Create Winning Habits | Jon Gordon's Soup

In the book Soup by Jon Gordon, Nancy was hired on as the new CEO of the Soup Inc.  She had to turn around a failing company that was filled with negativity and declining performances.

It really is a great read about how the power of relationships and building the right culture can change even the most toxic and negative teams and working environments.

Gordon wrote that the leader of the team creates and drives the culture, but every great team has many 'pot stirrers' who do the work of stirring the pot with a shared vision and purpose.  The leaders must set and share the vision, but it is the positive energy of your people that will make this vision a reality.  When you create the 'pot stirrers,' make sure that you are communicating with them, encouraging them, inspiring them, and developing them.  You can't just give them the vision; you have to make sure to help them (Soup, page 110)

Two of the things that Nancy and her team implemented were Winning Habits and Success Fridays.  Winning Habits is a document that she and her leadership team created to help them promote acceptable habits and to discourage unacceptable habits in the company.  The purpose was to create a more positive culture and an environment that would fuel performance.

Some of the desired habits included smiling at your coworker when you passed each other in the halls and sharing encouragement.

Some of the unacceptable habits included complaining without offering a solution (the 'No Complaining Rule) and being rude to a colleague or a customer.

Jon Gordon writes that having people in the company create these habits promotes buy-in from the team members.  

A lot of coaches talk about the importance of having the players take ownership of their team.  They have to buy-in and they have to learn how to hold themselves and each other accountable.  Having your team create certain habits that they all agree to buy-in to, like being on the court shooting before practice starts, or staying late after practice on certain days to run extra routes, can help them buy-in to doing things that will lead to performance and give them ownership over their team.

Success Fridays were implemented so that every Friday, members of the team shared success stories from the weak.  When we focus on the good going on with the team, we don't have time to focus on the bad.  By having team members looking for and sharing good things going on, you create teams of pot stirrers who help celebrate each other and who help each other grow and be better.

This book is a great read for coaches taking over new programs or coaches wanting to change the culture of the program that they are already leading.