Do you know how to develop a winning mentality?
A winning mentality is all about competence, consistency, and cooperation. It’s about working with a team and overcoming all challenges.
In my executive coaching career, I’ve learned that teamwork isn’t easy—and developing a winning mentality with a team is even more challenging.
I mean, we’re all conditioned to believe in teamwork. And it’s got merits.
Even professional golfers and tennis players have coaches, physiotherapists, trainers, and psychologists.
But a successful team is made up of members who share one quality: they want to chalk up a
personal win. They are hungry for individual success. They want to prove their value on the team by excelling at their role.
All too often, projects fail, and because it was “a team effort,” nobody takes responsibility for the failure. And that doesn’t lead to a life of significance.
Here are the 10 Commitments for how to develop a winning mentality.
A purely team-centric focus doesn’t allow us to reach the hallowed ground of significance.
As a motivational speaker and keynote speaker, I tell people that we must reflect on our own attitudes and mindsets to reach significance.
Above all, to develop a winning mentality, we need to ensure that individuals working together pursue a higher purpose: winning.
It’s all about developing a winning mindset.
You can read a more in-depth explanation of a winning mindset in Chapter 6 of my book—The Art of Significance—but here are the 10 Commitments that winning personalities make in their quest for significance.
1. Clarity
Clarity involves defining who you are—your personal authenticity—and knowing that you must first like yourself before you can like others, love yourself before you can love someone else, and trust yourself before you can trust anyone.
2. Character
To develop a winning mentality, you must have good character.
Having good character means establishing and obeying convictions. Character is moral excellence, firmness, and integrity, and as such, it spawns and perpetuates trust.
A person with character is mentally strong, emotionally awake, ethically straight, and committed to doing what is right, not what is easy.
3. Competence
Competence involves confidently possessing the knowledge, technical skills, and experience required for the task at hand.
It is synonymous with confidence, which allows some people and organizations to always land on their feet, even when others who are equally talented stumble again and again.
4. Consistency
You can’t just turn excellence on and off.
Consider the physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, financial, social, and family realms of your
life. Is there any area of your life you want to lose? In which area are you not becoming more of who you are and reaching your full potential?
In short, at the deepest level, consistency is caring about everything we do.
5. Competitiveness
Competition in the spiritual sense is about ceasing to complain about challenges and embracing the values of creative adaptability, transformation, and modification.
That is to say, competition is about finding the opportunity to change and alter thinking, strategy, and behavior before circumstances force us to.
6. Cause
Cause means focusing on service before self and remaining constantly aware of the why behind change and competition. To create a long-lasting, world-class business and a championship dynasty in sports, we must know and do more than the evident outward peripheral endeavors.
We must uncover the seeds that bring forth the fruits of conviction—in other words, a more profound purpose, a sense of cause.
7. Chemistry
And here, we arrive at the shift from “me” to “we.”
Nothing long-term will ever exist or sustain itself unless we have chemistry.
Chemistry means opening our hearts and minds to our teammates, seeing ourselves in them and them in us, and growing in the process into our best selves. It is one of the key things you need to develop a winning mentality.
8. Contribution
Contribution entails giving everything we’ve got when less would be sufficient—not because others expect it, but because we as individuals demand it of ourselves and because doing so helps us realize our potential.
Commitment to total contribution allows us to always rise to the occasion, which inspires our teammates. All of us together become the players we were born to be.
9. Cooperation
Cooperation means listening without judgment and appreciating that a group can congeal only through conflict.
When strong cooperation exists, team members pull through disagreements and emphasize through word and deed that “we are one—we live together, and we die together.”
10. Conclusion
This final Commitment means that we will finish together, focusing on the acronym WIN (What’s Important Now) until each of us gets our desired result: winning.
The conclusion comes when we remember that it’s not enough to say, “I will do my best.” We must succeed as individuals at doing what is necessary, understanding that all boats rise together when the water in the lake goes up.
Above all, to develop a winning mentality, we must agree to do what is necessary for our team.
Four Suggested Action Steps to Building a Winning Team
Now that you have an overview of the 10 Commitments, let’s talk about some actions you can take to develop a winning mentality—and build your winning team.
1. Set aside time
You aren’t going to stumble onto significance in your spare time, so you need to set aside time every day to work on one of the 10 Commitments. Be deliberate in your effort. Get somebody on the team to help support you as you stretch.
2. Conduct interviews
Interview every candidate who could serve as a possible player on your team.
Your screening process will rate candidates not merely based on their education or the specific skill set required for the position but also on the person’s apparent understanding of the Ten Commitments’ importance.
3. Build your team
Identify the exact number of players required to build your winning team, triple that number, and invite these individuals to a multi-day tryout situation or a one-or-two-week internship.
4. Do your research
Interview past educators and coaches or employers to find out the truth about your prospects’ attitudes and ability to perform under pressure.
It’s possible to possess a single-minded winning mentality and still be an exceptional team player. Would you like to learn more? You can start on your own with my book and the video resources I’ve shared on my website. If you’re looking for a more personal experience, contact me, and we’ll start a conversation.
Did you enjoy this article? Here are three more to help you:
- The Law of Obedience: leading you to a life of significance
- John Lee Dumas On His Passion To Change The World—With A Glimpse Into Creating One Of The Top Podcasts
- Mark Eaton On Going From Car Mechanic To NBA All-Star And Beyond
This content is taken from Dan’s Best Selling Book: The Art of Significance—Achieving The Level Beyond Success.
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