At the end of a recent coaching session with the management team of a large dealership, where the focus was teamwork, or lack thereof, the Finance Director came up to me, thanked me for the materials I had shared, and captured the essence of why so many dealerships are dysfunctional and struggle with teamwork, when he said, “we’re all mercenaries.”

I had been contemplating similar thoughts for some time, but he captured the essence of the issue in a simple succinct and insightful statement. Without realizing the profoundness of his statement, nor the response I was about to give, I said without hesitation, “then maybe we need to start hiring more Patriots.” And there it was, the source of the issue, explained in a manner that anybody can understand and relate to, and a solution for those who want to improve teamwork in their stores.

I am almost finished writing an article on mercenaries and patriots in the car business. When it is done I will post it online and it will give more in-depth perspective on the topic. In the meantime, here are a few perspectives of why patriots build better teams and ultimately achieve better and more sustainable results:

• Patriots don’t tell people what to do. Rather, they lay out a vision, assemble an aligned and accountable team, and lead the team on a journey of mutual sacrifice, celebration, and gain.
• Patriots focus themselves and their teams on the task at hand and view results as the fruits of their mutual labors.
• Patriots value people above themselves, recognizing little can be accomplished without a talented and engaged team.

Herb Mast is Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

There are two types of people in this world:

• Those who take responsibility, own the situation, and act.
• Those who don’t take responsibility, make excuses, blame others, and expect others to act.

Taking responsibility does not mean that something was or is our fault. It just means that we understand that when faced with an unfavorable situation we can act or wait—we have a choice. Leaders choose to act and enlist the assistance of others to achieve the best possible outcome. Followers, however, wait for others to initiate action and miss the opportunity to make a difference.

Herb Mast is Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

Every organization has a culture. But what is culture? And, why does it matter?

According to BusinessDictionary.com, culture is defined, as: Broadly, social heritage of a group (organized community or society). It is a pattern of responses discovered, developed, or invented during the group’s history of handling problems which arise from interactions among its members, and between them and their environment. These responses are considered the correct way to perceive, feel, think, and act, and are passed on to the new members through immersion and teaching. Culture determines what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong, workable or unworkable. It encompasses all learned and shared, explicit or tacit, assumptions, beliefs, knowledge, norms, and values, as well as attitudes, behavior, dress, and language.

The question is whether that culture is intentional or accidental in how it shapes a brand and supports individual and team performance.

Research shows that positivity and care are directly correlated with the sustained high performance of people.

Patrick Lencioni, in his book The Advantage, suggests that a healthy organizational [culture] trumps everything else in business. His formula for a healthy culture comes down to how behaviorally and psychologically aligned the leaders, and subsequently the rest of the team, are.

As a leader are you creating a positive and caring culture that is conducive to sustained high performance or allowing behaviors and attitudes that breed a negative culture that detracts from performance?

Herb Mast is Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

I once heard that legendary college football coach, Tom Osborne, who lead the Nebraska Cornhuskers to three national championships in the 1990s, never told his team to win. Rather, before each game he  told his players to do their best…knowing that he and his assistant coaches had done their best in preparing the team for the game.

I believe that winning is a formula comprising 60% preparation, 25% inspiration, and 15% perspiration. Winning is simply the result. Winning is always just the result.

For players, talking about winning without doing adequate preparation is no different than dreaming. And, since winning is about preparation and not talk, real winners know that talk of winning just distracts from preparation. In fact, too much talk of winning leads to hubris and reduces the perceived need to prepare. Humble people, on the other hand, know that preparation speaks for itself and requires no trash-talk. Real power comes from confidence and real confidence comes from preparation.

For leaders and coaches, talking about winning without ensuring adequate preparation is a combination of incompetence, negligence, and arrogance.

So, be a real leader, obsess about preparation and your team will win more.

Herb Mast is Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.

It has been an ongoing debate as to whether one should focus more time on building strengths or overcoming weaknesses.

The challenge with focusing on weaknesses is that there are so many more weaknesses that our efforts get too spread out to be effective. Concentrating on our strengths, areas that we are naturally good at and areas that we enjoy working on, our efforts can truly make a difference.

Think about anybody who has achieved anything worthwhile in life. They are known for one or two things that they did really well, not all the things they did poorly.

Take Michael Jordan for example. He was a naturally talented basketball player and a less talented baseball player. Even though he was a talented athlete he had strengths when it came to basketball and weaknesses when it came to baseball. He could have spent the rest of his career trying to overcome his baseball weaknesses and we would have missed out on enjoying his strengths on the basketball court. The good news for us is that he chose to focus on his strengths and in the process became the best basketball player of all time.

But even Michael Jordan could not do it all alone. Even on the basketball court he was stronger in some areas more than others. Combined with other talented players focusing on their own strengths the Chicago Bulls became one of the NBA’s greatest dynasties, winning six NBA championships between 1991 and 1998 with two three-peats.

Hence, I believe that greater things can be achieved when imbalanced people focus on their strengths and harmoniously combine with others as a balanced team where all necessary strengths are represented.

The goal is not to be a balanced individual, but to be the best you can be in the areas you have been given talent and to combine with others that have different talents that fill in the gaps of your areas of weakness.

That does not mean that you may simply ignore your weaknesses. The key is to focus on your strengths and only spend time on your weaknesses when they take away from your strengths.

The 80/20 rule is a good way to approach the effort. Focus 80% on strengths and 20% on weaknesses that interfere with your strengths.

Herb Mast is Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.