“Even on the greatest team, there’s always one role player.”

–     Keith Olbermann, former ESPN anchor

Wrong!

Not wrong like in the way most of what you say on your new talk show is wrong, Keith, but wrong in the idea that there is “one” role player on any team.

Everyone has a role.  Michael Jordan’s role was different than Steve Kerr’s, and an assessment of their talent, mindset, etc goes in to establishing their roles.  Still, everyone has a role.

Defining the roles in your team is critical.  Knowing who is responsible for what piece of the outcomes is a foundational building block toward any outcome.

So, before we talk about talent, before we talk about performance, we’d better define the role, lest we lose the connection between the intent and the outcome.

“I particularly like basketball analogies for business. In basketball, you play both offense and defense in a nanosecond. And, another great comparison, is that you have to pivot to win.”

–     Richard K. Davis, Chairman and CEO, U.S. Bancorp (and best banker in America.  Hands down.)

With kudos to a new friend, Bob Shaver, for reminding me of the importance of pivoting in business, I reprise a post from 2012.

On the April day in 2012 that I met Richard Davis, he delivered a great speech which included the quote above.  Not only true for years before he spoke these words, they are more true than ever today, and this concept of pivoting to win is from a guy who’s bank is winning. Big.

He speaks to the importance of being nimble. Of knowing which foot is planted – the positions you can’t give up – and which foot to move around; in other words, knowing what strategies and tactics are non-negotiable and which are open to alteration.

Even in a “stodgy” industry like banking, the ability to pivot – and to transition from offense to defense in a “nanosecond” – are keys to winning.

Regardless of the industry, pivoting is key to winning.

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master.  For this reason, mastery demands all of a person.”

–     Albert Einstein

In context, I get it.  In total, I’m not sure I buy it.

While 100% on board with the concept of devotion to a cause, I don’t buy that mastery demands all of a person.  If that were true, Faith would be the only matter worthy of becoming a Master in.

Why this topic, now?

The Masters Tournament, golf’s grandest show, has been a special week for me since 1986, the year I picked up the game, largely due to the impact of Jack Nicklaus’ victory that year at age 46.  This year, I was pulling for an almost 45-year-old Master, Phil Mickelson, who finished second to a 21-year-old Master, Jordan Spieth.  If Phil couldn’t win, I wanted Jordan to, so it’s been a good day.

But Nicklaus, Mickelson and Spieth are all good family men.  Good friends.  Good people with charitable pursuits and strong souls.  Their mastery — dominance, if you will — of their game stems in part from the balance of their focus.

A “means to an end” mindset is not a way to develop mastery — but passion and drive, and the ability to share the benefits of the mastery with people we truly love, are.

“Giving it our all” is a noble approach.  Giving “all of us” leaves nothing for those we owe some of us to.  That’s more than semantics.  It’s foundational.  And difference makers keep it in context.

“Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage.”

–     Lyric from “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” by Smashing Pumpkins

Anger consumes us.

Hatred entraps us.

I know someone who was “wronged” by someone almost 40 years ago.  The hatred and anger that person holds for the other has zero — Z E R O — effect on the hated, and completely controls, in some regard, the hater.

Get messed over on a business deal?  Cut it lose.  I’m not saying we shouldn’t be “once bitten, twice shy,” but the fact of the matter is this; anger consumes us, and hatred entraps us.

If we want to be more than rats in cages, we owe it to ourselves to move on to what comes next.

“Balance is bunk.  It’s a misguided notion that assumes we must always make trade-offs among the different aspects of our lives.”

–     Stewart Friedman, in a September 2014 Harvard Business Review Article (HBR Reprint R1409K)

Dammit!  All these years chasing a “misguided notion?”

THAT’s gonna leave a mark.

But it makes good sense, and Stewart calls it out in a very productive way, citing 18 specific skills he’s identified over the years (executive, professor, researcher, author), and helping over-busy knuckleheads like us strive for “four-way wins” across the work, family, community and self aspects of life.

So, if it’s less about trade-offs than finding wins — that might be a good approach to apply in other areas of our lives, practices, jobs and relationships, too, huh?

“More than 90% of students take a civics class in high school, but on a national test given in 2010, only 27 % of high school seniors demonstrated proficiency in the subject.”

–     From a Bloomberg Business Week 

The headline on the story was “Citizens Need to Take Citizenship Tests, Too,” and while the statistics are appalling (and support my position that many of the people who can vote, shouldn’t), they point to a major problem in business today, as well.

Too often we “check the box” on “training,” but don’t really validate that the education gets translated in to real, applicable knowledge.

Key word:  Applicable

Teaching story-telling skills without ever watching the team tell the story — doesn’t count.

Teaching accounting skills without making sure the counters of the beans understand the business of bean production — doesn’t work.

Teaching marketing skills and then not tracking the return on the marketing investment — means there is no return on the investment.

I candidly like the idea of requiring folks to pass a very basic citizenship test in order to vote.  And I love the idea of requiring leaders to make sure that whatever education they’re providing their team to be applicable and measurable.

“I don’t need your drama in my life (no more)
I don’t want your worry or your spite (no more)
And if it makes you mad, that’s really just too bad
It’s always such a waste of precious time
So, I don’t need your drama in my life”

–     Lyric from “Drama” by Cowboy Mouth

Fred’s lyrics often are both funny and compelling, and that’s the case here, for sure.  The catchy tune and hook (see Matt Jones teaching how to play it here) really help get this song stuck in your head, but the message should stick, too, for Difference Makers.

Unless we’re at the theatre, drama is almost always unnecessary and always virtually useless.  And, unless we’re at the theatre, it is always a waste of precious time.

If it’s our drama, we owe it to everyone else to put an end to it.  If it’s someone else’s drama, we owe it to ourselves to step away.

“To one who has Faith, no explanation is necessary.  To one without Faith, no explanation is possible.”

–               St. Thomas Aquinas

At the end of the day, what we believe dictates what we can accomplish.  What we Believe, dictates who we are.  What can be explained – well, that’s a sole product of the Faith we have in what we Believe.  That’s true in the work context, and it’s true on the broader canvas of life.

From time-to-time, non-Believing friends have asked me to explain Easter.

I used to try.

Now, I just tell them what I Believe.

“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.”

–               Frank Lloyd Wright

For me, Good Friday is tied with Easter Sunday for “most significant day” honors.

Faith and belief are inexorably linked, and completely dependent upon each other.  We have faith in each other.  We believe in ourselves.  These things all tie to our success in our careers.

The kind of Belief I have in mind with today’s DD ties to whatever you believe as it relates to a power far beyond your employer, your leader, or any human entity.  Whatever you believe, believe it without fail.  Believe it with passion.  Believe it to the point that it dominates your very being.

I choose to believe that 2015 years ago, a 30-year-old carpenter’s Belief raised the bar beyond where we can ever imagine.  I believe that 2015 years ago Sunday, He trumped his Friday performance just to make sure that we get it.  I wish we always did.

I’m not suggesting that you should believe what I Believe.  I’m simply suggesting that whatever you believe, if you do so with the goal being to get as close to that carpenter’s level of belief as you can, you needn’t try to make a difference.  You’ll simply make one.

Happy Easter for those of you who celebrate it.

“Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

–     John Wooden (1910 – 2010), legendary UCLA basketball coach

Ten national championships in twelve years.  88 consecutive wins over almost three seasons.  Consecutive, as in “in a row.”  Without losing.  Yikes.  99 years of life, and a wide wake of positive influence behind him.

March Madness?  More like Wooden Wizardry, and the cool thing is, many of Coach’s lessons go way beyond basketball.  This is one of them.

Wanna be a victim?  Talk about the way things turn out.  Wanna be a difference maker?  Make the most of the way things turn out.