Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.

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Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

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Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result.

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The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.

Tuesday Tidbits are weekly messages I send to my leadership team. They are generally short & sweet, often focused on leadership or teamwork, always positive and, hopefully, motivational. I hope you also find some meaning in them.

In 1990, a seminary intern delivered this simple prayer: “Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat.”

Out of that prayer, Souper Bowl of Caring was born.  The idea was to use the energy and publicity around the Super Bowl to drive social good.  Church youth groups and other organizations across the country collected canned goods and dollars (in soup pots!), and then donated those items to a local charity of their choice.

That first year, 22 churches in Columbia, SC collected $5700.  Since then, the Souper Bowl of Caring has received the endorsements of NFL team owners, the NFL Super Bowl, and even the White House.  So far this year, $2.1 million has already been recorded, with Houston leading the way at over $800 thousand.

If you are hosting a Super Bowl Party next Sunday, why not make it a Souper Bowl Party?  Ask your fellow football fans to bring a canned food item to donate.  Instead of exchanging bets on the game, have a soup pot available to collect those dollars and add them to your donation.  Print this certificate and include it when you drop off your items at your favorite food pantry, so they know you participated in this event.

This is a really easy way to take a fun social gathering, draw attention to a local community need and make a positive difference.  I hope the Giants win the Super Bowl, but I also hope many hunger fighting communities win the Souper Bowl.

Much has already been written about the current scandal involving former Penn State football coaches; the sexual abuse of young boys by one, and the subsequent failure to report and/or take morally appropriate action by other coaches and university leaders.  But, what lessons can we learn about leadership?  Here are links to three articles published over the last few days in the leadership section of CBS Moneywatch.com (one of my favorite sites!).

An Abuse of Power?  Lessons From Penn State, written by John Baldoni, published November 9.

Penn State Scandal: You Can’t Teach Leaders Morality, written by Steve Tobak, published November 10.

How Penn State Can Recover From Scandal, written by John Baldoni, also published November 10.

Newslink: Leadership features articles about the development and practice of leadership skills in today’s business world.

What a lofty goal, one person trying to get 400,000 people to donate to anything! And, vowing not to blog until that goal is reached? What a statement this person is making!

I wondered who or what in the world this @fugeesfamily could be, to inspire such passion. So, I clicked on the link and it took me to Marjorie Clayman‘s blog, “Social Media, Marketing and Musings,” and specifically to her Oct. 23 post titled, “A Blogging Hiatus Till We Get This Done.”

Before I knew it, I clicked through links to make a $12.00 donation to the Fugee Family!

The Fugee (as in refugee) Family unites children, who have survived war in countries all around the world, through the universal game of soccer. Coach Luma Mufleh has created a safe and structured environment for these children, based in sport, education, family and citizenship. There are expectations – a contract, in fact - of proper manners, attending practice, attended tutoring, attending school and appropriate dress and language. In the last five years, Coach Luma expanded the program’s offerings to include “year round soccer for 86 boys and girls ages 10-18, tutoring and after-school soccer for 50 elementary school children, a private academy serving 36 children and an academic enriching summer camp.”

What’s next for Coach Luma and the Fugee Family? That’s where your $12 gift comes in. (Of course, you can give even more, or donate items on this wish list.)

Coach Luma wants to do even more for these children. She wants to create a Fugee Village. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it takes money to build a village. I encourage you to learn more about the Fugees and then help Coach Luma’s dream become a reality.

I gave. I hope you will to. Imagine the possibilities!

At one point, Beane goes to the home of Scott Hatteberg, a player that all the other teams thought was washed up. Scotty used to be a catcher, but an elbow injury and surgery meant he couldn’t throw the baseball any more. But, what he could do was get on base. Here is generally how part of the conversation went:

Beane: I don’t care about your elbow. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve thrown your last ball from behind the plate. I want you at first.

Scotty: But, I’ve been a catcher my whole life.

Beane: Well, you aren’t anymore. Do you want to play for the Oakland Athletics? Then you’re going to play first base.

Scotty: But,

Beane: You don’t know how to play first base. Of course you don’t. We’re going to teach you. We are going to teach you.

I’m not giving away the rest of the movie by telling you that Scotty accepted the offer. He still wanted to play baseball. He struggled a lot at first. Even though Scotty had been playing the game since he was a kid and had been a good catcher, it was really hard to play well in a completely new position.

Guess what, though? He learned. He changed. Scotty became an adequate first baseman, but more importantly, scored a lot of runs. And, scoring runs is what helped the team win games.

I was so struck by this interaction that I pulled out a pad of paper and pen in the theater and scribbled as much as I could recall. What a great lesson for us all!

Things change. We are sometimes asked to take on new roles. New leadership may have a new way of playing the game. They might think that different things should be a priority. But in the end, if you can approach the game with an open mind, play to your strengths, trust the new vision, and come together as a team, chances are you’ll win the game.

In baseball or business.

Tuesday Tidbits are weekly messages I send to my leadership team. They are generally short & sweet, often focused on leadership or teamwork, always positive and hopefully, motivational. I hope you find some meaning in them.

Note to blog readers…If you are seeking ways to inspire and develop your leadership team, think “outside the office.”  When properly facilitated, many lessons can be learned during an offsite afternoon of fun. 

There was an overwhelming amount of feedback about this event, so I am not including all of the comments.  Here are a few that stood out as they contained nuggets of important lessons learned:

The Amazing Race excursion truly reinforced the value of clear communication and how much inspiring a shared vision was integral to our team’s success!

It would be hard to nail it down to one thing [but I would say] the bonding, relationship-building and fellow leadership that I saw during the Amazing Race. We all made great connections with each other, in the woods, in shorts, sweating, truly being ourselves…it was incredible.

The Amazing Race was a great training exercise for leadership.  It reinforced the importance of open communication, clear direction and recognition/encouragement.  The leader did a fantastic job of questioning us on how we could take what we learned…and put that to work on the job.

One important lesson I got out of the Summit was what it takes to face fear and how I felt afterward…After facing and succeeding in the mental/physical challenge, I felt on top of the world and thought ‘what else can I accomplish now?’

I was so proud of myself for doing the zipline. It was great working with 12 members of leadership in various capacities and having one goal in mind. The goal was to work together as a team to accomplish tasks in a timely manner. Everyone pulled together for the common good and we had so much fun along the way.

This year, I chose to allow my supervisor to participate (in the Amazing Race) and I stayed behind to “man the floor.” I gained new motivation from hearing her stories and realizing that she needed that break.  Sometimes, it is the little things that can make all the difference.

Tuesday Tidbits are weekly messages I send to my leadership team. They are generally short & sweet, often focused on leadership or teamwork, always positive and hopefully, motivational. I hope you find some meaning in them.

The most important outcome, though, is the money raised to fight cancer.  Jimmy V’s inspirational speech at the ESPY Awards (Don’t give up, don’t ever give up), was the basis of the foundation’s vision.  Continuing that fight is what the Jimmy V Foundation is all about.  Since its founding in 1993, the foundation has raised over $100 million and awarded nearly 400 grants to the “brightest physicians and scientists as they pioneer techniques to make breakthroughs in cancer research.” -jimmyv.org

You probably know someone with cancer, perhaps even you have been diagnosed with cancer.  If you would like to support the research into the disease, and encourage the doctors and scientists to “never give up,” check out the auction or give directly to The V Foundation.  It is important to note that 100% of all new cash donations go directly to the research.  Every dollar helps.  Every dollar keeps the fight moving forward.

Note: Before giving money to any organization, it is a good idea to research how donations are used.  Click HERE for Charity Navigator’s review of The V Foundation.

Yes, for many of those young men, their lives may never be the same again.  Money, fame, opportunity, and perhaps even stardom could come their way.  For some, there could be challenge, risk, injury, and dreams lost. For most, it could be a few years of solid play and then they’ll move on to build a second career outside of football.

For none of them, however, was it “just like that.”

It started when they were just little boys.  Years of workouts, sweat, competition, commitment, pain, injuries, sprints, and agony brought them to this point. Many of them have spent time on crutches, soaked sore muscles in ice-filled tubs and rehabbed after surgeries. They endured hot summer two-a-days, off-season workout plans, dieting, playing in the rain, mud, snow, cold, and high winds.

They learned playbooks. They studied film. Some took ballet classes for balance and flexibility, some took yoga for focus, and some saw sports psychologists to get a mental edge.

I hope they remember all they have invested in their own success.  Only time will tell.

Image by pocketwiley, licensed through Flickr’s Creative Commons.

Here are a few great quotes from a few of the greatest players from the greatest team ever: The New York Yankees. (OK, that is totally my opinion, but feel free to share a great quote from a great player on your favorite team!)

Although these are baseball quotes, I’m sure you will see that they are more than applicable to team leadership in business, too. How do you get to be champions, whether in baseball or any other field of play? Here are three tips:

Have a vision:

You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going because you might not get there. -Yogi Berra

Have a plan:

My experience over 17 years playing with the Yankees, these are a few of the things that I’ve learned. You’ve got to have a plan of action, You have to stay focused on the things you can control, and don’t get discouraged or distracted by the things you cannot control. –Bernie Williams

Inspire teamwork:

The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime. –Babe Ruth

As the leader/coach/manager, it’s your job to make sure you have the right players in the right position. You need to be certain that all of your players know their role on the team. You need to communicate the game plan to them. They need to know that you put them in the game because you are confident they can contribute and help the team win.

Remember, a player will never get a hit if they don’t swing the bat and risk failure. Sometimes, you just need to let them swing away. A major leaguer who gets a hit just every third time at bat is hitting for a .333 batting average. Do that over a long career, and he’s probably heading into the Hall of Fame. Allow your team members to take risks now and then and they just might hit it out of the park!

What other baseball analogies can you draw? I hope you’ll add a comment and share!

Tuesday Tidbits are weekly messages I have been sending to my leadership team for about five years. They are generally short & sweet, often focused on leadership or teamwork, always positive and hopefully, motivational. A co-worker recently suggested the Tuesday Tidbit was blog-worthy. I hope you find some meaning in them.

Today’s link is to a blog post dated March 17, published in the Harvard Business Review.  I enjoyed the timely connection between management skills and the NCAA basketball tournament; great lessons to be learned.  For example, in both basketball and business, it’s not always about talent.  The competition and match-ups greatly influence success.  If you would like to read more, click HERE to for the full post, written by Eddie Yoon.

Newslink: Leadership features articles about the development and practice of leadership skills in today’s business world.