Are you worth catching…

Your team is not defined by the words painted on your walls. Your team is defined by the behaviors it allows, condones, encourages, and disciplines. Fact. You are defined by your behaviors. Healthy humans author their own deeply held beliefs and align behaviors accordingly. They close their integrity gaps when they say one thing and do another. Healthy cultures do likewise. Healthy cultures have to be fought for. Growth makes it hard to maintain a healthy culture. Shrinkage makes it hard. Losing makes it hard. Winning, oftentimes, makes it even harder. Marrying the status quo makes it hard. Obedience to authority makes it hard. Healthy cultures must be cultivated and nurtured. Today a team of grapplers, during BTL team practice 92 are going to be challenged that the problem with their cultures is them.

They want to blame the leaders and rule breakers. Normal. Weak.

The truth is that few teammates believe they can change their teams culture. Funny, it’s always been a few that do. A few who possess a strong BTL core and know what they stand for. Few, however, take the time to routinely, rigorously, and uniformly align beliefs and behaviors. Few. Few leaders have the nerve for fixing their cultures alignment issues. Few teammates feel they’ve earned the right. Few, truth be told, want to take responsibility for their own culture much less their teams. All it takes to build a healthy culture in your corporation is a few with the nerve to fight for right – a few willing to fight for the kinda culture they want. A few willing to be less obedient to authority. Or, maybe, a few willing to submit to a higher authority – much higher.

Everyday, we challenge ourselves and a few high performers to build more strength within, in our BTL core. Oftentimes these challenges are greeted with passive aggressive bullshit like “you’re right, you’re right.” Remember, the human that tells another “you’re right” rarely means what it seems they’ve said. We listen to our own ideas. That’s right.

They, most likely just like you, are weaker than they think in their interior space. A great litmus test for your core strength is to honestly evaluate your ability to speak truth to your leader and the least ’round you. If you hold back when you’re not in one up position, you are weak in your core. If you hold back when you’re dealing with a friendly teammate not doing her job, you’re weak in your core. If you have a failure of nerve, Captain, when enforcing team disciplines, you’re weak in your core. If you look the other way when your star takes a play off, you’re weak in the core. If you are harder on others than you are on yourself, you’re weak in the core. If you are hard on yourself but can’t confront a toxic teammate whose attitude is sucking life out of the locker room, you are weak in the core. Not a fun fact, but a fact.

You control the culture in your 20 square feet, friend. Your healthy core serves as a catalyst for a healthy culture. The predominant culture on any team flows from whatever the Coaches, Captains, and Leaders tolerate and reward. Weak core? Weakened culture. Healthy cores? Healthy cultures. A strong CORE behaves without thinking about prejudice, power, or position. Your culture, leader, is contagious. Are you worth catching?

Live hard. Love harder (Thanks Teeks)…