Team Work and Leadership

A group of people, contributing their individual knowledge and skills but working together to achieve a common goal/task.

My initial choice of topic was to write about the Oliver experience – the support, leadership, community, preparation, etc. But after thinking about it for awhile (and reading the ‘other’ blog.. awesome community post Kris!) I decided to write instead about TEAM. Besides the victories, accomplishments, and incredible stories this weekend (and there were many!) another thing that stood out to me was what a great all around team we have at Innovative Fitness. From the owners to the training coaches, and everyone in between.

So when did the creation of this team start? Anyone can call themselves a team, but not necessary act like one. It has not always been like this (I’m sure several of the vets can attest to this) but I believe we are at a point right now where it has never been better in terms of everyone getting it, trusting, supporting, and following systems. It’s no wonder we are all coming out to events to support each other and our customers.

The easy answer that it all starts with self – and that would be 100% correct. We, as leaders, have all taken the time to improve ourselves with us much support as possible (from blogs, to books, to forums, to improved communication) that now we are able to reap the benefits by being able to effectively lead our teammates to success. So in essence by being ‘selfish’ and dealing with our individual strengths and weaknesses we are able to become incredibly unselfish and give back a lot more.

Then it came time to get all the right people on board with us. After over a year of people departing and better people coming to join us (in WVan), we now have a bus full of the right people. This is not an easy process, as team members have to be carefully selected. The full range of knowledge and skills required must be present. Team members need to be committed to the task and if you have the right team composition and approach, team synergy can take over. But it has to be set up correctly. The team members have to be willing and ready to participate. And these are the teams that win championships! By acknowledging and continuing this we will only continue to go up.

Realizing that everyone has something different to contribute to the whole of the team is another aspect. A balanced team composition is essential. We are not all the same and this is what makes us so strong - when are individual strong traits are unified together. We all play a very integral role in the success.

It was very evident this weekend what a great job we’ve done. To see our teammates (after months of training, AND leading customers to the same event) come out and totally rock it was incredible! Those of us that came up to watch were proud of all of them – just as much as we were proud for our customers who raced. To spend time bonding with teammates and realizing that I not only get come to work and not really ‘work’ but that I get to spend time with a facility full of people I care about and would call a true friend – support, trust, loyalty, and collective betterment of each other. This makes for an awesome work environment.

So why was this destination so successful. For many reasons, but one of them was because of Team. We are all supporting each other at the highest level. We would all be there for each other in a second. This in turn will directly be reflected on how well we can lead our customers. There’s a reason that ‘customers’ are on the final wheel turn. If we did not take the time to figure out ourselves there is no way we would be able to give back to our team (or any relationship) and we would not build the same trust, and follow the same systems (operations). Self – Team – Operations – Customers. It’s a win – win situation. Our customers kicked ass this weekend – but so did we as a team!