Buy-in Takes Being Heard

When you are part of a team, sometimes you don't get your way. That's reality. Sometimes even when you've made your best case for what you see as the best or only solution, the majority or the team leader will go a different way. It's crucial that when the decision is made, everyone jump on board.

• "So we're taking the conservative approach instead of the higher risk/reward tack that I wanted."
• "So we're going down a road that I've already been down and I'm certain it won't work."
• "So we're going to make that hire instead of this other person that I've got a great gut feeling about."

Regardless of what the decision is, it's imperative that every team member jump on the bandwagon and become the final decision's biggest cheerleaders.

What does it take for that to happen? If the members of your team are leaders or even people with opinions at all, they will need to feel that they've been heard. Assuming that the team is made up of people who are more about the success of the team or organization than they are about just getting their own way (perhaps that's a large assumption)... If people are about team success, they will be able to go along with the decision a lot better if they believe that their ideas were heard and given proper consideration.

Failing in this will often lead to team members undercutting the decision that was agreed on. Divisiveness... lobbying... passive aggressive non-action... These are common when people haven't bought in.

Leaders, if you want your team to buy in to the decision -- even if they disagree -- you must make them feel heard. You may have to let your meeting go beyond the 90 minutes you had planned. You may need to table a decision until everyone is heard. You may have to listen when you're already sure of what to do. But failure to do so guarantees that people walk away feeling unheard, unvalidated and hedging on the decision made.

Give your team a chance to be heard and they will buy in!

Doritos Superbowl Ad

Is this blasphemy?



What do you think and why?

You want style points, go watch figure skating...

Many of you know I'm a huge LSU Tigers fan. I just read a great piece at an LSU blog -- And The Valley Shook. If LSU/College Football interests you, check it out:

Delusional Optimism Is Not Disappointed

Fox Sports currently ranks LSU as the "fifth most disappointing team" in the country. Here's what they say:

The Tigers are 2-0, but it took the NCAA's microscope to neutralize their first opponent (North Carolina) and the best possible draw from the SEC East (Vanderbilt) to get them there. As luck would have it, their next two games are against Mississippi State and West Virginia, two teams that have floundered so far this season. Is Les Miles really this lucky? No. Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn should get three L's for the Mad Hatter and put him officially on the hot seat.

As the founder of the Delusional Optimism campaign here at ATVS, I'm officially sick of this crap. It's not that Fox Sports, an entity that has consistently proven through their horrid bowl game coverage that they know less than nothing about college football, is ripping on LSU. It's that this is a consensus view.

The dominant storyline on LSU is always the most negative one the media can find. Is it because ESPN FoxAlabama bloggers the Illuminati the Eastern Media Conspiracy everybody hates LSU? Of course not. It's because the media is lazy. Once they find a storyline, or a meme, the media simply makes every fact fit that storyline. And the media meme is that LSU isn't that good.

T Kyle King, a pretty bright guy and a great Georgia blogger who I'm positive has no anti-LSU agenda, left LSU off of his Blog Poll ballot. Why? Because LSU still has to prove something to be ranked. Remember, LSU is a team that finished 3^rd in the SEC last year, won 9 games, finished in the top 20 in every poll, and played in a January 1^st bowl. This year, all LSU has done is been one of two teams to beat two BCS teams in its first two games (and the only one to do win both of those games on the road). Now, what exactly does LSU have to prove just to make the ballot?

And this is not to say Kyle is wrong. He could very well be right. Besides, he's absolutely entitled to rank whoever the hell he wants, so please don't read this an attack on his ballot - that is 100% not the point. The point here is that a fairly neutral fan has an extremely negative impression of LSU, and I don't think his opinion is an outlier. It fits the narrative.

And it's a narrative LSU fans largely control. LSU beat Vanderbilt by TWENTY FOUR points. LSU fans have largely treated the game as a nail biter, and the nation at large has followed our lead. Oh, but it was close in the third quarter? Fine. In the UNC game, LSU was beating the Heels by 20 points in the fourth quarter. A young team lost focus and let UNC back in the game, needing a stop on the last play to seal a victory that, frankly, should have been sealed an hour before. Was this portrayed as a young team letting a team off the mat (which is hardly a flattering narrative anyway)? Of course not. By and large, it's been portrayed as a nail biter as well, and many outlets stated that UNC outplayed LSU. Which, I guess is true if you only watched the fourth quarter.

However, the most negative storyline was adopted not just by the mainstream media and most neutral fans, but by LSU fans. Think about how a 17-14 LSU win over Mississippi State, keyed by several drops by wide open receivers, would play in the media. Think what the message boards would look like. Hell, you don't have to imagine, take a gander at what they looked like last year. Then contrast that with the largely positive reaction to Auburn's win over MSU.

LSU is 11-4 over it's last 15 games. There are eight BCS conference teams who have a better record over the same span. Eight. And one of them is Cincinnati, who just got pantsed by NC State. Fifth most disappointing team in the country?

Only if you're disappointed by wins. You want style points, go watch figure skating.

Lessons Learned Sailing

A few weeks ago, my friend Mark took me sailing. Probably I listened to too much Jimmy Buffet growing up, but I’ve always thought that I would make a good sailor. I’m sure Mark would tell you I have a lot still to learn but I believe there are many life lessons to learn from sailing.

Something I learned on our little adventure is that your destination dictates your methods. For the most part, we weren’t heading anywhere. We went out onto the lake and for the most part we sailed wherever the wind would take us. Our sailing was much less about trying to get anywhere specific and more about keeping the sail in a good position to build as much speed as possible. There wasn’t a lot of wind that particular day, so we often found ourselves waiting for a “puff” of wind to catch the sail and get us moving. Now our destination was very important when it was time to go home. Speed and the perfect heel were less important than successfully arriving at the boat slip from which we departed and our actions reflected that… namely Mark took back the helm. ;-)

Here are a few conclusions I drew from our trip that I believe relate to our every day life.

• You can do a lot of work and cover a lot of ground, but without clear goals and/or destination, you’re probably not accomplishing much. I see this in my own life as I navigate through a very busy ministry season and an increasingly complex home life… if I don’t set clear goals for myself—both at work and at home—I’m mostly ineffective.

• You can’t make the wind blow. God’s Holy Spirit is compared to a wind in the bible and just like that day on Saylorville Lake, we can’t make the wind blow, but we can raise and position the sails. We can build disciplines and routines into our lives (prayer, worship, bible reading, solitude, etc.) that position us for movement when the Holy Spirit “blows.” We can’t make it blow, but we can become ready for when it does.

I hope this is as meaningful for you as it has been for me. Who knows… maybe we’ll pass each other on the lake sometime.

Bugatti Veyron vs. Euro Typhoon Fighter Jet

This is worth watching if you like fast things!

Upception - Trailer

I haven't seen Inception yet, but this clever mash-up makes me want to see it more than the actual trailers do...



Props to Scott Hodge for sending this along.

Doing What You Should

How important is it to be well-rounded? I feel I’ve lived over half of my life with that goal… becoming well-rounded. Today, I believe that was a poor goal because it caused me to spend less time on the things I’m good at and more time on the things I’m not… and will never be. Instead, I want to spend more time developing the skills in which I already excel and less time performing tasks for which I have small aptitude. Perhaps you should consider the same.

Now it seems that if we all just stopped doing those things we either don’t like or are not good at, the whole world would come to a screeching halt and there’d be total chaos and anarchy, and there’s truth to that. But if we commit ourselves to prioritizing those activities through which we contribute the most value – and at the same time allow those around us to do likewise – we’ll eventually find that we are more productive and that more gets done.

There are things that I’m great at that you might struggle with. In the same way, there are activities at which I’m completely inept that you could do with no problem… you might even enjoy it. In the book of 1st Corinthians, the bible compares the local church to a “body” in which there are many different parts – all very important. The best results come when eyes function as eyes, feet function as feet, and so on. If the feet aren’t on the job, our knees and elbows can fill in, but a 10K race may be out of the question. Your organization is no different – when all of the players are in the right positions; when everyone is sitting on the right seat of the bus (to borrow from Jim Collins in "Good to Great") our organizations are primed for success. The secret, then, isn't to become well-rounded, but by allowing everyone to function where they thrive (or in their "sweet spot" as we say at Crossroads) we develop a well-rounded organization.

What does that look like for you?

• What are you doing now that you should begin looking for an opportunity to delegate?
  
• What are the areas at which you excel that you should begin to spend more time developing?
  
• Are you comfortable focusing on what only you can do, or do you need a packed calendar to feel productive?

Peace,
Corbett

p.s. For a much better and in detail presentation on this topic, I recommend “The Next Generation Leader” by Andy Stanley.