Build The Winning Team

While I'm not a sports fanatic I do enjoy watching a game or two a week on TV and I read the sports pages most days. I find that I am particularly interested in the dynamics of winning. Occasionally a team, that usually resides in the basement of their league for decades will catch fire for a one year or two, dominate their sport for a short time, then fade back to their normal place at the back of the pack. The thing that really impresses me however is how some teams are able to win or contend for the championship most years. It's not because they are lucky. It's because of focused leadership. It's the same thing in business.

I see great companies leading their industries year after year, decade after decade. They aren't lucky either. They become focused on executing their core skills and values to perfection every day and, at the same time, planning how they will continue to extend their brand(s) to grow and continue to dominate their marketplace in the future. They lead their industries because of focused, visionary leadership inspiring the company as it moves towards the future.

Great leadership in sports and in business is more than cheer leading or motivating the staff. It is more than responding to the issues on the playing field each "game day." It is more than recruiting future teams or creating future products. Great leadership is an assemblage of vision, inspirational communications skills, consistency, strategy design and execution. It is knowing what you need to do in order to succeed and figuring out how to get it done. It is the ability to leverage the total skills of the organization in order to win the challenge of today while preparing to win the challenges of tomorrow no matter what the competition throws at you.

Great leaders do not become complacent with temporary success but are focused on building the skills of the team, valuing every staff member's contribution, giving credit to great performance and moving forward constantly in order to build the winning team for today and tomorrow. Great leaders lead!

Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, "Front Lines with Larry Galler" For a free coaching session, email Larry for an appointment - Larry@larrygaller.com Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com

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