On the heels of a fantastic National Championship win by Michigan – Go Blue!! – I wanted to share my deep appreciation for the late, great Wolverine Coach Bo Schembechler and his 1983 "The Team" speech. It is short but inspiring and rings true for me. Here is just a little excerpt:
"… there's gonna be one Team that's gonna play solely as a Team. No man is more important than The Team. No coach is more important than The Team. The Team, The Team, The Team, and if we think that way, all of us, everything that you do, you take into consideration what effect does it have on my Team? …. We're gonna win the championship again because we're gonna play as team, better than anybody else in this conference, we're gonna play together as a team. "
As a leader, I believe that if I prioritize my team’s development: above self, above the metrics, the outputs, above optics and all the politics that could creep into our daily work - that achieving the goal naturally follows.
I know this is not a popular view, especially in fundraising where the dollar goal reigns supreme. Many years ago I, was not hired for a director of development position because I stated this when asked if hired, what my top priority should be. Even though they shared that the short-staffed team’s morale was beyond low and needed help getting on track, they wanted to hear that dollars would be my primary driver.
How might a team reach an ambitious dollar goal without knowing what the “why” is, nor have a clear path to achieving the goal, without training, without being in the “right seat on the bus,” without a strong culture of trust, without out shared knowledge or values, nor agreed upon practices, without knowing that their leader is behind them 100% personally and professionally?
Prioritizing the team, building an impenetrable culture and showing up for one another as professionals and as humans even when it’s hard, gives my team the security to go out to our donors and our community as the most trained, most prepared, most passionate advocates of the Conservatory’s mission. They are supported, challenged, they take risks and sometimes don’t hit the mark but do it without fear – together we learn and improve. That team culture is how we have handily beat our annual goals by six or seven figures each year. And that is why I don’t regret what I said in that interview. I stand by it.
The Go Team! pennant pictured above was a gift everyone on our development team received from our newest teammate who joined the team in October. How validating and heart-warming it was that she read our culture so perfectly! The Team. The Team. The Team! Good luck to us all as we work toward our goals in 2024, but for me and my team, we are more than that annual dollar goal. Much More! Go Team!
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5moI could not be more excited to join this esteemed group and support Andy Russell and his team as they use the power of public media to do something amazing for the people of SoCal!!