“In the end, a great leader is only known by the impact he or she has on others.”
-Jim Stovall
The Law of Building a Winning Team: Great leaders know how to find people who possess the skills they don’t and have the ability to position, empower and send them out. A team of skilled people can never succeed beyond the abilities of the leader to allow them to do so. We raise the team by raising the expectations of each player, equipping them and setting them free to succeed on their own.
Worst to First
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this conversation. “We need you to come and motivate our sales team. They won’t follow up with contacts. They don’t do anything beyond dropping off a flyer in a customer’s business. They don’t keep a full list of prospects to contact. They just don’t put out the effort to get their sales numbers that we want.”
When I hear these statements, I know in my heart what the problem is. Most of the time it isn’t with the sales associates themselves. It’s with the expectations they perceive from the manager or the company they are working for each day. They have learned through their experience that if they do the minimum amount of work, they will keep their jobs and can continue what they’ve been doing.
Sooner or later, your employees will know they have to do something more, so occasionally they produce results, but the overall picture is less than you expect daily. I can help, but it involves conversations with more than just the sales team. It involves all the leadership of the organization.
People will only do the minimum expected of them
if the leadership commitment level is low.
I’ve discovered that if the leader or manager doesn’t reinforce their goals and practices on a regular basis, then the team who follows with them will almost never produce the results expected.
Example: How can a sports team with a losing record change that around with the addition of a new coaching staff? In 1991 my hometown Atlanta Braves not only went from “worst to first,” but came within one game of winning the World Series. The major changes were new management who knew what a winning attitude looked like. The biggest change came in the addition of someone who didn’t work in the dugout or on the field… General Manager John Schuerholz, who was hired in 1990.
Bobby Cox had been the General Manager in the front office for several years with a losing record on the field. He brought in Schuerholz and went back to the field to personally manage the team. For the next 15 years Cox and Schuerholz’s teams finished as Divisional Champions every year except the strike-shortened 1994 season… an unparalleled record in franchise history.
Together, Schuerholz and Cox brought in coaches who could manage one of the best pitching staffs in the league (Glavine, Maddux, Avery and Smoltz) and they built the team with great young players (Justice, Gant, Sanders and Chipper Jones). Cox moved players to positions they could excel and let them do their jobs. He fought for his players behind the scenes and on the field (Cox holds the record for ejections from Major League Baseball games).
Schuerholz’s and Cox’s abilities to select, position, play, motivate and support their players propelled the Atlanta Braves to one World Series win in five appearances. The two of them hold many records for wins and post-season appearances.
Here's the key point: Many of the players who excelled under their leadership had played for other teams without the results these two men got from them. Because of their team leadership, both Schuerholz and Cox were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
“Successful people have discovered what they are good at doing.
Successful leaders have discovered what other people are good at doing."
-John Maxwell
If a team is not excelling, but could with the proper motivation, it may not be their fault… in fact it probably isn’t. They may lack the attitude and support they require to be the best they can be. They need leadership that selects, positions, supports, and promotes their abilities in action.
So what can you do? | 
