Tag: philosophy

What type of players do you have on your team?

What type of players do you have and your team? Grade each player/team member. Do you have A players, B players, C, D, or F? An A player has all the attributes you want. They have a good work ethic, are ambitious, speak and act with integrity, are always willing to help the team, have a good attitude, and are always looking to learn or improve. A B player might be missing one of those attributes or might have a lower level of several of those attributes. A C player will be missing multiple attributes. You should seriously consider whether or not to keep a C player on your team. Are they willing to work hard to become an A or B player? If not, better to cut the cord and let them go. D and F players should not be on your team, as they are just dragging everyone else down and making them work harder.

There is the saying that when a flower doesn’t bloom (or a tree doesn’t grow), it’s not the flower/tree’s fault, it’s the environment. That is true of flowers and also in business. You need to have the right environment around for your best players to blossom and to become the best versions of themselves. But at the same time, not every flower/tree/plant is meant to survive in every environment. For example, you aren’t going to see a cactus thrive in Alaska or a palm tree in Antarctica. Sometimes you cannot change the environment. Or at least, you shouldn’t change the environment to suit the needs of the extreme outliers in your company. Some people will succeed and others you may need to let go. Don’t change your environment for C, D, or F players. You will drive out your A and B players. Don’t cater to the weak spots on your team. They need to step up their game and take responsibility.

Love

“One of the greatest things a father can do for his children is to love their mother,” Howard Hunter said.

It only takes a moment to do, but your kids will remember your words long after you say them and your actions after you do them. It will impart on them how to treat their future spouses.

Do you want your kids to be loving, generous, and grateful? Make sure you try to display that with your actions daily. If you diminish what your spouse says or does, if you treat them poorly or with indifference, or if you don’t show them respect, your kids can pick that up and do the same.

Reframing your perspective to experience more gratitude

When things don’t go as planned, you can either look at it as a negative or spin it into a positive. For example:

When you’re sore from a workout, it allows you to be grateful for everyday when you feel “normal.”

When you’re sick, it allows you to be grateful for when you’re healthy.

When you got a bad night of sleep, it allows you to be grateful for when you sleep really well (or even moderately well).

We can go on and on with the examples. The point is that things won’t always go your way in life. You may have a plan, but there’s little reason to believe that everything will go exactly according to that plan. You can either pout when that happens and get down on your luck, or you can spin the narrative. Use it to your advantage and learn to really embrace the things we often take for granted.

Just remember, when you’re feeling sick, or tired, or sore, it’s only temporary. What about those who are chronically sick, tired, or sore? What about those people who have it way worse than you – who don’t have access to medicine, to a bed or proper shelter to sleep/live in, or who are physically or mentally handicapped?

It’s easy to make yourself the center of your world, because you’re always with yourself and you’re always aware of how you’re feeling. But once you reframe you’re perspective and start thinking about other people and their situations, you can begin feeling more grateful for even your “bad” days.

Thoughts on different types of equality

Equality of outcome is not possible, nor should it be desired. We should be striving for equality of opportunity. Everyone should be afforded the same opportunity and then they can choose whether they want to take those opportunities or not. Opportunity will never equal outcome because other factors still play a large part in determining the result. You can affect the result through hardworking, working efficiently, working creatively, working collaboratively, etc. You can get better at networking or delegating. You can get better at doing. And you can always run into good luck or bad luck.

People should be compensated based on their production, results, and merit, but that’s not always going to happen. Because unlike playing sports where you have the same objective and many ways to track results with tangible numbers, we can’t always quantify the value of a team member. And then there is the human, team morale, and leadership aspect to consider too. How can you quantify what that is worth?

We should always strive to be better – for ourselves, our family, friends, co-workers/team, company, city, state, nation, and world. We should strive for a more equal playing field and never stop striving for it. But the best way to start change is to start with yourself. Control what you can control, try to influence what/who you can influence, and realize that nothing is perfect.

Playing the victim card vs taking control of your life

Don’t play the victim card. It may be true that you have been victimized. But until recent times, not many people cared and even less people offered to help.

It’s up to you to make your life better – not your family, not your friends, and not the government. If, by some chance, you are fortunate enough to have somebody care and help you out, that’s icing on the cake. But don’t expect that to happen. Nobody owes you anything, especially if they are not the ones who directly harmed you.

If you feel bad about something that has happened, that’s ok. I’m not saying you should be a robot. But I am saying that what’s done is done and you need to move on. Wasting time, energy, and thought on feeling bad for yourself isn’t going to help you moving forward. How can you make your life better starting today?