S2 E70: Leadership Lessons from #ChampaBay

Tampa Bay. In years past no one would’ve predicted that my new hometown would be a championship city like it is today. With winning hockey, baseball, and football teams, this has been a fantastic 5 months of sports!  

Whether you are a sports fan or not, those championship teams also have winning leadership and business lessons.

In this episode, you’ll get:

• The dark side of blindly believing business mantras
• The leadership insights you can take from #ChampaBay
• 3 Lessons every champion needs to learn
• How a daily text message created a championship mindset
• One reason LOVE drives results 

And, you’ll hear the secret to Super Bowl Success that you can apply in your business TODAY.

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Transcript

Winston Faircloth: 0:00

Part of his approach was simple daily text messages through repetition and inspiration to create a positive mindset. You don't see grown men of that size. Talking about love as the glue as the key to a championship team. Well, no, my ears perked up when I heard that it's so true. Hey there multipliers. It's Winston Faircloth, and welcome back to Episode 70 of the for love team. This is the podcast where leaders simplify teamwork, helping you surround yourself with others doing the work they love, simplifying business processes, so that you can serve more focused on the work that you love. Last time I shared my Confessions of a level two leader and hear it for love of team, our mission is that every business owner not make the same mistakes I've done and get stuck at a level two leader as I did as becoming the founding CEO of a social tech enterprise that had revenue of over $4 million plus per year at Rp. And as a reminder, level two leaders love their clients and products sometimes to the detriment of their team. And when I was running this social technology enterprise, I became hooked on the mantras clients always right. And customers are number one. And you know, this is something that we are taught all the time and leadership. There's even hold departments focused on customer care. And yes, happy customers are the lifeblood of every business. They're the reason we create the products and solutions. They pay our bills, they fund our teams, they expand our reach yet there is a dark side to loving clients to the exclusion of your team. And I cover all of that in the last episode. So if you're new to the podcast, make sure to check that out. So today I'd like to turn our attention to building championship teams. And as many of you know, a few years ago, I left the snowy Midwest and moved here to Tampa Bay, Florida when I was serving as a technology and change management consultant. It's funny what you remember from business travels. And one morning, almost five years ago this week, I was having breakfast during one of my consulting visits here when it was announced on TV that Tampa had been awarded a future Super Bowl. And I remember thinking at the time, it would be so cool to live in a town hosting such a huge global event. And then when the very next story was about an upcoming strawberry festival during February, I thought huh maybe this is the next place I could make my home, especially as I took my cup of coffee outside into the 70 degree morning in late February. This could be the place we'll fast forward to February 2021. And over the last five months air region has become the home for championship sports. The Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League made their entire postseason run in playoff bubble setup in Canada, hoisting the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history just back in September, and then the following month, the major league baseball season came to an end with our Tampa Bay Rays capturing their second American League pennant in a bubble setting in California before losing to the LA Dodgers in six games during a neutral site World Series played in Texas and then just earlier this month in February, the Bucs first NFL title in 18 years was especially sweet because they want three consecutive road playoff games to become the first team in league history play a Super Bowl in their home stadium. Now there's a funny hashtag that's kind of making the rounds around Tampa and now we're calling ourselves Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay ch a MPa ba why Tampa Bay is become a unifying statement of championship teams across the three of the most popular professional sports leagues in just five months. And because of the pandemic Tampa's also the temporary home of the Toronto Raptors National Basketball Association franchise and they are certainly capable of bringing another title to Tampa home later this year. But today's episode is not just about sports, I want to really draw out some lessons from building championship teams. And there's several lessons I think from the Bucs unlikely path to the crown that I just wanted to share with you today. And remember, as they entered the playoffs, they were only the sixth most likely team to even go to the Super Bowl. So over this run playoff run, I've learned a lot about the team culture of the Bucs and what led to a turnaround from a seven and nine season a year ago to World Champions today. over these last few weeks, I've been listening to lots of player and coach interviews and I think there are three keys that have emerged from those interviews. key number one identity coach Bruce Arians in the front office understood, they had a lot of young talent on their roster from the prior season, and that young talent included a former number one draft pick, quarterback, jameis Winston, and yet with all of that talent, the team lost more games than they won in 2019. Because of sloppy play, lack of attention to details and unfortunately untimely errors. offseason enter the missing piece. Tom Brady, who decided to make Tampa his home in early 2020. He had left a 20 year career in the New England area, take on a new challenge, a new mountain in his career. And while he brought his considerable championship experience, he instilled something much more important to this championship, run some more quote Coach ariens here during one of his interviews, co chairing and said I knew how good a football team we had. What we were missing was a belief that we were good enough. This was a very talented football team, but we really didn't know how to win. I think the biggest thing about Brady is that he's just one of the guys in two year a guy of his stature. You really don't know his personality on a daily basis. He does such a great job of working with the younger players. It's like having another coach on the field. And what sets Brady apart. Great quarterbacks have the ability to will themselves on to others to make sure everybody's bought into the cause of putting a championship into your trophy case, Tom brings the attitude every single day and it permeates the entire locker rooms. Here's the quote, air guys believed it and it changes our entire football team. And while the Bucs added several key players mostly on offense, the biggest change to the team was the culture of belief belief that they were good enough and belief in one another, the identity of a champion. Key to inspiration. Now Superbowl weeks are notorious for lots of distractions. There are tons of media interviews, their sponsor responsibilities, engagements, there's parties, there's just a lot of buzz. And with the pandemic this this winter, the stakes were even higher, that in inadvertent contact with our town, family or friends could shut down key players with COVID testing or worse so staying focused on the why on the mission was very important. Critical and Brady demonstrated inspirational leadership throughout the run to the Super Bowl. And during the pandemic he resorted to an interesting way to inspire his team. Part of his approach in the run up to the Super Bowl was simple. Daily text messages as buccaneers running back Leonard fournette noted in his postgame press conference, Brady used repetition and inspiration to create a positive mindset. So here's four nets quote, It felt great. Just knowing his resume and understanding why he wins all week he made us believe we were going to win. He was texting us at 11 o'clock at night. With five simple words. We will win this game. Imagine getting a nightly text message several nights in a row with five simple words. We will win this game for now it goes on to say we believed in him. We believed in the play calling what the coaches were calling and we just ran with it. Well getting a nightly text message from someone who's lifted six championship trophies before that would get my attention. You bet I'd follow their lead and what an inspirational leader to keep people singularly focused on the why the mission with inspirational quotes. The third key love several times in the interviews Coach ariens talked about the camaraderie, the chemistry the closeness of the team members. And this was accomplished despite the fact of not being able to connect in person and hang out with your teammates during the pandemic and after the Super Bowl. fournette was asked about the difference between a championship team like the one he's on now. And other NFL teams that are trying to beat one fournet, if you don't know, was a late addition to the team coming over from Jacksonville after being cut from the team not having a home not having a place to play and to work in the craft that he had been developing. So this quote, grabbed my attention because it's not something you often hear grown men playing a physical sport often say, when he was asked about his move to Tampa fournette said, the head coach the organization, you want to play ball with people who treated me like they love me. When I first got here, they showed me love the coaches, the players, everyone is aligned to that vision. So why not give it your all? And it was a mic drop moment for me you don't see grown men of that size. Talking about love as the glue as the key to a championship team? Well, you know, my ears perked up when I heard that. And it's so true. Why not give it your all when you're part of a team that's on aligned mission aligned to purpose, who has inspirational leaders who embody an identity of a champion, and fournette was easily one of the best players on the field during this playoff run. He was propelled, ultimately, my belief, my words, not his he was propelled by for love of team. So three keys to building your championship team, instilling an identity of a champion, following it up with inspiring why surrounded in a culture of love. Don't just take it from me. Take it from the teams in Tampa Bay. So Fred, I'm curious about where you are on the journey of building a championship team that you love. I believe this is the path that ultimately multiplies your impact your income, your margin, and your freedom and business. Imagine a world where you are surrounding yourself with others doing the work they love, simplifying your business processes so that you can serve more focused on the work you love. And that broad is available to you as the founder. It just takes focus and intentionality. Make sure to check out the show notes for a special invitation for six to eight founders to come together in person at our family's beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in May 2021. It's going to be a amazing, immersive experience. hand selected six to eight founders, we're really going to talk about how you build a championship team offer these principles. I'd love to have you be part of it. If that sounds like something you're interested in our invites you to text me right now at 1-754-800-9461. And by the way, this is this numbers for your challenges, your comments, your feedback, I really would love to connect with you. There's no autoresponders or bots on the other end is just me, not my team. I'd love to hear from you. This us text number again is 1-754-800-9461. And if you prefer, just call them leave a voice message that's 1-754-800-9461. And remember, leaders simplified teamwork, which multiplies your impact your income, your margin and your freedom and business. A championship team is within grasp, you just have to pursue it. I'll talk to you on the next podcast.