If you’re an executive, business owner, or a CEO that deals with a lot of different employees. I have a question for you. If you took your organization and took only 10 team members from a year ago and applied 86 new team members all at the same time, do you believe that in less than a year you would be on top of your industry and competing with the best while having your entire team aligned and following the vision of your organization?
The reason I ask this question is anyone who’s out there that follows college football knows the phenomenon that is currently going on with Deion Sanders, “Prime Time” and the Colorado Buffaloes.
Last year, the Colorado Buffaloes were 1 – 11, meaning they won 1 game and lost 11. Deion Sanders was recruited from Jackson State who turned that AA into a winning program to be the coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. He came in and only kept 10 remaining players from the year before and recruited 86 new players. So, he pretty much had a brand-new team of individuals on the field. However, they came out, the first game of the season where they were a 20-point underdog and won against a team, in their stadium who were in the national championship the year before. They followed that up by beating Nebraska in their second game. They are now 2 – 0 and have won twice as many games as they did last year. Deion Sanders has taken this group of young men and turned them into an aligned team that believe that they are winners. And trust me, if you watch them play, they are winners.
I’m going to share you five things that you can learn from following Coach Prime’s lead to maybe also take your team to the next level.
What was the first thing he did? He attracted and recruited the right players. Now, I said attracted because Deion Sanders is just known as the Playmaker. He has his own repertoire. Any young man would love to learn from one of the greats. He also recruited the best players, but not only because of their talent, but also because of their character.
Number two, he aligned them with the vision of being great, of being a great team, of going out and competing and being their best. Their actual phrase is, “We’re coming.” Letting everybody know ‘here we are and we’re coming for you’.
Number three, he turned all those individuals into a team of believers that they can be the best and they are absolutely showing up in that manner.
Number four, he holds them accountable for more than just being good players. He holds them accountable for being good men, good brothers, good sons, and good team mates. He’s teaching these young men not to just be great on the playing field, to be great as a team, and also be representatives and role models in their community.
And number five, he coaches his players more than just being the players, just like I said. He holds them accountable to a standard of excellence and expects them to show up that way each and every play whether it be practice or in the game each and every day.
I would encourage you that if you really want to learn some things about team building, do a little investigating on the Colorado Buffaloes and Coach Prime, Deion Sanders, of his journey to greatness with this team.
Think about it again for a moment, 86 new players, only 10 from the year before and they are going out and showing up as one of the best teams in the country right now. Think about that for your organization, aligning all these new team members all at once and getting them believing, all going in the right direction and competing with the best in your industry.
The Colorado Buffaloes are most definitely getting everyone’s attention as they have put all those in the college football world on notice that they are coming.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com