The Culture Code: Culture is Key

Great teams have three things:

• Great leadership
• Great people
• A great culture

Culture is the glue that holds everything together. Culture is what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. Anytime I work with a team, one of my biggest goals is helping them become the most connected team they can be by helping them create a stronger, more defined culture.

Daniel Coyle wrote one of the best books on culture that I have read titled The Culture Code. He says culture is living relationships moving towards a goal together.

How do you create a championship culture where everyone can thrive?

Daniel Coyle says you have to have three things:

• Direction
• Connection
• Shared information

Direction is defining where we want to go, what we want to do, and how we want to do it. Direction is defining the kind of culture we want to have. The leader defines the direction with the help of the team by learning what everyone wants to get out of working together and combining it with the goals, values, and expectations of the group.

Connection is bringing people together. When the culture is strong, people grow more connected when facing adversity, and when it’s weak, people pull or tear apart when facing adversity. You build connection by spending time together talking and being around each other, especially in spaces that have nothing to do with work.

Shared information comes from a having a culture of feedback where we can coach each other and be coached. It’s our ability to bring our own thoughts, opinions, and experiences to the team to figure out what is best for everyone. The best cultures create a safe environment where people feel confident and empowered to speak up.

Culture is like trust: It is built in drops but lost in buckets. It is also like a fire. It takes time to build and start and you have to put in the work to keep it going. But if it goes out, you can always get it back by doing the work it took to build it in the first place.

Culture is the difference maker that helps teams go from bad to good and from good to great. Have a goal to be the most connected team you can be by having a strong culture.

Something to Think About

1. What kind of culture do you want o lead or be a part of?
2. When are you and your team at your best?
3. When are you and your team at your worst?
4. How can you create a culture where you are operating at your best as often as possible?

To listen to the podcast, click here: 3 Crucial Methods to Increase Work Productivity & How to Unlock Individual Success Through Collaboration

The Ultimate Nick Saban Speech: Vision, Process, and Discipline

Vision, process, and discipline.

Those are the three things Coach Saban said every great leader and team needs to be successful.

Vision, process, and discipline.

Greatness starts with having a great vision for what you want to do and accomplish. The process is what you do to make your dreams a reality and how you do it.

The process is the work.

The most important part is having the discipline to keep showing up and do what you know you need to, no matter how you feel. This is where most people fail. The hard part is staying disciplined and sticking to the process.

Vision, process, discipline.

The hard part is staying disciplined and sticking to the process. Coach Saban says it is not human nature to be great, human nature is just to survive. Being great games consistency and performance, but as soon as we get a little success, we want to breathe and take a break.

Too often we let outside forces distract us or knock us off track:

• It’s too hard
• We get bored
• We don’t feel like it
• We get distracted
• We are afraid of failing
• We can overcome failure
• You have to be relentless if you want to be great.

One of my favorite stories Coach Saban told was about two boxers and the power of being relentless. One of the fighters was a grinder like Rocky - not very talented or skilled but had a lot of heart. The other fighter was talented and skilled but didn’t train as hard and wasn’t as tough. The talented fighter started strong, but because he didn’t train, he couldn’t sustain, and the less talented fighter ended up beating him. After the fight, the less talented fighter said he was getting beaten so badly and hit so hard that if he was hit one more time in his ribs, he was going to quit. But he never got hit again.

If you’re a relentless competitor, you won’t quit. You never know what the other person is thinking. Keep playing the next play, stay with what you need to do to be all you need to be, and be relentless.

How Do We Get People to Do This?

Coach Saban says you have to get to know the people lead and what their goals are, then tie their behaviors to their goals. Leadership and coaching are getting people to do things they don’t want to do so they can achieve the things they want.

Coach Saban says he defines his job as a leader as to provide the leadership and develop the relationship to help people take advantage of their opportunities and help them establish the discipline they need to do it. It’s about helping somebody else or affecting somebody else for their benefit.

And he says it starts with building strong relationships because they have to know you care. It’s hard to affect people if they don’t know you care.

Vision, process, and discipline.

Our jobs as leaders and coaches are to help create a strong enough vision for themselves and the team so they are motivated to act, create a process that will help them be successful, and then hold them accountable to the discipline that it takes to stick to the plan and process.

Watch the video to hear and learn more: The Ultimate Nick Saban Speech