Not Everyone Will Love You

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.”

– Tommy Lasorda

Tommy Lasorda’s determination was matched only by his endless enthusiasm. The fiery Hall of Fame MLB manager who guided the LA Dodgers to two World Series titles was beloved but also somewhat polarizing, as many of the greatest leaders often are.

The conventional wisdom that you can’t please everyone all the time is particularly true for people in leadership roles. Not everyone will love you.

You don’t rise to a position of leadership by walking on eggshells.

I resonate with Tommy because he embodied passion for his work. That’s how you go from player to coach. True passion. That’s how Tommy went from a playing career with a relatively modest record to one of the greatest coaches in the game.

I think one of the most important elements of leadership is having done your time in the trenches. You have to have lived it, taken your lumps, and put in the work to truly understand what the people you’re leading are going through.

The differentiating trait in successful people is always to do with passion. A drive to never be stagnant. An itch to uncover, explore, and discover.

That is always exaggerated in the leaders/teachers/manager/coaches who make an enormous difference in our lives.

Coaching is synonymous with management. In both roles, you have a direct influence on others’ behavior, drive, and belief in themselves.

We don’t put enough emphasis on training people to become leaders and coaches from an early age.

As a manager; as a company, what steps are you taking as a leadership team to ensure your company is operating at a level of possibility?

Take your own pulse within your organization.

I’m often asked, “What’s a problem in your business right now that you wish you had the answers to?”

The answer is always the same: There are no problems within our business that we, as a TEAM don’t know how to solve.

It’s all about the quality and level of people you employ in your organization.

You need to seek out people who never say, “I don’t know.”

Instead, you have to acquire people who look at every challenge and say, “I don’t know… but I’ll figure it out.”

Ask yourself, “What would your company look like if that was the narrative??”

Every person in a leadership role at Roma is in the right seat, going in the right direction, and, most importantly, for the right reason!

That’s why we succeed and that’s why we attract who we attract as well as why we repel some people. It’s not a mistake. It’s all very purposeful.

Complacency can be bred into a company culture just as much as passion, drive, and outside-the-box thinking.

You can create a culture and a company that’s comfortable keeping the status quo or you can create a culture and a company that thrive on the possibilities and embrace the unconventional to get there.

People say coaches don’t win Super Bowls – I disagree. I think coaches are beyond important. A good coach enables and fuels determination and drive in the people around them… They can ultimately be either the fuel that ignites greatness or the water that douses it.

A great coach like Lasorda can bring together a team, bring out the best in every player, and in the team as a group.

Your leadership, the people steering the bus, determines the success of your company.

The world is changing rapidly and dramatically. We’ll get back to some kind of normal eventually, but the world and our lives will never look the same after this pandemic and the only way to navigate it is great leadership and team players.

Great leadership is what enables determination, and an enabler of determination is an enabler of possibility.

Leadership must both spark and nurture the fire.

As a leader, a coach, a manager, you can fuel that which is far greater than yourself.

This is a challenging time for the whole world with so much shut down. – But it’s also a great time to examine your leadership team.

Take a pulse on your team!  

Be as honest as possible with yourself and ask these simple questions:

1. Is each member of your leadership team in line with your company core values? Rank them on a scale of 1-10  

2. Is each member on the leadership team forging ahead in an effort to fulfill the company mission?  Rank them on a scale of 1-10

3. Is each member on your leadership team in the right seat, going in the right direction, for the right reason?  Rank them on a scale of 1-10

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Answer each question independently.

Step 2: Rank each member of your leadership team on a scale from 1-10

Step 3:  Sum all individual scores and divide them by the number of people on your leadership team to obtain a number.

Step 4:  This step makes it real: That total score actually becomes your own effectiveness by question!

Step 5:  If your score is where you want it to be, then that’s alignment… but if its far lower, it becomes self-awareness.

Step 6:  Take action according to your self-awareness!

Enjoy the exploration!

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