I’ve run the vaunted Marathon des Sables. I’ve run the Western States 100. I’ve been a top producer at Lee & Associates for 25 years. What is tougher than any of these? Building a world-class team.
For the last three decades, I have been building teams. My personal team, The Coppola-Cheney Group, and companies that I have invested in through Habanero Ventures. Building teams is WORK. Every day, every week, every year for decades. When I saw Urban Meyer weigh in on the topic below, I had to read the article and listen to the podcast.
Where do we start with teams? Finding the right people. Duh. Forget skills—we have hired for skills in the past and have been disappointed.
So what are we looking for? Only two kinds of people:
The Committed—They show up, they do their job and if you have the right culture and right people, they can become Compelled.
The Compelled—These are the A-team. They come in early, stay late, get sh*t done. Build your team with these and you can change the world…and dominate your market in the process.
Simple right? I have created a presentation exactly on this topic and would love to share it with you and your company via Zoom conference. Please reach out if you are interested.
Good luck.
Rule #4 from my book The Fantastic Life: All of Life is Connected
You may have heard that the people you surround yourself with are the biggest indicator of your future success. This couldn’t be more true. Your friends, family, and work teams are critical to your success.
Urban Meyer’s 4 Types Of Employees And Which Ones A Leader Should Focus Their Energy On
By Brian Dodd
July 18, 2020
“The objective is to build a great team. How do you build a great team? Get more compelled people than your opponent.” – Urban Meyer
One of my favorite podcasts is the Focus 3 Podcast with Tim Kight and Urban Meyer. Tim is the founder and CEO of Focus 3, a firm whose mission is to help companies around the world align the power of leadership, culture, and behavior to achieve exceptional results. Coach Meyer is one of the most successful head coaches in college football history having won three national championships. Together, they discuss the fundamentals of building exceptional teams, organizations, and people. This podcast is amazing!!!
In episode #57, these two discuss the power of focused energy. As part of this discussion, Coach Meyer identifies the following 4 Types Of Employees And Which Ones A Leader Should Focus Their Energy On along with supporting comments:
Make sure you also check out 24 Lessons From Urban Meyer On Building A Winning Culture.
Cynical
- “They’ve quit but haven’t left.” – TK
- “Sarcasm and cynicism is cowardice.” – UM
- “They kill a program. They undermine things. As a leader, you have to end it right now.” – UM
- “Disregard the cynical… You have to move on from them.” – UM
Compliant
- “The ones checking the box. They’re doing just enough to get by… They’re managing the optics.” – TK
- “They’re susceptible to the gravitation pull of the cynical.” – TK
- “The cynic or the sarcastic always look for low-hanging fruit, the ones who don’t stand for anything.” – UM
- “If you have too many of them, you’re looking at an average organization.” – UM
Committed
- “They do their job… They’re the steady producers. They’re the ones you can count on.” – TK
- “These are the bulk of people in a good organization. You need them.” – TK
- “The committed reach the maximum level of their skill set and that’s about where they stop because it gets uncomfortable.” – UM
- “They don’t embrace the discomfort yet they are very good employees. They reach the maximum point of their skill set and they stop.” – UM
- “The laser lights need to be on the committed and bring them up to the compelled.” – UM
Compelled
- “These are the energy givers. They come early, stay late. They go the extra mile. They believe from the heart. The committed people are committed from the mind, the head. The compelled people deeply believe from the heart level.” – TK
- “The committed perform at their talent level. The compelled perform beyond their talent level.” – TK
- “They embrace the discomfort of stepping out of their norm.” – UM
- “A committed guy can change. You can push a committed person to compelled if you surround them with right infrastructure, the right people.” – UM
- “The committed will help you have success. The compelled are the most powerful people in your organization. Harness their power to attack the committed.” – UM
- “People want to be around them. They want to be like them. They’re your best workers. They’re likely your highest paid. They probably have really good lives because they’re workers. Their self-respect and discipline are incredible. Those are the elites.” – UM
- “You harness the power (of the compelled) to go get the committed.” – UM
- “They influence others around them to be better.” – TK
- “Compelled people like to be around other compelled people because it’s enjoyable. It’s fun.” – UM
- “Teach your compelled employees… these elite people… the best, ask them to put a plan together to let’s go get the committed. One at a time. And all of a sudden you wake up one morning and you go from a small percentage of compelled people to a large percentage.” – UM
- “The objective is to build a great team. How do you build a great team? Get more compelled people than your opponent.” – UM
So here your action item – Remove your cynics. Limit your number of compliants. Put a laser on your committeds. And then harness the power of your compelleds to go get the committeds, invest in them, and raise them up to being compelleds as well.
And once again, Coach Meyer said, “The objective is to build a great team. How do you build a great team? Get more compelled people than your opponent.” You do that by raising up more committeds to compelleds.