Great teams care more.  They care more about their effort, their work, and their team members.  – Jon Gordon

Life is a team sport.  We are social creatures, created by our maker to live, love, and grow in communities.  Alone we are powerless – together the possibilities are limitless.

Great success comes from caring more for others than for yourself.  It is about working for others, serving the team, and devoting our efforts to the group.

Be a servant leader; be a great teammate.  Focus your skill, attention, and energy on the group . . . the rewards will be great.

Motivation is a fire from within.  If someone else tried to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.  – Stephen Covey

Leaders inspire greatness.  Great leaders inspire other to inspire greatness in others.

My fire, my passion, is to lead.  My vision for leadership is simple . . . to inspire others to be leaders themselves.  When I – or any leader – is successful, the entire organization is leading and learning.  When I inspire others to find their fire . . . the entire organization is functioning at a high level.

You must first find your fire . . . and permit others to help you find that burning for greatness.  Don’t settle for having someone else light a fire under you . . . that is short lived.  Take the challenge – find your purpose – and then burn with a passion to be elite.

Great team members hold each other accountable to the high standards and excellence their culture expects and demands.  – Jon Gordon

Too often, when we hear or see counterproductive behavior on our team, we turn and walk away.  We say to ourselves, “that’s not my job; the boss or supervisor will need to address that problem.”  On athletic teams, we think the coach is responsible for culture and standards.  In schools, “that’s the principal’s job.”

Well no (a resounding no) . . . culture is the team’s responsibility.  Every successful athletic team has a culture that is modeled by the coach and enforced by the team.  Every successful organization has a culture that is led by leadership and cultivated within the ranks.  Yes . . . it is your job to foster the culture you expect.  Great team members hold each other accountable.

In schools, great teachers lead and contribute to the culture – and hold others accountable to the high standards that are demanded by the team.  It is our job – it is our duty and responsibility – to hold each other accountable.

We see the world, not as it is, but as we are – or as we are conditioned to see it.   – Stephen Covey

Our experiences, events repeated over time, shape how we respond.  We have been conditioned – we have been trained – to respond without thinking.  We permit our emotions to become our default condition . . . it has been indoctrinated into our brain.

In order to recondition ourselves – in order to gain perspective and act with discipline – we must build the required skills to press pause and step back.  When our instinct, often conditioned over time, creates a Pavlovian response to any event, we aren’t functioning at our best.  We must develop the ability to change our perspective – to assume a different position.

Be aware today of your instinctual responses to specific events.  Take a moment, a split second, to refocus your lens.  Our passion for growth, our mindset committed to continual improvement, demands that we build these skills and strive to be elite.

One person can’t make a team but one person can break a team.  – Jon Gordon

In your mind’s eye reflect for a moment about your team, your group, or your department.  There are positive people on the team . . . people who bring energy and who inspire the best in others.  And, there are probably negative people . . . energy vampires that seem to suck the life from any activity or initiative.

First of all, commit yourself to your team.  Commit to “bringing the positive” each and every day.  Commit to your teammates; be the best teammate you can be.

Secondly – and this is the hard part – do not permit one person to break the team.  You have control – call them on it.  You have the power to say, “No, this isn’t how we behave.”  Too often we permit the negative people, the bullies, and the energy vampires to break us down.  Stand-up and Own It . . . break the cycle and strengthen your team.

The way we see the problem is the problem.   – Stephen Covey

Pressing pause . . . taking the time to stop to evaluate an event.  Pressing pause . . . thinking for a moment to ask the question, “What is required of me in this moment?”

We press pause so our discipline-driven self can rise about our emotional driven self.  We press pause to reframe an event, or to see it through a different lens.

Today, when you encounter challenges, make sure you are disciplined in your approach.  Don’t just see a problem from your perspective – press pause and reframe the event from multiple perspectives.  See the problem from a different view . . . it often makes all the difference.

Three things you control every day are your attitude, your effort, and your actions.  – Jon Gordon

As you leave the house today . . . as you start the next conversation . . . as you attend the next meeting . . . you have control of your attitude, your effort, and your actions.

People are going to experience YOU!  From the first eye contact to the in-depth conversation, from your body language to your focus on your iPhone . . . you are creating experiences for everyone around you.

Here is the best part . . . here is the magic sauce . . . you get to decide how you behave, how you interact, how you live your life.  No one else is controlling you . . . you have the power.

Management buzzwords are like cotton candy, which tastes good for a second and then evaporates.  – Stephen Covey

We use buzzwords all the time in education.  We use them talking with each other and – even worse – we use them when talking with parents, students, and the community.

Education buzz words and acronyms are like alphabet soup.  Too often non-educators simply shake their heads and agree – often not even knowing what we are talking about.  Our goal isn’t to sound smarter or talk over anyone – our mission is to actively engage . . . to embrace, empower, and inspire.  This isn’t achieved by using the buzzword of the day.

So, be intentional and purposeful in your communication.  Understand that LMS, ELL, and even Growth Mindset are not known in the general public.  To most parents, Carol Dweck could be a fictional character in the latest J.K. Rowing book.

Be intentional, purposeful, and skillful in your communications . . . the purpose is to engage those with whom we interact.

If you want to be truly great you have to work as hard to be a great teammate as you do to be a great player.  – Jon Gordon

Team, organizations, schools, families . . . everything we do is based on connections and relationships.  In any group the commitment to the whole must be greater than the desire to advance self.  We’ve all have known the “weakest link” in a chain . . . we have experienced team failures due to selfish individuals.

Today, take the time to commit to the team.  Invest effort to be a better teammate – to build connections, spread positive energy to those that need a lift, and find courage to challenge a fellow teammate to get better.  Today . . . step outside your comfort zone of self and invest in making the team stronger.

When there is high trust, communication is easy, effortless, instantaneous.  If you make a mistake, it hardly matters.  People know you.  – Stephen Covey

Trust is easily earned and can be quickly lost.  Trust is built through repeated experiences with you . . . repeated, consistent experiences based on your changeless inner-core.  We build this trust through creating connections and building relationships.

Trust is expanded when others see your heart and soul . . . when they experience your character.

Trust grows when other see your dedication, your servant leadership, and your skill.

Strive to build trust . . . strive to have people experience a consistent you.  Trust is the foundation of any team.