Satisfaction…

Are you satisfied with your work?  Wait a second, that’s not the right question.  You could be satisfied and simply be settling. You could be satisfied and see that your satisfaction is temporary and fleeting.  You could, someday, see yourself singing, “I can’t get NO satisfaction.”  Here’s a better question to ponder.

Are you somehow autonomous, energized, engaged, and challenged while you work?

Huh?  I’m not sure if that question is clear,concise, and direct but it sure is LONG.  Lets break it down together and see if, together, we can make some sense. 

Are you responsible for your own decisions and direction while you work?

Is your work meaningful to you?

Does your work offer enough complexity to challenge your mind?

Do you get feedback from the work and from others that provides a connection between your effort and your reward?

Do you work with a team of people that perform work that is somehow autonomous, energizing, engaging, and challenging to them?

Do you gain energy from working together and seeing how each of your contributions, while independent in nature and feedback, require teamwork to be performed magically?

The answers to these questions are NOT trivial.  History shows us that very few teams sustain or even taste “high performance.”  Those that do and those that teach it to the next generation are those that have an ABUNDANCE of individuals that feel independent, engaged and at the same realize that they are INTERDEPENDENT.  

This is why we believe in practice at BTL.  Practice that is incredibly intense in our one on one building. AND, practice that is just as intense with the team.  Maybe even more so.  

Deliberate practice that is designed to build trust, build competence, build teamwork, and then translate into performance.  Practice is where we experience our tagline…together we improve.  Together we improve, but only if we put in the necessary hours of deliberate practice.  Practice that is done one on one. Practice that is done with the team.  Practice that is done by ourselves.  Practice that is REAL, HARD, WORK. Practice that will leave all involved feeling energized, engaged, and very tired.  Mentally tired.

Challenged.

What are you doing to challenge yourself and your team today?