The Leading Edge: When You’re Winning, Nothing Hurts!
By: Craig Ratliff
It was a bitter cold and rainy morning. Jim was already twenty minutes behind schedule and, just his luck, traffic was horrible on the way to the office that morning, but he was convinced that things would get a lot better as the day went on. All he needed to do was make it to his office chair, relax for a moment and get started on the scheduled tasks for the day.
After all, today was the day the lead team would meet to review the organization’s quarterly goals, celebrate the big wins and chart a course to catch up in areas that may be lagging behind.
Ever since being elevated to an executive staff position three years ago, Jim has loved these quarterly lead team review meetings. The organization he is a part of has been growing steadily for some time now, and, in the last year especially, everything they have tried has turned to gold.
As you can imagine, the morale in the organization is pretty high. Not only that, but, since morale is at an all-time high, so is the work intensity of everyone, from the top of the organizational chart to the last guy on the totem pole. Everyone seems to be pumping on all cylinders right now. No one wants to contribute to or be the cause of breaking the organizations momentum and high morale.
Yes, Jim was positive his day would begin getting a whole lot better when he got to the office. Jim knew that, by the end of the day, he would most certainly have a different perspective about what kind of day this has been. Somehow, going to work during this season of high morale and momentum makes even the daily difficulties of Jim’s life so much easier to deal with.
In John C. Maxwell’s book titled The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, he discusses law sixteen, the Law of High Morale. This law states that, “When you’re winning, nothing hurts.”
When a team is experiencing high morale, the tendency for most leaders is to become more cautious in their actions, safer in their decision making, and more reserved in their investments for keeping things moving forward. What I have learned over the years is that, while high morale within a team, company or organization is fun and extremely exciting to be at the center of, it also can be a very dangerous time in the organization if not managed well.
While your first thought might be to pull back on the reigns and just ride the wave of high morale, which is generating higher productivity and profit, as long and as far as it will take you, what you need to be thinking of instead is how you can lead your team to push harder, invest more and even grow beyond where you are today. The principle reason you make the strategic decision to lead your team to push to greater heights during times of success and high morale is because it is in doing so you will find your highest rate of return and greatest results.
During seasons of high morale, when properly guided, the members of your team will feed off of the energy and success of the overall team and will work and function at higher levels than normal. Petty differences and office politics will be at a minimum during theses seasons as well, and many team members will feel the freedom to give that little extra in their work that they would normally hold back in seasons of medium- or low-level morale.
The truth is that teams don’t keep winning by accident; they keep winning when leaders lead with intentionality and purpose, especially during times of high morale. Bold leadership during these times will find tough decisions become easier to make, long workdays pass quicker, and “Big Asks” of employees are received more readily.
After all, “When you’re winning, nothing hurts!”, so, lead boldly. Your team and you will be glad you did. Your bold leadership during the season of high morale will lead your team to do, be and accomplish more than you or they ever dreamed possible.
Craig Ratliff is the owner & lead strategist for Unbroken Resolve, which seeks to help leaders and businesses both in the for-profit and not-for-profit arenas break through key development barriers for the purpose of maximizing growth potential. For more than twenty years, Craig has been involved in leadership development on various levels, both personally and as a part of large organizations. Since starting Unbroken Resolve in 2010, Craig has been actively investing in, producing content for and helping coach for-profit and not-for-profit companies and organizations toward success in reaching their defined goals and desired outcomes.
Craig and his wife Cindy have one child, William, and live in West Palm Beach, FL, where they enjoy the warm weather and playing in the ocean. You can learn more about Craig at http://www.unbrokenresolve.com/.