“Great teams have great depth.” John C. Maxwell

How’s your bench doing? If you’re developing a sports team, you know bench players are crucial to your success. The same is true for any team. There are 5 truths you need to know about bench players:

• They are tomorrow’s stars- if they’re trained well now, you have more success later
• They multiply the starter’s performance- use them as much as possible in practice situations and the team will win
• There are more people on the bench than there are starters/leaders- not all bench players will turn into starters; you need to know how to identify and develop the right bench players
• A well-placed bench player is more effective than a great starter- a bench player with only one or two great skills can add huge value to your team, especially in clutch situations
• A strong bench equals more options- you can develop plans with greater flexibility, especially in times of challenge or struggle

What’s...

“Great teams have great depth.” John C. Maxwell

Leaders tend to focus on their top performers, their starter players. And for good reason! It’s important to focus 80% of your time on the top 20% of performers to maximize your team’s results.

You see this often in larger companies and businesses. They conduct training on increasing performance and larger leadership ideas with their top people and their leadership team, while the bench players of the team get training on compliance issues.

But what if one of your top performers leaves the team? Do you have a plan to replace them?

If you don’t focus on your bench players and develop them, you could find yourself hurting.

Here are a few thoughts to consider…

• Who steps up in times of need and fills in during short term projects?
• Who stays after and goes over and above their job duties?
• Who seems the most curious about what happens in and with the team?
• Who volunteers to do extra work and/or learn...

What you sow, you will reap. You don’t plant a corn seed and get spinach! The same is true for leadership.

What you plant inside your people will grow into maturity.

I coached a young and inexperienced leader several years ago; she was younger than everyone on her team. She believed that no one would listen to her because of her age and lack of experience. That belief drove her behavior. She showed up to meetings and didn’t talk. She let people make their own schedules even though it didn’t benefit the team. She never said anything about the problem behaviors she saw.

I think you can imagine the results!

She slowly realized the seeds she planted in her team by looking at those results (i.e. her crop). She had to take a long look at herself, her beliefs, how she wanted to show up. As we worked with her, she began planting better seeds (words of encouragement, facilitating discussions, approaching problems).

The more she sowed good seed, the better crop she got, and...

"The present and future depend on learning new habits and new ways of looking at old problems." J. A. Schindler

Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that got you there.”

Unfortunately, science proves that somewhere between 90 and 95% of our daily behavior comes from our auto-pilot, our subconscious brain, not our rational thinking brain. This shows up when you tie your shoes, change the toilet paper roll, drive to work, etc.

This happens with teams, too. Over time you develop patterns of thinking, politics, habits that run your work. Shared thinking where ideas are plentiful can turn into group thinking where everyone thinks the same. This keeps a team STUCK!

Until you begin thinking in new ways, you’ll always get the same results. Sometimes, bringing in an outside perspective can help the most. On our LIVE Teaching Call, we’ll focus on 10 principles of thinking that can help you as an individual and your team move forward....