In his article, Repeat defines 'team' in the Tacoma News Tribune, Don Ruiz focuses on the tremendous commitment of the Florida team to the team, the team, and the team. Which is no small accomplishment with a team that has so many talented achievers.
“I think this team should go down as one of the best teams in the history of college basketball,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “Not as the most talented, and not on style points, but because they encompassed what the word ‘team’ means. They did it the first year with no expectations, then they did it again with all the expectations.”
As Coach Donovan said in his TV interview after the game that Florida, won because of how they had handled the intangibles of creating a great team, not the talent on the team. I agree, but for the record, once again the winning team was the team that had recruited, attracted, or developed the most top achievers.
Billy Donovan's team leadership system, his team achievement system, covered all the bases. The team's mindsets were focused on making certain the team was unselfish, committed to helping each other improve and excel, and having a great time doing it. They knew they had the talent to repeat, but only if everyone was willing to celebrate the accomplishments of their teammates the team.
Business teams, should have the same team-centered focus, as team skills are the key to a great team. But few team leaders have learned how to motivate their staffs to work in unison with a common goal. More often a business team is a group of individuals competing with each other more than they are the competition.
The team achievement system Coach Donovan used to join the best of the best would do the same thing for a sales or service team. Any business team. The only significant difference between a sports team and a business team is the type of achievement skills they require to become a winning team. In sports, the achievement skills are athletic skills. In sales and service, the achievement skills are persuasion skills that sell both products (or service) and customer service.
In sports, the highly intensified competition drives a team to do what is necessary to compete with their competitors. In business, few organizations have a "competition system" effectively installed to make daily motivation, daily training, and the creation of an entire team of achievers who enjoy working together and helping each other succeed a part of a team leaders job description. This is especially missing in most sales and service businesses. (It's not missing at Nordstom.)
When I see a frontline sales or customer service team, I see a sports team that is either winning or losing depending on the number of top achievers on the team.
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