9 Ways To Be A Great Team Member

One of my favorite authors and favorite follows on twitter is Jon Gordon. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't learn something from him. He quotes invoke so much personal reflection. They make you think about the person you are and want to become. 4 months to the day, he shared his 9 Ways to Be a Great Team Member piece on his blog. This is a must read for anyone who is part of team, whether in a business or a sports related field. The list and full explanations of each can be found here. 

1. Set the Example - Decide to set the example and show your team members what hard work, passions, and commitment looks like.

2. Use Your Strengths to Help the Team - Without your effort, focus, talent, and growth the team won't accomplish its mission. Be selfish by developing you and unselfish by making sure your strengths serve the team.

3. Share Positive Contagious Energy - When you share positive energy you infectiously enhance the mood, morale and performance of your team. Remember, negativity is toxic.

4. Know and Live the Magic Ratio - Teams that experience positive interactions at a ratio equal or greater that 3:1 are more productive and higher performing than those with a ratio less than 3:1.

5. Put the Team First - Whatever it takes to make the team better. Your ego must be subservient to the mission and purpose of the team.

6. Build Relationships - You can be the smartest person in the room but if you don't connect with others you will fail as a team member.

7. Trust and Be Trusted - Trust is earned through integrity, consistency, honesty, transparency, vulnerability and dependability.

8. Hold Them Accountable - Don't be afraid to hold your team members accountable. But remember to be effective you must build trust and a relationship with your team members.

9. Be Humble - If we are not humble we won't allow ourselves to be accountable. There's tremendous power in humility that makes us and our team better.

11 Lessons for Graduates and You

It's that time of the year where high schools are preparing for graduation. Here at UCF, we host numerous graduation practices and ceremonies for high schools around the area. I thought it was only right that I would dedicate a blog post to not only our graduates but to anyone looking to be a better employee/staff member. These 11 Lessons come from The Seed by Jon Gordon.

1. You are here for a reason and the most important thing you can do in life is to find, live and share your purpose. It’s the one thing in life that truly matters and if you don’t pursue it, everything else is meaningless. 2. Follow your passion. It so often leads you to your purpose. You may not know what your passion is right now. That’s ok. The important thing is to make it your life mission to find it, live it and share it. To help find your passion, seek out jobs and experiences that allow you to use your strengths and gifts. Do what energizes you. 3. Beware of hobbies. Just because you love spending time on Facebook doesn't mean you would enjoy working for the company. And just because you love to cook doesn't mean you would enjoy owning a restaurant. For example, I owned restaurants but I realized I didn't love the food business. I loved the service and marketing aspect of the business. 4. Quit for the right reasons. Don't quit because work is hard or you're experiencing challenges. Quit because in your heart you know there is something else for you to do. Quit because you are not benefitting yourself or the organization you work for. Quit because you are absolutely certain you are no longer supposed to be there. 5. Learn from every job and experience. Every job, good or bad, prepares you for the work you were ultimately born to do. 6.Your current job may not be your ultimate purpose but it can serve as a vehicle to live and share your purpose. 7. Whatever job(s) you take after graduation simply decide to serve. When you serve in small ways you'll get more opportunities to serve in bigger ways. 8. Your dream job is likely not the one you dreamed about. So often we end up in amazing careers that have nothing to do with our college degree or childhood dreams. 9. The quest for your purpose is not a straight line. It is filled with mystery, signs, obstacles, victories, dead ends, delays and detours. Your job is to stay optimistic and faithful on your quest. 10. Don't rush the future. There is a process that seeds must go through in order to become all they are destined to become, and you must go through this same process to become the person you are meant to be and do the work you are meant to do. You may want things to happen NOW but more than likely if you got what you wanted NOW you wouldn't be ready for it. The purpose process prepares you, strengthens you, shapes you and grows you to be successful, not in your time, but in the right time. 11. Be the Seed. Seeds surrender themselves to the ground so they can be used for a greater purpose. Wherever you work, decide to plant yourself where you are and allow yourself to be used for a greater purpose. When you plant yourself and make a difference you grow into the person you were born to be and produce a harvest that will benefit others and change the world.

10 Tips To Be Your Best

1. THE BEST KNOW WHAT THEY WANT

I think a lot of people spend their life being average or good at something, but they don't strive to be great. The best of the best not only know what they want, but they want it more.

2. THE BEST WANT IT MORE

We cannot measure desire in terms of merely thought and wishes. The best not only do the things that others won't do and invest the time others won't invest, but they do so with passion and intent to get better. The best are never satisfied with where they are.

3. THE BEST ARE ALWAYS STRIVING TO BE BETTER

If you are striving to get better, then you are always growing. And if you are always growing, then you are not comfortable. To be the best, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable, and embrace it as a part of your growth process. The best see where there is room for improvement and their humility and passion drives them to improve. The average ones however, don't see it or don't want to see it. The fact is past success does not determine future success. Future success is the result of how you work and prepare and practice and how you strive to improve every day. It's a commitment that the best of the best make every week, every day, every hour, and every moment. Force yourself to be uncomfortable.

4. THE BEST DO ORDINARY THINGS BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE

Work hard on the right things. It means you must identify the very "little things" that are fundamental to your success, and then you must focus on them, practice them, and strive to execute them to perfection.

5. THE BEST ZOOM-FOCUS

There is no secret recipe. If you incrementally improve each day, each week, each month, by the end of the year you'll see remarkable results and growth. When you zoom-focus on the process, the outcome takes care of itself. Master the fundamentals.

6. THE BEST ARE MENTALLY STRONGER

Being mentally strong means you stay positive through adversity. It means you are resilient when facing pressure, challenges and change. Weed and feed: Each day you need to weed out negativity and feed it positivity. You need to weed out the self-doubt and negative talk and feed it positive thoughts, memories and visuals.

7. THE BEST OVERCOME THEIR FEARS

Those that succeed, those that reach the pinnacle of greatness, are able to face this battle (overcoming fear) and win.

8. THE BEST SEIZE THE MOMENT

When the best are in the midst of their performance they are not thinking ‘What if I win?’ or ‘What if I lose?’ They are not interested in what the moment produces, but they are only concerned with what they produce in the moment. Rather than hiding from pressure, they rise to the occasion. As a result, the best define the moment rather than letting the moment define them.

9. THE BEST LEAVE A LEGACY

You leave a legacy by living and working with a bigger purpose, you leave a legacy by making your life about more than just you. You leave a legacy by moving from success to significance.

10. THE BEST MAKE EVERYONE AROUND THEM BETTER

The point is to strive to be your best and inspire others to be their best, because it's in the striving where you find greatness, not in the outcome.

From "Training Camp" by Jon Gordon 

5 Ways to Love Your Passengers

5 ways to Love your Passengers:

1) Make Time for Them – Spend time with your team. Meet with them individually. Get to know them as people, not numbers. And while you are with them. Be engaged in the present moment. Don’t be thinking about 10 things you have to do that day or the 10 other people you need to meet with. Really be with that person and focus your energy on them

2) Listen to Them – Empathy is the key. Listen with your heart and care about what they have to say. When you ask someone how they are doing, an easy way to show you are listening is to actually wait for the answer and make eye contact.

3) Recognize Them – Praise your players when they are doing things right. The more you recognize them for doing things right the more they will do things right. Feed the positive dog inside them and watch it grow.

4) Serve Them – The higher you get in an organization the more it is your duty to serve the people below you rather than having the people below you serve. The key is to serve their growh, their future, their career, and their spirits so they enjoy work, life, and being on your bus. The more you serve their growth the more they will help you grow.

5) Bring Out The Best In Them – The best way any leader can demonstrate their love for their team is to help each person discover their strengths and provide an opportunity for that person to utilize them. 


From "The Energy Bus" by Jon Gordon 

Jon Gordon's Energy Bus - Law of Attraction

"The Law of Attraction – The more we focus on something, the more we think about something, the more it shows up in our lives."

"What we think about, we attract. What we think about expands and grows. What we put our energy and attention to starts to show up more in our life. And the energy we project through our thoughts is the energy we receive."

Jon Gordon's The Energy Bus

As I finish typing up my Jay Bilas Toughness book notes, I will be starting on my next set of book notes: The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon.

Our Head Coach Joi Williams assigned our players and our staff to read this book during the year. Everyone loved it! Jon Gordon's books are simple reads with a powerful message. It takes you through a story about man who's struggling to find happiness in his daily life. But once he hops on the "Energy Bus" he begins to see things turn around.

As I type of my book notes I will be sharing some of my favorite thoughts.