Focusing on Your Best Game in 2009!

On the day that President Barack Obama placed his hand on Abraham Lincoln’s Inauguration Bible, he articulated what leaders across the spectrum know:

“Part of what I wanted to communicate was that government is going to work, we’re going to make it work. But it’s ultimately the American people coming together that is going to determine what we accomplish.”

Leaders help set the course and direction but increasingly leaders must spend time and energy helping their people “come together” to develop as the team that ultimately accomplishes the mission.

"In the end, it's extra effort that separates a winner from second place. But winning takes a lot more than that, too. It starts with complete command of the fundamentals. Then it takes desire, determination, discipline and self-sacrifice. And finally, it takes a great deal of love, fai
ess and respect for your fellow man. Put all these together, and even if you don't win, how can you lose?"nn---Jesse Owens

Over these past months Barack Obama has talked much about hope. Leaders deal in hope. Because of this economic downtu
the world is ready for hope. But people must take this hope and implement the team strategy. In other words, take action. Because without action and a sense that something is happening, hope deteriorates.

This is where team plays such a huge part in a leader’s success or failure. Barack Obama must rely on, continually encourage, and invigorate his team, the nation. Most leaders have 20 or 200 or 2000 people to pull together, not 300 million, but the principles remain the same, independent of the numbers.

1- Rebuild Trust

2- Establish reality (tell the truth about our current situation)

3- Focus on a better future

4- Foster hope

5- Enlist personal, individual accountability towards the plan to make it happe

6- Energize your team to come together and rally around this cause

These have been the first steps that Obama has taken as the newly crowned leader of the United States of America. They should likewise be the first steps we take leading forward through this next season.

"Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another, and of strength to be derived by unity."nn---Vince Lombardi