The Power of Team

Welcome back to New Man, New Woman, New Week. I’m Ben Newman, and you know I am fired up to be with you today to talk about The Power of TEAM.

Think about the last great success you had in your life. Did you accomplish it all alone? Was there a mentor there, a trusted friend, a teammate, a colleague? Who was part of your team to help you achieve that success? I have always recognized in my life times when I have been knocked down, and let me tell you, I’ve been shaken to the core personally in my life. I have been shaken to the core professionally in my life. And the times where you pull through or the times where you excel with peak performance, there’s typically those advocates, those mentors, those loved ones, those friends, family who are there to help you.

In all of our work with collegiate teams in the NCAA, high school sports teams, professional athletes, business teams, Fortune 500 companies, leadership teams at high schools, I’ve seen teams from all walks of life, and what I’ve found is that great teams have principles in common, and today I want to share those principles of great teams, that Power of TEAM with you. I think you’ll relate to it, because when you look back to those successes in your life, there was probably team involved to help you give it your best.

The first thing that all great teams do, they have a passion for the process of what they do rather than holding on too tightly to results that they can’t control. We’ve talked about it on these videos before. It’s all about your prizefighter day, identifying the things that you can do in your life to give it your best to the teams that you’re a part of. That’s what great teams do. They identify their passion for their process, they give it their all, they commit to something that’s bigger than them, they get after it, and they learn and they grow together.

The “prizefighter day” talks about something you can do personally every single day. It’s an activity that you can control, something you can do professionally every day and something that is of service to somebody else, and these are activities that you can control, not results. You want to give your best to the teams that you’re a part of? Identify a passion for the process of what you do, have fun, and stay after that process with energy and fire and conviction.

The second principle that great teams have is trust. Great teams trust in each other. Great teams communicate with one another. Great teams understand what they are working towards together, and they choose to be courageous. We’ve talked about courage questions before. Great teams are willing to take that little feeling in their gut when they don’t want to say something, they don’t want to ask a question, and they act on it because they know it’s going to drive the relationship to drive performance of the team. Trust, love, communicate. Bring it all together in your teamwork with other individuals.

The third principle that we’ve found that great teams have in common, it’s all about legacy, and you know that I love legacy. And when I think about legacy, I think about my mother’s doctor, Dr. Martha Skinner. Dr. Martha Skinner was the doctor who shared with my mama, when my mother was diagnosed with amyloidosis in 1983, “You have two to four years to live. You’re only the second woman under 40 years old I’ve ever seen or heard of having this disease.”

Dr. Skinner’s commitment to legacy, surrendering to a purpose that’s bigger than her, is that when dealing with a disease that rare, she never stopped fighting. She had a passion for the process of what she did. She trusted in her team. See, because it was the team of advocates that were surrounding her that believed in her, supported her, and said, “Dr. Skinner, keep going for it. We will find a cure. We will find a therapy. We can beat this,” when it seemed like there was no positive direction to go.

And when I met Dr. Skinner for the first time, when I spoke to the leadership team of the Boston Medical Center, over 200 individuals who’ve led the entire system of that hospital, I met Dr. Skinner and she shared with me, “I have something very hard to tell you.” She said, “Your mother died 10 years too soon.” She went on to share, as she had a folder in front of her on this table that we’re in, my wife Amy, myself — I’m crying, I’m holding Amy’s hand so tightly under this old rickety table. I’m sure my mom sat at the same table, because there was no money for research for this disease.

After Dr. Skinner shared that, I recognized Dr. Skinner was a hero, because no matter how many people told her to give up, she never did. She stayed committed to the team that it took to become one of two doctors in the entire world to discover that chemotherapy allows people to live with amyloidosis. Dr. Skinner kept fighting so she could protect the little boys like me so that they could have a future with their mother or with their father and the people that they loved.

Commitment to teamwork: It’s about passion for the process, it’s about trust, and it’s about what Dr. Skinner shared with us. It’s all about legacy. Take a look back on your life. What have teams meant to you? How much more can you commit to teamwork in your life to make a difference in the story that you are writing?

You know, I get so fired up to be with you each and every single week. I get fired up to be with the individuals that you share our videos with. I get excited when you hop on Twitter @ContinuedFight and you get those belly punches of inspiration every day. I look forward to being with you each and every week for New Man, New Woman, New Week. Until next time, go do great things.

The POWER of TEAM! Episode 40 V 1