Humble and Hungry

Positive leaders are humble and hungry. They don't think they know it all. They are life-long learners who are always seeking ways to learn, improve, and grow. They are always open to new ideas and strategies to take their life and work to the next level. They live with humility, knowing that the minute they think they've arrived at the door of greatness is the moment it will get slammed in their face. They are also hungry with a passion and burning desire to continuously improve and grow. They are willing to put in the sweat and tears, commitment and years in order to help their teams and organizations accomplish great things. Matt Ryan, the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, is a great example of humble and hungry. Every time I spoke to the team during training camp, he was always sitting in the front row to the left and would always come up to me afterwards and ask me a question about something I shared. He wasn't motivated by a paycheck. He had already signed a $100 million contract. He was always looking for even the smallest way to improve and get better as a quarterback and leader, and it's why he continues to improve every year.

Positive leaders never stop learning and growing and improving. I remember speaking at a leadership conference in Dallas and looking over to the left in the front row and seeing Zig Ziglar, the legendary motivational speaker sitting there. I ran over to him and said, “Zig, one of the big goals in my life was to meet you.”

He said, “You need to have bigger goals.”

He was still funny after all those years. While speaking, I looked over and saw Ziglar taking notes. At 82 years old, he was taking notes. Not because I was up there. Anybody could have been up there and he would have been taking notes. He was humble and hungry. He only lived a few more years after that but I'll always remember how he spent the last few years of his life—still improving. I love what Pablo Casals, the famous cellist, said when asked why he continued to practice the cello at the age of 90. He said, “Because I think I'm making progress.”

There Is No Finish Line

While having lunch with George Raveling, the legendary Hall of Fame college basketball coach, I learned that after three decades of coaching he worked in broadcasting for a few years before joining Nike at the age of 62 years old as their director of global basketball sports marketing. While most people are getting ready to retire, George said working at Nike was like going to Harvard Business School. He learned more in the last 18 years of his life than the previous 52 years. At 80 years old George reads 50 books a year and asks himself often, what do I need to know that I don't know? What do I need to unlearn to learn? Each day his goal is to be a positive difference in as many people's lives as possible. I asked George if he would ever retire. He said, “I've thought about it but then what would I do?” He's already mentored and impacted countless coaches, players, and people but he's still not done making a difference. Reiterating one of Nike's tag lines he said, “There is no finish line.” At 80 he's still learning, growing, and improving. So can you at any age. Keep learning. Keep improving. Keep helping others. Keep making a positive impact. There is no finish line.

Demanding without Being Demeaning

Many think that positive leaders are nice, undisciplined, happy-go-lucky people who smile all the time and believe that results are not important. But this couldn't be further from the truth. Positive leaders are demanding without being demeaning. They both challenge and encourage their teams and organizations to continue to improve and get better. Being a positive leader doesn't mean you don't have high expectations. The greatest positive leaders I have met, such as Alan Mulally, have very high expectations. You don't transform a company losing $14 billon into a profitable business in a few years without high expectations. However, he provided the encouragement, process, system, and coaching to meet these expectations. Pete Carroll, coach of the Seattle Seahawks, is known for creating a culture where his team has a lot of fun but he's also one of the most competitive people you'll ever meet. His belief that competition makes you better is a huge part of the Seattle Seahawks DNA, and they are passionate about always improving and winning.

Love and Accountability

I've worked with and studied leaders for years and I believe that the positive leaders who are able to create amazing teams and results provide both a lot of love and a lot of accountability. Love and accountability. That is how great teams, organizations, relationships, and results are created. If I had to pick the most important section of the book it would be right here: Alan Mulally, for example, told me that you have to love your people, but you have to make sure you hold your team accountable to the plan, the process, the principles, and the values of the culture. Alan told me that while his leadership approach and management system includes bringing everyone in the company together, respect, helping and appreciating each other, having fun, and enjoying the journey, it's also about a relentless implementation of the plan. It's about having clear performance goals and making sure everyone knows the goals and knows the data, status, and progress towards those goals. It's making sure everyone knows the plan and what needs special attention. If you are having a problem, that's okay, but don't keep it a secret. Let's figure it out together and find a solution. If you are failing in some way, you won't be ostracized, but rather you will find the support you need to succeed. Yet, Alan said there is zero tolerance for violating the process. If you are not willing to work with others on the plan, then Ford is probably not the right fit for you. Alan said his number-one job was to be a keeper of the culture and hold his team accountable to the principles, values, process, and behaviors. He said if someone violates the process and you don't address it, then everyone knows you aren't committed to it. If you don't hold people accountable to it, your team won't live and breathe it. But when you love people and hold them accountable, it's amazing how fast things can move in the right direction. When Alan took over Ford, his leadership team didn't know if he was for real and many people didn't buy into his approach at first. But Alan was steadfast in his principles and process. He held his team accountable to the process and his expectations and, as a result, he quickly earned their trust and respect, and teamwork improved swiftly.

Dabo Swinney is one of the best I've ever seen at providing both love and accountability, and it's one of the key reasons for their recent success and prominence. When you spend time with him and his program, you can feel the love he has for his players. They know it. But they also know that he's there to make them better and hold them accountable to the standards they have set at Clemson. Clemson is like a big family with a lot of love and also a lot of structure and discipline. When one of his star players violated team rules, Dabo wouldn't let him play the first game of the season against Auburn, a very good team. Although it wasn't a big violation, and most teams would have let the player play, Dabo told me, “We have to hold everyone accountable to the standards we have set, and if I let him play what does that say to our players, our staff, our university, and our fans? We have our values and we must live them.” People tried to convince him otherwise but he stuck to his guns and they won the game without their star player. That was five years before Clemson would win a National Championship. To understand how important the culture, values, and process are to Dabo, he has a book about 18 inches thick with ideas, principles, beliefs, cultural values, and other notes that he reviews with his coaching staff during a four-day retreat before the season. Every year, for four full days, Dabo goes through the book, page by page, with his staff. He said, “You can't assume they know it or remember it. You can't forget all the little things that made and make you successful. You have to go back to the basics and that's what we do for four full days. This book represents the foundation of what we are all about and we commit to it. Then we love our players and hold them accountable to it.” Love without accountability means you'll have great relationships and be a loving family, but you won't be a great team. On a great team, each player makes the others better. Everyone strives for excellence together and accomplishes great things together. If you have accountability without love, you won't have real commitment, buy-in, loyalty, passion, or great teamwork. You'll be more like a dysfunctional family that fights all the time and simply tries to survive each day but doesn't thrive. Eventually the rules will lead to rebellion and the pressure and stress without support will lead to burnout.

Love Tough

The difference between a positive leader and other leaders is that many leaders focus on accountability first and love comes later or not at all. Many talk about tough love and I believe in it, but I have found that love must come first. If your team knows you love them, they will allow you to challenge and push them. Instead of tough love, it needs to be love tough. My friend Buzz Williams, who is the head basketball coach at Virginia Tech, loves his players and invests in them so much that he earns the right to push them beyond their comfort zone to be their best. He helps them become better than they ever thought possible because he's all about love tough. John Calipari is the same way. And so is Stephanie White, Christina Halfpenny, Brad Stevens, Mike Matheny, and Clint Hurdle—so are all the positive leaders who make the greatest impact. When you think about it, it's not a nice way to lead, but rather it's the way to lead, because when you love someone you want to help them improve. It means you challenge them to reach their full potential. You don't let them settle for anything but their best. Your team may not like you for it now, but they will appreciate you for it later. I tell this to my teenagers all the time because they are the beneficiaries of my love tough leadership. And I know from experience that your team won't hate you if your love comes first. They may not like it but they will know you love them and want the best for them.

Craftsmen and Craftswomen

Positive leaders help their team become craftsmen and craftswomen instead of carpenters. There's a difference between a carpenter and a craftsman. A carpenter just builds something but a craftsman puts in more time, energy, effort, and care to build a work of art. Instead of just showing up and going through the motions, a craftsman works to build masterpieces. In a world where too many settle for mediocrity, craftsmen and craftswomen seek to create excellence and build greatness. They care more and, because they care more, they invest more—more energy, effort, sweat, tears, and years mastering their craft. While speaking to an MLB baseball team in their locker room I asked them how many believed they could work harder than they already were. Everyone raised their hands. Then I said, “So what's the next question?”

They answered “Why aren't you?”

We discussed it and decided that to work harder, you have to care more. If you care more, you will put your heart, soul, spirit, and passion into it to accomplish more. If you care more about your project, work, and craft than about all the distractions vying for your attention, you won't allow those distractions to get in the way. You will invest your energy into building something meaningful that lasts. Positive leaders and their teams care more and, as a result, they create more masterpieces.

In Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, he shared a story about Jobs as a young boy helping his father build a fence. His father told him he must care about crafting the back of the fence as much as the front. When Steve asked why the back mattered when no one would see how it was crafted, his father said, “But, you will know.” Steve's father taught him to care more and, years later, he went on to create Apple products with such care that they generated feelings of awe, loyalty, and passion among the brand's millions of new customers. It wasn't an accident. Jonathan Ive, the man who has designed many iconic Apple products, said, “We believe our customers can sense the care we put into our products.” Apple cared about the work they did and the products they created and, in turn, their customers cared about them. I know Steve Jobs wasn't considered very positive by most who worked with him, and some would argue that he wouldn't be considered a positive leader. Please keep in mind that no one is a perfect positive leader and not everyone has every trait discussed in this book. From all accounts, Jobs fell short in his ability to develop relationships, but his vision, mission, optimism, pursuit of excellence, and desire to change the world were unmatched, and that's why I am sharing what he did. He was a craftsman who cared more, and I believe it was his passion that attracted people to him and inspired them to be craftspeople who created masterpieces that changed the world.

The One Percent Rule

It's a simple rule I share with leaders and teams to help them create excellence. The rule says to give one percent more time, energy, effort, focus, and care today than you gave yesterday. Each day give more than you did the day before. Obviously you can't calculate one percent, but you can push yourself more today than you did yesterday. You can improve and get better today. You can strive for excellence and work to become your best. You can tune out distractions and focus even more on what matters most. I've had one team with 35 people implementing the one percent rule. They said if each person gives one percent more each day that's 35 percent daily and, over time, this extra percent will produce big results. It did. They had incredible growth by pursuing both individual and team excellence.

Clarity and Action

Excellence is what positive leaders strive for, but you can't achieve excellence without clarity and action. Positive leaders provide the clarity that leads to focused action. This was never more clear to me than when Alan Mulally shared several images with me before our conversation. One image included his Working Together management system, principles, and practices that are a list of 11 expected ideals, such as “people first,” “everyone is included,” and “clear performance goals.” The second image featured Mulally's Creating Value Roadmap process, which shared the process and strategy he and his team and organization would utilize to work together to relentlessly implement the plan. Every key part of the process and plan were all contained in one image that provided the clarity of vision, process, focus, and plan. The third image Mulally shared was also Ford's Creating Value Roadmap process. This time he had designed it for Ford. On a two-sided plastic card that was shared with everyone in the company, Mulally included the vision, strategy, and plan: One Ford. One team. One plan. One goal. Mulally said that everyone needs to know the plan, embrace the plan, and trust the process. Then you love ‘em up and let them take action. When I spoke with Mulally, he said everything he did was based on these three images, which everyone knew, understood, and embraced. I immediately saw the genius in his approach and management system. Everything everyone needed to know was right there in front of them in a card they could hold in their hand. They didn't have to search the company website for it or read a 200-page book. Everyone had the plan, knew the plan, and understood the process. Mulally provided such clarity that it enabled and empowered everyone in the company to take action. There was no ambiguity creating hesitancy, or clutter slowing people down. Instead, there was organizational unity, operational discipline, and focused action day after day, week after week, that over time produced incredible results.

As a leader, don't fall into the trap that the idea or plan has to be complicated to work. Simple is powerful. Clarity leads to focus and action. Action leads to results. You can be the most positive leader, but optimism without action equals today's fantasy. Optimism plus clarity and action equals tomorrow's reality. Through love and accountability, clarity and action, and a relentless drive to improve and succeed, positive leaders transform their quest for excellence into a better future for all.