Extreme Dreams Depend on Teams - Pat Williams

‘A person is a person through other persons. A person with Ubuntu is open available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole.’ - Desmond Tutu

That is the essence of what it means to be a team: I can't be alI I can be unless you are all you can be.

Aim high and dream big dreams but know that you can’t achieve them by yourself. Dream builders are team builders. Extreme dreams really do depend on teams. You have to assemble the right teams in order to turn your dreams into reality.

If you could get all the people in an organisation to run in the same direction, you could dominate the industry - in any market, against any competition, at any time.

When people come together and set aside their individual needs for the good of the whole, they are able to accomplish what seemed to be “impossible” on paper.

‘Nothing happens unless first a dream.’ - Carl Sandburg

Key players with outstanding character and a good attitude always lift the performance of the whole team.

It takes five guys on the basketball court to put points on the scoreboard, but it takes an entire community to lift those five guys.

Big, bold, and extreme dreams capture the imagination and fire the enthusiasm. When people believe they are involved in something big, they are willing to sacrifice to make it happen.

Fun fuels great teams. When team players enjoy their work, they don't see it as work, they see it as fun.

Always reward team attitude and team effort.

Principles

1. Top Talent builds extreme dreams
2. Great Leaders build extreme dreams
3. Commitment builds extreme dreams
4. Passion builds extreme dreams
5. Thinking Teams builds extreme dreams
6. Empowered Individuals build extreme dreams
7. Respect and Trust build extreme dreams

1. TOP TALENT BUILDS EXTREME DREAMS

TALENT, TALENT, TALENT! Without great talent, you cannot rise above mediocrity.

Never go into the game unless you have better players than your opponent has.

• You have to have talent in order to compete
• Every player has to be custom fitted to the role.

To assemble a winning team, you have to choose your players well. You might need to stick with the decision you’re about to make for a long time to come, so make sure it is a decision you can live with. Don't let people or circumstances stampede you into a disastrous long-term choice in shaping your team.

Having the wrong person in a slot is worse than having no person in that slot. The wrong person will throw your team out of balance, make it dysfunctional, and destroy team chemistry. In such cases, the best way to add to your team is by subtraction.

You need to help everyone on your team in developing ownership of the decided outcome.

Don't use your 10 best players, use your best 10 players.

When a coach is seen as a role-player in the game, you can literally see a wave of enthusiasm and energy rubble through the team. Sometimes that is the mystical moment when the games’ momentum shifts.

2. GREAT LEADRES BUILD EXTREME DREAMS

When you are a leader of a team, you never know what new problems will land on your plate each day. All you know is that you’d better be ready to solve them.

What constitutes great leaders?

1. They are visionary.
2. Have great communication skills.
3. Great people skills.
4. Strong character.
5. Competence (they are able to play the game, able to compete.)
6. Boldness (they must be decisive and daring.)
7. Servanthood. (It is not about being the boss, it is about being a servant.) You can serve the team by helping them grow and win as individuals.) But the end-goal should be their growth, not the win.

You are not a leader if success is all about you and your performance and your contributions. Leadership is not about raising your hand, being called upon, or delivering the right answers. Becoming a leader changes everything. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. It is about making (growing) your people to be smarter, bigger and bolder. Nothing you do as an individual matters anymore, except if you nurture and support your team and help its members increase their self-confidence.

‘When placed in command, take charge.’ - General H Norman Schwarkopf

The leader is a problem solver, salesman, teacher, organiser, change agent, crisis manager, and more.

How do you become competent in all these areas? There is only one way: through experience. A team will follow a leader with a strong track record, because competence inspires confidence. Teams want to be led by proven winners.

‘Decision is a sharp knife that cuts clean and straight; indecision, a dull one that hacks and tears and leaves ragged edges behind it.’ - Gordon Graham

'Courage is fear that has said its prayers.’ - Dorothy Bernard

Courage is not a feeling. It is a decision, the decision to do the right thing in spite of our fears.

Bold leaders don't wait for events and circumstances to turn in their favour. They take the initiative and control the future. They continually locate it, see what's on the horizon, and seize the moment before it arrives.

3. COMMITMENT BUILDS EXTREME DREAMS

‘If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?’ - Joe Namath

Great teams are committed teams. Players must be committed to one another, to the coach, and to the extreme dream.

If you put on the uniform but you're not committed to the common dream, then you are an imposter. If you're not 100% committed to your team, then please do everyone a favour and walk away.

‘We don't take applications, only commitments.’ - United States Marine Corps billboard recruiting advertisement.

Half-hearted ‘commitment’ will cure your dream faster than any obstacle or opposition.

‘One person with the commitment is worth more than 100 people who only have an interest.’ - Mary Cowley

‘Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. It is the only thing that ever has.’ - Margaret Mead

4. PASSION BUILDS EXTREME DREAMS

Winning is the ultimate prize, and it takes hard work to achieve it. It is hard to win without having a passion for the game.

You have to get everyone on your team in ‘THE ZONE!’

Passion shows.

‘An army is a team. Thus, it lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure foolish. Every single man in this army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and you must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war.’ - Gen George S Patton (shortly before D-Day.)

5. THINKING TEAMS BUILD EXTREME DREAMS

The most difficult thing to teach players is how to get away from being themselves and get with the program. You need four or five guys who force others to comply.

Ubuntu = “I am because we are.”

The concept of Ubuntu emphasises humility and unselfishness, encouragement and empowerment of others, a sense of connectedness with the team, and a recognition that the individual succeed only when the whole team succeeds. To practice ubuntu is to think team at all times. Ubuntu enables a team of diverse personalities and diversified skills to unite around a common goal and shared values.

‘ Exercising your ego in public is definitely not the way to build an effective organisation.’ - Sam Walton

‘None of us is as smart as all of us.’

I can learn more about people by playing a three-on-three game with them for 20 minutes than I can by talking with them for a week.

You can't have teamwork without unconditional love.

6. EMPOWERED INDIVIDUALS BUILD EXTREME DREAMS

Bosses like to maintain ‘command and control.’ But leaders love to see their players take control of the situation.

Real genius does not lie in personal achievement, but in unleashing the talents of others.

How to Empower Others:

1. Tell your people you believe in them.
2. When your people talk, listen.
3. Build your people up, don't tear them down.
4. When tempted to tear someone down, bite your tongue.
5. Always be truthful.
6. Say thank you.
7. Don't dispense empty praise
8. Remember that everybody needs encouragement from time to time.

7. RESPECT & TRUST BUILDS EXTREME DREAMS

8. STRONG CHARACTER BUILDS EXTREME DREAMS

‘Whatever the character traits required for a team to excel, the team leader should be the best example of those traits.’ - Anthony J. Le Storti

A strong work ethic is contagious. One hard working team member can elevate the work ethic of an entire team.

I have learned that people are the way they are because they want to be that way. We rationalise and give all kinds of reasons that it’s not true, but bottom line: You are choosing to be who you are.