To live a life of significance, a winning mentality is key.
But we are all conditioned to believe in teamwork, which can sometimes come up against this sort of mentality.
Teamwork has its merits. Even professional golfers, tennis players, and a motivational speaker, have a team – coaches, physiotherapists, trainers, 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 really takes responsibility for the failure. That doesn’t lead to a life of significance.
The 10 Commitments for a winning mentality
A purely team-centric focus doesn’t allow us to reach the hallowed ground of significance.
For that, we must reflect on our own attitudes and mindsets, ensuring that as individuals making up the team, we’re each pursuing a higher purpose: winning.
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 – 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
I always tell my audience that 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, 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. In which area of your life do you want to lose? In which area are you not becoming more of who you are and reaching your full potential?
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 instead, embracing the values of creative adaptability, transformation, and modification. It’s about finding the opportunity to change and alter thinking, strategy, and behavior before circumstances force us to.
6. Cause
This means focusing on service before self and remaining constantly aware of the why behind change and competition. In order 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”…
Although clarifying the cause individually and collectively helps us start a winning streak, nothing of a long-term nature 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.
8. Contribution
This 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 to realize our potential. Commitment to total contribution allows us to always rise to the occasion, which in turn inspires our teammates. All of us together become the players we were born to be.
9. Cooperation
This Commitment is chemistry in action, especially during diff cult times. Cooperation means listening without judgment, 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, which is 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.
Four Suggested Action Steps to Building a Team With a Winning Mentality
Now that you have an overview of the 10 Commitments let’s talk about some actions you can take to forge your winning mentality – and build your winning team.
1. Set aside time
You aren’t going to stumble onto significance in your spare time. 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 single 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 for executive coaching services.
Did you enjoy this article? Here are three more to help you:
The Law of Obedience: leading you to a life of significance
Ethical Forgiveness
Are You Prepared for the Whole Truth? You Should Be
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