A few days ago, I attended a valuable leadership retreat that focused on building cohesive teams. Last week, the Reds and Pirates were involved in a major league brawl. In no way at all do I condone the actions of violence they displayed although I do want to make a few quick connections to a cohesive team.
In our leadership retreat we learned that in a cohesive team, the foundation is TRUST and the pinnacle is RESULTS. I pulled out two quotes from Joey Votto's (Cincinnati Reds) post-game press conference that related to this.
First, he stated, "Today is a good example of our team standing up for each other." This is what leads to building trust in any relationship - but especially a team. Usually we look at change, challenges, and storms as bad things. However, they provide the opportunity for teammates to stand up for each other and prove their commitment to the team. They are a necessary component to building the foundation of cohesive teams. In our leadership retreat, one person stated how important it is to know that your teammates have your back. Joey Votto's statement demonstrated that he and his teammates proved this.
Second, he stated, "The best teams focus on winning on a day in and day out basis." You know your team is a cohesive team when it is focused on results. In order to get to this - the team has been through conflict, used it to help them grow, and have proven their trust and commitment to each other. They understand that in order for the team to get better they have to push and hold each other to be accountable for growth. When that has happened - the team is ready to focus on results and not get sidetracked with minor issues. Joey Votto acknowledged that this is the next step for his team - to move on past the drama and get focused on results.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
The Gazebo
I have a tendency to go full force into projects - to just dig in right away and keep bulldozing my way to the finish. One of my strengths is my strong work ethic so I think maybe I often rely on that rather than being a bit more methodical and thoughtful about my work. It is how I played sports growing up and it is what I am used to. However, it is not always an effective strategy.
A few weeks ago, I purchased a metal gazebo from Lowe's. I know the directions say to get all of the pieces out and make sure you have every piece before you get started - but really who does that or has time for that?! So I just started working. Soon into the project I discovered that one of the pieces was defective so I needed to call and have a new piece delivered. In the meantime, I figured I could skip some steps and get some parts of it together, you know, to grind through and be more efficient with my time :)
When the corrected piece finally came in about a week later, I built the gazebo with the four posts, crossbeams, and vertical pieces that connected the crossbeams to the top part of the roof (all of which I had piecemealed together earlier). After several hours, I needed to put up the horizontal frames on the roof. However, they could not connect to the vertical bars. On one side I came an inch or so too short and on the other side I came an inch or so too long. I tried smashing one side in with a hammer. I tried pulling and tugging the other side as hard as I could. Nothing worked. I could not get it to match up enough to get the screws in! After having worked on it most of the day, I called it a day (it was nearly 10pm and was getting destroyed by mosquitoes anyway).
The next day, my 16 year-old son is with me helping and trying to figure it out. We tried tugging, pulling, hammering, and smashing but to no avail. I checked to see if it was all level. It wasn't. We fixed that. Still didn't work. I then swallowed my pride and started from the beginning to do everything in order as it was supposed to. We took down the entire top part of the roof that I put together early and then put it up piece by piece. Still didn't work.
I am hours into this project and I now had visions of me smashing the pieces and throwing them out into the yard and making a big enough scene that possibly would cause my neighbors to call the cops on the crazy guy next door. It is 90 degrees with Ohio humidity. I was soaking in sweat and ready to be done.
At this point, my son stopped being my "assistant" me and started analyzing the work. He said to me, "I think these vertical bars are not centered on the horizontal crossbeams". I told him it didn't matter and that had nothing to do with it and went on huffing and puffing. He said he wanted to measure - fine, whatever I said. He measured and told me they were not centered. I repeated myself - "that is not the problem!". He repeated himself. I ignored. Finally, he commanded, "DAD! Stop and look!" As soon as I paused and looked - it became so obvious. I realized right away that he was right and it was the vertical piece that was causing all the problems.
Way back when I put together the crossbeams early, there were three holes for bolts. I needed to screw in the vertical piece which had two bolts and I selected the wrong two out of three bolts (yeah those directions would have been important at that point). Thus, it was causing everything thereafter to be thrown off. We fixed that and the rest went on smooth as butter.
Leadership Lessons
1. Be Grateful
I am so grateful to my son (wife and daughter helped at times too) for his patience and help.
2. Go at the Right Pace
I am a doer. I love making to-do lists and checking them off as I go (admittedly, I have actually put stuff I already completed on the to-do list only to be able to see it checked off). There are times in which I need to stop the grind, slow down, and see the big picture.
3. Engage in Teamwork (not collaboration)
Truly, I could not have done it without him. I really would have been that guy who smashed the pieces and threw them out into the yard out of frustration. I see a difference between teamwork and collaboration. To me, collaboration is a generic, overused term to describe two or more people working on something. Teamwork is two or more people working dependently on each other to create something better than if they were solo.
4. Build Relationships
The strongest teams are built on solid relationships grounded in trust. This allows teammates to be able to hold each other accountable and push each other to new possibilities. My son needed to call me out in one of my worst, most frustrated moments. He did. If we did not have the relationship, he would have kept quiet or felt scared to be able to call me out.
A few weeks ago, I purchased a metal gazebo from Lowe's. I know the directions say to get all of the pieces out and make sure you have every piece before you get started - but really who does that or has time for that?! So I just started working. Soon into the project I discovered that one of the pieces was defective so I needed to call and have a new piece delivered. In the meantime, I figured I could skip some steps and get some parts of it together, you know, to grind through and be more efficient with my time :)
When the corrected piece finally came in about a week later, I built the gazebo with the four posts, crossbeams, and vertical pieces that connected the crossbeams to the top part of the roof (all of which I had piecemealed together earlier). After several hours, I needed to put up the horizontal frames on the roof. However, they could not connect to the vertical bars. On one side I came an inch or so too short and on the other side I came an inch or so too long. I tried smashing one side in with a hammer. I tried pulling and tugging the other side as hard as I could. Nothing worked. I could not get it to match up enough to get the screws in! After having worked on it most of the day, I called it a day (it was nearly 10pm and was getting destroyed by mosquitoes anyway).
The next day, my 16 year-old son is with me helping and trying to figure it out. We tried tugging, pulling, hammering, and smashing but to no avail. I checked to see if it was all level. It wasn't. We fixed that. Still didn't work. I then swallowed my pride and started from the beginning to do everything in order as it was supposed to. We took down the entire top part of the roof that I put together early and then put it up piece by piece. Still didn't work.
I am hours into this project and I now had visions of me smashing the pieces and throwing them out into the yard and making a big enough scene that possibly would cause my neighbors to call the cops on the crazy guy next door. It is 90 degrees with Ohio humidity. I was soaking in sweat and ready to be done.
At this point, my son stopped being my "assistant" me and started analyzing the work. He said to me, "I think these vertical bars are not centered on the horizontal crossbeams". I told him it didn't matter and that had nothing to do with it and went on huffing and puffing. He said he wanted to measure - fine, whatever I said. He measured and told me they were not centered. I repeated myself - "that is not the problem!". He repeated himself. I ignored. Finally, he commanded, "DAD! Stop and look!" As soon as I paused and looked - it became so obvious. I realized right away that he was right and it was the vertical piece that was causing all the problems.
Way back when I put together the crossbeams early, there were three holes for bolts. I needed to screw in the vertical piece which had two bolts and I selected the wrong two out of three bolts (yeah those directions would have been important at that point). Thus, it was causing everything thereafter to be thrown off. We fixed that and the rest went on smooth as butter.
Leadership Lessons
1. Be Grateful
I am so grateful to my son (wife and daughter helped at times too) for his patience and help.
2. Go at the Right Pace
I am a doer. I love making to-do lists and checking them off as I go (admittedly, I have actually put stuff I already completed on the to-do list only to be able to see it checked off). There are times in which I need to stop the grind, slow down, and see the big picture.
3. Engage in Teamwork (not collaboration)
Truly, I could not have done it without him. I really would have been that guy who smashed the pieces and threw them out into the yard out of frustration. I see a difference between teamwork and collaboration. To me, collaboration is a generic, overused term to describe two or more people working on something. Teamwork is two or more people working dependently on each other to create something better than if they were solo.
4. Build Relationships
The strongest teams are built on solid relationships grounded in trust. This allows teammates to be able to hold each other accountable and push each other to new possibilities. My son needed to call me out in one of my worst, most frustrated moments. He did. If we did not have the relationship, he would have kept quiet or felt scared to be able to call me out.
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