MY TEAM
Urban Meyer recently chastised first-year coaches for making excuses for poor performances by their players in their first season with a new team.
"It's like a new generation of excuse... Everybody wanted me to say Jim Tressel left the cupboard bare... If I heard any assistant coach [say that], they'd be gone. You're done. Those are your players. I hear TV guys [say], 'Wait until they get their own players in there.' They're our players. What do you mean 'their players?' The minute you sign a contract, they're your players. You didn't choose me, I chose you. You're mine, absolutely."
He made some very strong points that I believe all leaders ought to embrace. First, he pointed out that the moment you accept the job/challenge/responsibility it is no longer the previous administration's issue, it is now YOUR issue. It is no longer their team, it is YOUR team. They are no longer another leader's players or associates, they are YOURS!
I love this and I am fortunate to say I own it as well. Over the course of my career I have been blessed to have the opportunity to inherit multiple departments or organizations that were struggling. I mean really struggling. Poor performance. Low morale. High turnover. The works.
From the moment I accept the challenge of taking on a new department or organization my language immediately changes. I refer to it as "my department" and "my team". The second you agree to it, you lose the right to blame others for its performance. If you cannot refer to your new employees as YOUR employees or your new department as YOUR department, then you haven't truly committed and cannot be successful.
People aren't stupid (well, not all of them). They can quickly sniff out if you are genuine or not and if you are not, you will never win their support. They will never give you their best and will undermine you every step of the way. You are either all-in or you are doomed to fail. If you don't like them, then get rid of them, but don't blame others for them.
Second, there are no excuses, there are only solutions. Tim Tebow said this of Meyer, "...yeah, I do think it's something that drives him a little bit insane. He gets frustrated with it. Listen, I played with him for four years, and he's someone that does not want to hear excuses -- from his assistant coaches, from the university he's at, to his players: especially his quarterback. He never wanted me to come and say "I didn't get it done because this, this or this." He just wanted me to come with solutions. That's the type of coach that he is. And he wants everybody that's around him to be solution-oriented, not excuse-oriented. That's something that drives his coaches to be great and drives his players to be great. So that's who he is."
Be a solutions-oriented leader and encourage that in those you lead. Reward those who come with solutions and chastise those who come with excuses. Nothing riles me more than associates who come up with excuses as to why something can or couldn't be done.
Once you agree to lead, you lead. You own it. It's yours now and how it turns out is on you. You can't get a little bit wet, you have to dive all-in. Too many "leaders" today want the title, they want the compensation, and they want the prestige, but they don't want the accountability or the responsibility. They are called failures. Don't be that leader!
