in? What do we want to achieve? What is our market niche? What are our Team Dynamics? How much do we know about our market/industry?

2. Supplies

What will we need for the journey? (Resources), When will we need them? How do we get them?

3. Team Dynamics

Who will we need? Do we have them? How will we get the players we need? What should our race strategy be – given the team we have and leveraging their present strengths/capabilities?

4. Weather conditions

What’s going on outside of use that can affect our race? Competition? Advances in Sled Technology? Capital Markets? Impending climate changes? Storms? Etc.

While this just scratches the surface of the ‘Race Ready’ strategy, it will get us started on the journey! Take the time to get ready – remember it’s: Ready, Aim, then Fire!

Developing a ‘RACE’ Ready Strategy

Successful outcomes rarely occur on accident or by chance. For the vast majority of time, given an equal field of players, the team with the best coach / leader / musher is going to win. Being the best coach / leader / musher starts with your strategy.

Like it or not, as the leader, you are the 'Head' of your team. As the head, there are many things you can delegate to your team. I am a believer in the leader handling those things ONLY the leader can handle and mentoring your team to perform the rest – not out of a sense or intention to 'lighten' your load but to enable you as the leader to prepare for the next level of growth, performance, achievement and problem resolution. Strategy is an area that I believe you need to own. Your team is counting on you to 'Know the way, Show the way, and Go the way.'

You may say, "Strategy is not my strength – implementation is my strength." Great! Now spend time developing your skill as a strategist – your people need to believe that you 'Know the way'. It lets them run free and hard. They can run free because their minds are not cluttered with doubt over is this the right direction and with surety (confidence) they can run hard.

I am not suggesting that you create your strategy in a vacuum – that you come down from your Ivory Tower with the predetermined strategy and hand it to your team as if it were the 10 Commandments.

Strategy involves multiple aspects and the best results come from you AND the team. Remember, there are 2 sure-fire ways to fail – Take council from Nobody and Take council from Everybody.

To help Leaders grow and/or gain clarity with strategy, I built into the book and training, "When Running to win remember to use the "RACE' Strategy."

R – Ready

A – Action

C – Checkpoints

E – Evolve

This week we're going to take a deeper dive each day with these components, but for today here's the thought:

How good am I at strategy? Am I good at filtering out the wrong things to do – so I can gain clarity about the right things to go? Have I done the work, yet, to know my team so I know the right strategy for my team?

I know it's Monday – your sled is full and the race may have started hot and heavy this morning – so shorter post from me. I enjoy being a part of your journey and adding value to your team – shoot me an email, I'm glad to help! RACE on!

Confronting wrong beliefs and behaviors

Dogs don't know what they did wrong yesterday!

As Leaders we must be vigilant about our culture and when changes are needed or confrontation over beliefs or behaviors needs to occur – they need to occur as close to the behavior as possible – this is not a once a year employee review type thing.

Most people have difficulty when it comes to confrontations. When it comes to confronting beliefs it can seem even more so. They refuse to confront something immediately and allow it to build and fester until it or they blow up. They use anger as a method for emotional strength to deal with something that should have been dealt with all through the year and not just at the review. (As you can tell – I'm not a fan of the yearly review)

Without discussing the pro's and con's of social plurality, let me just say when it comes to business teams – we can't have 16 dogs pulling in 16 different directions – or even 2. We need everyone pulling in one direction – one purpose, one goal, one team.

To that end (our 'Burled Arch') we are going to need to solidify a unified, positive and purposeful culture (again – beliefs and behaviors). To gain this focus – it's just a fact that not every belief and behavior is going to line up and that we're going to need to discuss this with the individual team member(s).

So how do we do it:

1. Understand the specifics of where we believe they are off the trail.
   
2. Take the mindset that most people have honest intentions
   
3. Ask them to talk about their lens (belief/perspective) on that particular issue.
   
4. Help them back on the trail
   

When you seek first to be very specific about the issues, to get their perspective and to give people the benefit of the doubt - it helps keep the confrontation on topic. Many people view correction or confrontation as an assault or a rejection of them as a person. This immediately backs that team member into a corner and we can all see the picture of a cornered dog, right? For self preservation they will almost always come out fight for self preservation.

For years I've taught on using the 'sandwich method' for confrontation – where you affirm the person (bread), deal with the issue (meat), affirm the person, their contribution / value (bread) and set points of accountability and clarity around future behavior.

For most team members – your sharing your lens and the desired lens of the future will be enough will be enough for them to see a different perspective and start the change process. If a team member continues to engage in divisive behaviors or continues to hold onto beliefs that are contrary to the team and harmful to progress then we'll need to increase the intensity and frequency of the confrontation. If it comes to it – you may even, ultimately, recommend that they run for a different team and that's ok too – not our first choice – but we have to value the mission, we have to value the other players on the team - and we have to guard the culture!

Shorter post for today – leaving time for your Friday comments – have a great day and weekend!

Confronting cultural challenges

All along the way from Anchorage to the 'Burled Arch' of Nome there are checkpoints and veterinarian staff to help the Musher take care of His / Her team but the honest truth is that care of the dogs takes place more so between the checkpoints and on the trail then at the designated stops.

Leaders have to monitor the health of each individual member AND the health of the team as a cohesive unit. At times, individual behaviors are addressed and at time Leaders have to dive into the team dynamics to correct the pack's behavior. All done under the watchful and purposeful eye of the Musher and viewed from the vantage point of the musher's position in the sled.

When it comes to purposeful culture, purposeful 'beliefs and behaviors' and turning around cultural challenges here are some thoughts:

Create the 'Cultural Burled Arch'

Being able to recognize where your team is off the trail starts with knowing where the trail is and what it looks like – the more specific the better.

Know where you are now / Listen to the Metaphors

When you're out on the trail and you want to "get a feel" of the surroundings, sometimes you have to still yourself and just listen. Listen to how people feel, listen as they reveal their 'beliefs', and listen for telling metaphors. If your team is saying things like, "we're the runts of the litter" or "we're the cast offs from other teams" or "our department gets thrown all the scraps." These are telling metaphors that reveal the departmental or personal 'sub-culture'. At other times, you may need some external help (call them business veterinarians) to partner with you and diagnose the issues in the team.

Engage key 'Swing Dogs'

Bring 'Swing Dogs' (see May 19 post) in on the front end, gain their involvement/buy-in, and then let them be the influencers that they are.

Trail Map, Checkpoints, and Training Runs

Once you know where you are, where you want to go, and have the influencers on board – start running the 'Training Runs'. The second part of the definition of 'Culture' is: development and improvement through education or training. If we want the team to 'Behave' a different way – we're going to need them to think (Believe) a different way. This starts with creating new and more desirable metaphors, introducing the new mindset and then working through a consistent process to get them to accept, adopt, and own it. (Digest, assimilate, energize, run!)

Leverage Technology

Leveraging the 'Swing Dogs' is powerful, leveraging technology and the Swing Dogs – incredible. Create a social network, a company blog, leverage Twitter, consistently reinforce the message – create a tight knit 'Pack' of true believers wanting change, develop and communicate with them via these technologies and then leverage all of it to create the groundswell or 'avalanche' of change.

Dogs don't know what they did wrong yesterday!

As Leaders we must be vigilant about our culture and when changes are needed or confrontation over beliefs or behaviors needs to occur – they need to occur as close to the behavior as possible – this is not a once a year employee review type thing. (I'll write more on this tomorrow)

Keep on, Keeping on.

Cultural change can take place quickly or it can take decades depending on the size of the organization and a number of other factors. Know the real picture of what your up against – but don't allow the size of the 'Race' to discourage you. Take it one step, one checkpoint at a time and realize you are on the road to a better culture.

Remember: It's not the size of the Dog in the Fight, It's the size of the Fight in the Dog! (Mark Twain)

Sled Team Culture by Default or Design?

Sled Dogs will run with or without you! This is, exactly, why Rule #1 of mushing is, "Never Let Go of the Sled!"

The culture of an organization is the same way. Whether by Default or by Design – it will continue right on down the trail. As the musher – It's Your Sled and Your Team. The choice we have as leaders is to either 'Own' the culture or 'Abandon' the culture and like the middle of the Iditarod race – there's not a lot in between.

The culture of an organization, again, comes down to Integrating each player into an effective team and adapting, effectively, to the trail conditions (external environment) in order to survive. Over time as the team finds solutions to problems and experience 'daily running', they build up patterns of basic assumptions about how to operate and how to relate. These 'Patterns' or 'Beliefs' are then transmitted to each new team member as they are brought into the team. The 'Patterns' are created and recreated until they become engrained 'Behaviors' with deep seeded ties to the 'History' of the Team. The question is not if this will occur – the question is will it occur by Design, on purpose? And since they become deep seeded, I suggest taking hold of the Sled Handle and becoming purposeful.

As you start to 'Design' your team's Culture, here are some thoughts. Start with the basics of:

• Who we are.
  
• What we do.
  
• How we do.
  
• How we interact. With ourselves. With others
  
• How we measure success
  

This can start the process of development:

Who we are.

This is our organizational DNA and desired future DNA: Stories from the Trail (Organizational or departmental history), Values (stated and unstated) – our 'Unique Team Genetic Code' and the source for our Organizational Pride

What we do.

This is our offerings, our product, our 'niche' and can be similar to the production side of the Vision / Mission Statement. (ie, we make quality products for a fair price for the Widget industry)

How we do.

The How is important to Race Performance. Without clarity around 'How' the race is to be run then our people are left to make assumptions. This can be what my friend, Jeremie Kubicek, calls our 'Secret Sauce'. It, also, sets the boundaries and the 'Race Rules' and acceptable and unacceptable performance methodologies. This area contains very specific, 'Roles, Methods, Metrics' and can be so innovative that it creates 'Competitive Space' allowing us to run on a clean trail, in clean air.

How we Interact.

Every team needs a 'code of conduct'. Rules for interaction and communication both inside the team and to our customers, vendors, investors, public, etc. The components of how the dogs are treated are under constant scrutiny from Animal Rights activists and speaking from my experience, the musher's deeply care for their dogs. In addition, they have rules for those that work with their dogs. But just as important are how the dogs will treat each other, other teams within our kennel, race officials, veterinarians, etc. Key pieces here Teamwork, communication, and employee relations!

How we measure success

This is so key to effective performance and to the 'beliefs and behaviors' of the group. Consistent communication around what we measure, how we measure, and constant reports from the trail relating to our performance and if we are 'winning' – whatever that means to us.

Like I said yesterday – we could easily spend a year or more on the topic – but we have more trail of our own to run today and so do you!

Run with purpose and ON purpose!

Discovering and Defining your Team’s Culture

Why do the dogs run that way? Because that's the way they run.

Why does your team do that? Or members in your team act that way? Because it's what they know and believe and are allowed so, right now.

On the surface, many things are the way they are because that's the way they are, and that's likely to not change – unless you, as the leader, exert influence to change the process. It goes back to Newton's Laws of motion.

Checkpoints.

Whether you start with, immediately, analyzing your team OR creating the cultural vision and then using that as a "checkpoint" to gauge against – you, basically, have 2 parts – the way it is and the way I want it to be. Let's deal with the way it is….

The first step to discovering and defining your team's 'Culture' is to understand yourself well. Realizing that your own beliefs are driving your behaviors – that YOUR lens is bending the data – is important. How you view your team, how you view conflict within the team, how you view interaction, initiative, delegation, problem resolution, communication… well, you get the point. It affects every area of our leadership because it comes from our core.

There is so much to learn about in this area but I'm more focused on helping leaders than doing a dissertation on behavioral analysis – so let's cut to the chase and just do a fly-by. Beliefs and behaviors, for our purposes, will fall into a couple of areas.

Healthy / Unhealthy

Behaviors such as addiction, uncontrolled anger, etc. are, usually, easy to spot and easy to tag as unhealthy. But what about the belief that we will post pone preventative maintenance until after this fiscal year – so we can make our numbers? The belief is – the short term win will outweigh the long-term harm (or will deal with that problem when and if it occurs). Where do beliefs like this come from? Are we promoting this intentionally or unintentionally?

Natural / Adaptive

Natural beliefs will spring out of people's natural gifting or their personality (temperament) – they view things from a particular point of view based on whether they are Introverted or extraverted, analytic or relational. Natural Lenses are helpful in bringing out the various perspectives and rounding out the viewpoints.

Adaptive beliefs are created from learning of some type. From a base view, it goes back to some form of self preservation or self evolving.

Individual / Pack

All beliefs are held and acted on by individuals, but the question is more, 'Are these beliefs and behaviors that the individual only does when in the pack and/or for social approval/status/acceptance?'

Advancing / Limiting

Many within our team, including ourselves, hold to beliefs that hold us back. It's the aged but powerful story of the 4 minute mile. Once the 4 minute barrier was broken by Roger Bannister, within three years, by the end of 1957, 16 other runners also cracked the four minute mile. Where are our beliefs limiting us and where are they advancing us?

Again, we could spend a year or more with you or your organization around this topic – but just for now, just for this week…

What do we do? Why do we do it? Is it Healthy or Unhealthy? Natural or Adaptive? Individual or pack? Advancing or Limiting? And lastly, as an organization, intentional or unintentional?

What do we reward? What do we recognize? What is -50 Degrees (cold, hard reality)? Where are we conflicted / inauthentic? What do we believe about our customers? Our people? Our competitors? Ourselves?

My belief? It's that you can become a great musher with a great team on purpose!

Leadership and ‘Sled’ Team Culture

All teams and all sleds have a 'feel' both operationally and relationally. Getting the feel of the sled is part of what we started talking about last week when we talked about learning your existing team and trying to stay 'right-side-up' as you launch with your new team. Let's keep on a similar trail this week I want and talk about the feel of your team and tying that to the culture of your Sled (organization).

Why?

In order to get the right results from our team, we need the team to 'Do' the right things. Not a complete guarantee of success, but it's the right trail to 'Nome'. 'Do' is action or performance, both of which speak to 'Behaviors'. From the previous posts, you'll know that one of my Leadership Mantras is that 'Beliefs drive behaviors'.

So what our teams are believing is directly affecting how they behave – how they operate both operationally and how they relate to each other, our customers, and our vendors. All of which can directly flow to 'bottom line'.

If we want the right outcome – we need to be intentional about the right actions. Again, if we want the right actions / performance then we need to be intentional about the beliefs in the team. All of this is wrapped up in the term 'Culture'.

Several definitions for Culture, the main one that applies here relates to 'Behaviors and Beliefs' of a group. In Iditarod Leadership, we talk about the discovery, understanding, changing and development of cultures for the purposes of running a better race.

Much like training dogs to run the race - Business cultures are developed through daily habits and reinforcement of those habits – either through failure to confront bad habits and beliefs or through positive affirmations of the right things. They are engrained in every aspect of our organization's 'sleds' and the teams within each; how they relate to other teams and, ultimately, they harden and form into invisible but very powerful rules of operating and relating.

Have you taken the time to back up and consider these?

A second component of the definition of 'Culture' is: development and improvement through education or training.

I love the second component because it implies that you can develop your organization's 'Culture' – that you don't have to accept that the way it is – is the way it will always be. You have the power to change your sled's culture – your teams operational and relational practices.

Sled dogs want to run, they love to run, and they want to please their Musher.

I believe the same is true for most employees. They want to do the right things and in their minds they ARE doing the right things. If they knew a better way – then why wouldn't they do that?

In order for us to 'Succeed on Purpose' I want to encourage you to take a good look at this area. We'll break this into sections and see if we give you some ideas on how you can move your team down the 'Positive Culture' trail by week's end.

Points to consider: What are our unwritten rules? What are the behaviors that are hindering our success? Why does my team believe that? How can I help them 'see' at a different level or understanding?

Changing business climates and lack of support...

In any leadership position, newly acquired or not, there are going to be rough spots. Days when it seems like your driving a sled meant for snow over rocks and dirt. For the team, It can be like trying to run full speed over dirt and rocks in your bare feet. For the sled, it’s like being in quicksand. The protective coatings placed over the runners can get ripped to shreds and if you take a spill, it’s going to hurt.

Having those clear, insightful discussions about the terrain and how it has been affected by the recent “Business Climate” changes is urgently important. The earlier you know about the upcoming conditions, the more options you have, the more prepared you can be, and the more time you have to reduce the risk of flipping the sled.

Gathering information from multiple sources helps in these sections. For business in this area I like to involve both art and science.

Science is going to give us the raw and interpreted data. I say, “Interpreted” because for the most part when you are presented with the numbers, the person presenting them is going to give you their ‘Lens’ on those numbers. Having multiple people share their ‘Lenses’ will help round out your thinking and your options. This helps to ensure you don’t take a wrong course of action and either flip the sled or wander off course. What are the numbers? What do we believe they tell us? Why do we believe they tell us that? What make up the causes for the numbers? Is this an isolated climate change or a global crisis? Asking the questions will reveal telling answers AND can reveal more Frozen Rivers (see yesterday’s post)

Art is the ‘Gut’ side of the business for the ‘Manly’. This is where you or your team may have ‘Intuition’, insight, or you can ‘sense’ that there are changes in the trail ahead. Sensory perception, intuition, or gut feelings can be useful. Mushers who run their entire businesses on it can subject their teams to a lot of change and ‘rabbit chases’ – so use this with caution but don’t dismiss it totally.

I’ve been under leaders that could sense problems before my numbers ever showed the reality of it. In this case the numbers lagged the sensing. At other times the statistical analysis led the way. (if you want more on this click the button at the bottom and I’ll do a future blog on it)

For the 150 or so miles leading up to the Yukon river and then along the Icy coast there is very little support. Checkpoints and supply lines are further apart and the Mushers and their teams really fight the mind games that go along with isolation and dwindling support.

As a leader that is either new in position or new to leadership overall, make sure you know where your support ends and what trails you’ll need to go with little or no support at all. Try to minimize these sections of terrain until you have enough time in to develop support for those areas. Remember: your meant to lead the team from the sled – not run out front, grab a harness and pull the sled and all 16 team members! Firm up your support, get others on the same page and ready to pull – then you’ll reduce those ‘Barren’ areas. Don’t fight battles that don’t need to be fought yet – and don’t make everything a ‘Life or Death’, ‘Do or Die’ choice. There is a great quote that says, “If you make every situation a ‘Life or Death’ deal – You’ll be dead a lot!” I don’t know who said it – but it is very true.

If you find yourself in a barren stretch of terrain, keep the lines of communication open. Increase your communication to a mentor, coach, or peer. If you need to take a momentary trail break and rally the team – do it! The first goal is to finish the race – you can’t win, if you don’t finish!

Remember the learning points from the week:

1.) Take time to get to know your team

2.) Learn the terrain.

3.) Don’t be too rigid or make changes too fast.

4.) Let your team get to know you.

See you at the next ‘Leadership Checkpoint’ on Monday.