Eight Principles of Winning Teams

I am back from Las Vegas having attending the 8th Annual Winning is Everything Conference sponsored by The Advisory Board. The opening speaker, Pat Williams, Senior VP, Orlando Magic was fabulous! He spoke for 90 minutes without referring to any notes, including stories and quotes, and even impersonated several U.S. leaders! Here are his thoughts on the Eight Principles of Winning Teams.

#1 - Talent

• Must be coachable and teachable.
• Do they understand and accept their role?
• Is the talent going to be a good teammate?
• Hire very slowly. You can never do enough interviewing, background checks, etc.
• Fire quickly. What should be done eventually probably should be done immediately.

#2 - Seven Sides of Great Leadership

• Vision, is the heart and soul of leadership.
• Communicating your vision: communicate optimism; hope; inspiration and motivation (have these qualities yourself, is caught rather than taught); talk about it (fight through the fear of public speaking).
• People skills - empathy, care
• Character counts
• Competense: Be a lifelong teacher and lifelong learner.
• Boldness: Make decisions
• A serving heart.

#3 - Committed

• To each other.
• To excellence.
• To competition: Welcome it. Competition makes us better.
• To winning. What are you doing right now to produce more wins for your firm?

#4 - Passionate About What They Do

• You've got to love what you do - energy, enthusiasm.
• It's OK to have fun.

#5 - Always Thinking TEAMS - You can accomplish more together.

#6 - Empower Each Other - Uplift, edify, exhort.

#7 - Respect Each Other - This leads to trust, which leads to loyalty, which leads to love, which leads to friendship.

#8 - Men and Women of Character

• Honest
• Integrity - "walk the walk"
• Take responsibility
• Work hard
• Perserverence
• Humility
• Courage