Most people want to succeed. Most leaders want to succeed. Yet, grasping success often proves to be an exhausting and unfulfilling pursuit. Success is difficult to procure and maintain because often we are looking at through the wrong lens. Real success is elusive. Real success is exhilarating. Real success is different from the versions that are paraded in front of leaders today. Real success is not about you. Real success is about who. Real success is the tireless, enduring efforts to bring out the best in others.

Winston Churchill said,

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

There is no understanding of success until there is an understanding of failure. The only reason we value winning is that we understand what it is to lose. You will never lead and develop people effectively until the people you lead have the ability to fail. Fail proof systems are not systems that develop strong people or strong leaders. The idea that “everyone is a winner” is the same notion that “everyone can be a leader.” It is utter nonsense. In order to win, you have to know what it means to lose. In order to succeed, you have to know what it means to fail.

First, Failure is a Great Teacher.

The most successful people that I have studied did not find “success” because they found a superhighway. They most often found a broken road. They traveled back roads, dead ends and took the long way around. It takes time for success to unfold. Failure is how success unfolds. Instead of thinking of failure as defeat, simply see failure as a part of the unfolding of success. Imagine that you have a piece of paper and inside of it contains a message, but in order to read the message, the paper has to be unfolded. Success is very much the same way, except the folds are often not as simple or as easy to open as a piece of paper. But, the idea is that success is not hidden, it is simply folded up. Failure is the process in which we learn how to unfold the message. This process of learning to unfold is a great teacher, a great instructor.

More than information, successful people find the right instructor.

There are different elements to your life, different aspects, some people refer to them as buckets. Despite, whatever you call them, they represent different areas of your life that you need learning in: vocational, relational, emotional, spiritual, financial, etc. Every area that you need learning in, it is more important that you find the right instructor more than the right information. A seasoned instructor knows how to apply the information. Information doesn’t apply itself, it has to have a human to apply it (even computers need a human to code it). It is easy to look across the street or next door and think that the person next to you has find the “right” instructor. Listen, that might be the right instructor for them and the wrong instructor for you! The right instructor for you will seek to understand you, speak truth to you and be willing to walk with you. Trying to get someone to sit down with you who doesn’t have time or the patience for you is probably not the right instructor for you.

Instructors are more valuable than modern mentors.

Avoid the idea of modern mentoring. Modern mentoring is nothing more than networking. Networking is simply the idea that you build a network of relationships with other people in positions that ultimately may be able to help you. This is primarily what modern mentoring has become. Avoid this. An instructor is someone who has more experience than you, even if you think you have more information than them. Don’t worry about expertise or pedigree, find someone who has experience that has been earned over time. The word mentor actually was the name of Odyssey’s chief servant who was entrusted to train his son in everything he could not for the rest of his life because Odyssey was going on his quest. That does not remotely describe modern mentoring. If you want to be successful in your vocation, in your application, in your relationships, in your finances, then you must find an instructor. When you find this instructor you must listen to them and apply. Listening and applying is the process which we humble ourselves and learn.

What Real Success Looks Like: Others

Real success is not a large bank account, freedom to do whatever you want when you want, public recognition or fame. All of those things can be taken, stolen or wrecked. Real success is living a life that brings the best out of others. This cannot be touched, stolen or taken. When you bring the best out of others, you extend life. Inside of each one of us, there is more–more life, more soul. Bringing the best out of others is hard work. What I love about the Bible is the emphasis on the “one anothers.” In fact, there are almost 60 different times where “one another” is used in the Bible. I love the first line in Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life. It simply says, “It’s not about you.” Real success looks like the serious, serving to bring the best out in one another or in others.

Real success is only found as you learn who you are.

Forget your why.  Forget your purpose. You need to know who. Who you are. Who you follow. Who you actually are, not who you think you are. Who others think you are. Who is more important than why. Why comes after who, not before. Self-awareness is at an all time low in the world. We are inundated with information, technological advancements, convenience and movement. All of this deludes our sense of who we really are. You will never help others become their best until you learn how to bring the best out of yourself. If you aren’t becoming the best version of you, how will you ever help others become the best versions of them? You won’t because you can’t. Leaders who find success in developing others aren’t in a lifelong pursuit to understand who they are. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I quickly understood who I am (a sinner) and who I needed to be (a sinner saved by Christ’s grace). I am not in the process of trying to figure out who I am. This allows me to more freely help others discover who they are and what they are capable of. This has allowed me to face reality of what I can do and what I don’t have any business doing.

Success is Serious

Intentional has become a buzzword. I’ve switched to serious. To be serious means “thoughtful, subdued and advancing in a dignified, composed manner.” If there was ever a time to be serious, it is now. The world seems out of control inflamed by passion that burns out quickly looking for constant stimulation. I have found that serious people might not be as “fun” as others, but they certainly are often more successful at bringing out the best in others. I have seen that intentionality has lost its seriousness. There is a graveness that has a quiet energy that is getting lost by all our intentionality. You have to take people serious and treat them serious to bring the best out of them. If they could bring it out of themselves, they would. This is the power and value of an instructor–a serious instructor.

Real Success is Really Hard Work

Most people who want to “develop” others simply are doing it for the wrong reason. This wrong reason is simply self. They are doing it for themselves. If this is at the core of why you are trying to “develop” others for self-preservation, then you will never find real success. You are simply using others. They are rungs on your ladder. Real success is hard work, because you have to lower yourself and be willing to be a rung in the ladder of another. Serving others is hard work, but it is in the serving of one soul to another that the best is both discovered and can be cultivated. The best in another is most often buried deep within their soul. This why failure is such an effective teacher, because we are confronted with our own ability at the deepest level of who we are: our soul. Failure pulls back the layers of pride, deception and dishonesty that we surround our souls with.

Why are there so few so good at unlocking and bringing out the best in others?

Because most people only want to work on the surface. Because most people want steps or a formula. There are no steps or formula for the soul. Failure deeply affects the human at the level of his or her soul. The soul is deep.  So, when you have a skilled instructor willing to wade past the layers of pride, emotion, will, mind and enter the realm of the soul, there is a vulnerability that exists.  This vulnerability is also where our deepest fears reside. By our nature, we are very selective of who we let get this close. Summarily, we don’t ever do the deepest work which makes the greatest difference, wrestling with the soul.

Wrestling with the soul of another is the often only real way to bring the best out within them. We see a glimpse of this in the Bible when Jacob wrestled the Angel of the Lord (Genesis 32:22-32). After Jacob finished wrestling with the Angel, he wept (Hosea 12:4). I believe he wept because he had a break through at the level of his soul. Weeping comes from deep, from our soul. The Angel was bringing the best out of Jacob.

Success has to be fought for. Success more a collision than a collection. 

Success is not given away. Success is not a prize that you open a box and find. You do not collect success. You collide with success. You get on the road least traveled and you get to work. Most people aren’t willing to do the work of collision that is needed to knock off the  Real success is bringing the best out of others. Others have to be fought for. Occasionally, out of love you have to fight them for them. This is tough work. You have to really be humble to lower yourself and be willing to wound the one you care about with the truth at times. You have to be willing to take the relationship to a difficult place so you can get through the difficult place. Most people simply want to avoid what is difficult. Bringing the best out in others means you have to get to difficult and work through it. No one walks quickly through that which is difficult. It has to be worked through. This is the hardest work, but the most valuable work which leads to the most success.

Spend your time where it can make the biggest difference.

I have spent my leadership career simply trying to bring the best out in others. Their success becomes my success and there is a shared, untouchable joy that my soul knows that no one can take from me. I do not need riches or fame or freedom, because I have friends. Seeing these friends who have come to me and allowed me to instruct them, each on their own unique timeline, gain success brings the greatest level of satisfaction to my soul. This level of satisfaction is never gained by a paycheck, recognition or reward. This level is deep and worth the effort to see another’s best come to the surface. This only happens when I spend time with others. Thus, I spend the majority of my time at this stage of my life and career trying not only to invest in others, but to bring out the best in others. My life well-lived will be evidenced by the lives of others well-lived.

Real success is found in bringing out the best in others. This is also the hardest success.

(c) Alex Vann

Leadership Lesson: Where there is little anticipation there is little excellence.

“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”  (Proverbs 22:3)

Anticipation is the process by which you project what may come and then move to meet that projection. Anticipation is observable probability. There is big difference in waiting expectantly than waiting indifferently. Leaders who simply show up asking for mediocrity.

Anticipation signals preparation. Leaders who don’t prepare won’t anticipate—they can’t. Preparation puts you in the best position to anticipate future outcomes or situations, thus more readily increasing productivity and moving to head off issues as they arise. Issues that are unchecked become problems. A problem unsolved becomes a crisis. A crisis is a sign that excellence is lacking. Most crises can be avoided or quickly solved if they are anticipated.

Excellence is a relentless pursuit of the impossible. You become what you pursue. There is no successful pursuit without anticipation.

There is no anticipation without observation. Your aperture must open wider and wider to be more and more effective at anticipation. The best athletes, the best leaders are the best at anticipating because they move quicker, move better and move earlier to avoid trouble or seize an opportunity.

Leaders who fail to anticipate get punished. And when a leader gets punished, the organization gets shaken. This is called being blindsided. In football, we used to call it getting “ear-holed.” Wearing a helmet significantly limits your vision. If an opposing player hits you in the blindside, you typically get your feet separated from the earth and go flying. Getting hit in the earhole is getting blindsided. To avoid getting blindsided, leaders must keep their head on a swivel, their eyes open and their hands free.

A distracted leader is a leader who will get blindsided. A leader who is hyper-focused on a single element or a strategy, but loses sight of the bigger picture, will get blindsided. It’s pride that most often puts leaders in a position to be blindsided. Pride actually decreases awareness because it increases assurance. Unchecked assurance is arrogance. Arrogance in a leader will spread through an organization. When the organization is shaken the force of the shaking reveals the cracks or blind spots  that pride has caused.

Anticipation is where awareness meets action. Anticipation comes because of awareness. You can’t anticipate what you aren’t aware of. A leader must be relentless in his or her awareness. If not their body, then their mind and their questions most roam and travel the width and breadth of the organization to asses readiness and productivity.

“The wise man avoids evil by anticipating it”
Publilius Syrus

(C) Alex Vann

Leadership Thought: Every leader must be a teacher.

Your job as a leader is to first be a teacher.

Before you are a commander, be a teacher. A commander who never teaches is simply a tyrant. A commander who first teaches, and second commands, becomes an instructor.  Remember, a principal doesn’t teach students; the teacher does! The best principals/commanders are those who taught first and never stopped teaching.  Every leader needs to be teaching every team member as much as possible, whenever possible.

Teaching takes time.

Make time to teach. Plan time to teach. This is why many leaders aren’t effective as teachers. Teaching is hard work and often slow work. There is often little recognition for the teacher. But, the most successful students had the most effective teachers. A leader who teaches must make the time and take the time to teach. A leader cannot pass by someone who is in need of education. But, this takes something else that is costly and time-consuming: discipline.

Teaching takes discipline. 

In order to teach you have to stop. This means you have to stop what you are doing, and make what you are doing the actual teaching. Teaching does not happening by osmosis–that’s called modeling. Teaching is disciplined, intentional instruction with accountability.

Teachers must give tests.

If you think you are “teaching,” but never give a test, then you have taught nothing. All teaching requires a test. Without a test, all you have done is transmit information or attempt to pass on information. This is called a download or really, an information dump. People don’t retain what is dumped on them. The test is part of the teaching process. And the test divides what has been dumped and what has been retained.  It takes discipline, discomfort and the willingness to be unpopular to check for understanding–to dig through the information dump. Lazy leaders dump information on their followers. Diligent leaders teach and test their followers retention of that information.

Teachers check for understanding.

One of the best teachers I have ever met is Jay Entlich. He leads a perennial national powerhouse Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia.  He has been to the D2 Women’s Soccer National Championship two consecutive seasons. Jay is a great coach, but really, he is a phenomenal teacher. My daughters have attended Coach Jay’s soccer camps for years and one thing that I have always observed Coach Jay doing is something I heard him call, “checking for understanding.” He, literally, would in the middle of whatever he was doing and stop the instruction, stop the drill and call everyone together to “check for understanding.” It is a test of sorts. He tests to see if the players understood what he and his coaching staff were trying to implement–if they got it. If the players weren’t getting it, Coach Jay didn’t get frustrated, he just went back and explained it again or demonstrated it himself. Once he had ascertained that the group at large had the concept, he would then blow the whistle for the drill or scrimmage to continue. There’s no teaching without a test. Don’t download information and disappear: Check for understanding!

Follow the leader, follow the teacher.

If you want followers, start teaching others. People follow  the one who teaches them. If you wonder why people aren’t following you, it’s most likely because you’ve never taught them anything. Because, teaching takes time, you end up spending time with those you are teaching. This helps bond you with those you are trying to lead.

Leaders can’t stop learning.

Leaders have to keep learning themselves. The appetite to learn keeps you from every feeling like you have arrived. When a leader arrives, the leader relaxes. They want someone else to teach. The best leaders have the best material. Others benefit when you share your material, your experience and your life with them.

Leaders that don’t teach have a short life span and little legacy. Leaders that teach lengthen their life span and strengthen their legacy.

(c) Alex Vann

Leadership Lesson:

If you want to eat the fruit, tend the tree.

“Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, he who guards his master will be honored.”
Proverbs 27:18

Guard what you are given.

The best way to advance, to grow in your organization and to be honored by promotion or advancement is to be a great guard of what you have been given. Follow and protect what your boss has given you, before you ask or look for more. Think of your “job” as tending a tree or guarding the boss. Your job is not only to look after the tree, but ensure the tree is as productive as possible.

It will take effort to tend the tree:

Absolute Loyalty – Loyalty is all or nothing. There is no neutrality towards the tree. Indifference is the same as ignorance and disloyalty. If you can’t give absolute loyalty, move on.

Unwavering Attention – You must be attentive and focused on the tree and guarding what you have been given. You must allow discomfort or distraction to cause you to waver.

A Humble  Attitude– You will never be the tree or become the master. You may get more fruit and have more honor from the master. But you must always have the attitude of one who serves, one who is low.

Delayed Gratification & Appreciation – Don’t work for instant gratification or instant appreciation. Do the work because it’s been given to you to do, not to get a pat on the back or credit. Don’t work for credit, work for your master. Let the satisfaction of a job well done be your fulfillment and you will accomplish a lot more and out last a lot of others.

Refusal to Quit (Resilience) – Too many people never see the fruit of their labor because they quit before the harvest. Too many workers have walked away from the master before he handed out his rewards. Don’t be a quitter. Resolve your spirit to stay until the job is done and the harvest has come.

Do the Work – There is work to be done and a time to do it. If you want to eat the fruit, do the work. This means, take initiative. Stop waiting and watching when you should be working. There is no luck. There is preparation, hard work and opportunity. Those who take the initiative and go to work see the best fruit.

Don’t get tired of tending the tree. You don’t own the tree, but work like you do. I learned at an early age in my work career, work like you own it, but never believe you are the owner:  always answer to another. Don’t get tired of guarding the master. Know and embrace your role. You can’t lead without serving.

For the Christian, Jesus is both tree and master. Tend the tree, serve the master. He will both make you fruitful and honor you. He has promised both to those who are faithful in their stewardship and their service. Jesus was very clear, “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24).

Who are you serving? What tree are you tending?

If you want your boss to bless you, guard him/her. If you want your field to feed you, tend it. Don’t get caught watching when you should be working. Don’t get caught dreaming when you should be developing.

If you want to eat the fruit, tend the tree. If you want the master to honor you, guard him.

(c) Alex Vann

Thought of the Week:

If you are going to lead well, you better learn well. 

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”

-John F. Kennedy

Too many leaders simply stop learning. Instead of seeing themselves as a student, they see themselves as an instructor. You may be or need to instruct others in your role, but great leaders continue to see themselves as a student and apply themselves to learning. 

A good student knows they don’t have all the answers. A bad student thinks they have all the answers. A good student prepares for questions that may be asked. A poor student shows up and isn’t ready when asked a question. A good student stays humble–humble enough to learn.

Learning focuses forward, yet glances back. 

You don’t want to be so focused forward as a learner you lose sight of where you have come from. Simultaneously, you don’t want to get stuck looking back thinking “Look how far I’ve come.” Instead it’s a glance back. The glance back helps you remember when you were further back in the learning curve and reminds you others are there right now. You don’t glance back to pat yourself on the back. You glance back to see who is coming along and learning from you. The glance back also gives you a quick measurement of the progress you are making. But as long as you are living, you need to be learning.

Learners share what they’ve learned with others. 

This process of sharing what you’ve learned is different from passing information. Passing information costs very little. Sharing information comes at a cost. The best learning often has the highest cost—not price. Be willing to suffer in order that you might learn all that there is to learn. Then use what you have suffered through or struggled through to make the path easier or more fluid for others. 

Great leaders have great discussions.

Sharing what you’ve learned is the basis for a great discussion. Don’t fall into the trap of just passing and collecting information. Learners develop the art and skill of the great discussion. This is more than a text message or a quick phone call. This is a prolonged discussion that engages your mind, heart and soul with the presence of another. This is truly where learning often formulates or takes shape. 

There is a verse in the Bible that highlights this principle, “Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor“ (Galatians 6:6). As you have opportunity to share, share with the one you are learning from. This does two things: (1) forces you to articulate what you say you’ve learned and  (2) encourages the one who you’ve learned from. 

You wont lead very effectively for very long once you’ve stopped learning. Therefore, use every activity, task, assignment and interaction as an opportunity to learn.

(c) Alex Vann

Successful leaders have successful teams. Successful teams have a high function capability regardless of talent, number or skill. Because successful teams are able to cover for and carry one another. I have found that truly successful teams despite if they are in academics, ministry or business all do the following well:

“None of us is as smart as all of us”

-Ken Blanchard

1. Common Definition: Successful teams have a common definition of success. If your team does not have the same definition for what success is, how you will achieve it and what happens once you get there, then your  team will never have a chance at unity. Terms have to be collectively defined. Not only do terms have to be defined. They have to be accepted. Common definitions come from mutual agreements. Mutual agreements will never happen without some sort of personal compromise.

Successful teams all speak the same language. Diversity is great, but you need a “team language.” I don’t mean the same tongue as in English or Spanish, but rather the language of understanding. A team language leads in the same direction and allows everyone to feel like they are a part of the team.  Using hyperbole, sarcasm, innuendo, or inside stories do not help getting everyone on the same page and creates isolation among individual members. Communication is key in creating common definitions. Common definitions create clarity. Successful teams always function with simplicity and clarity. Simplicity, sincerity and clarity foster understanding. 

2. Shared Vision: Successful teams not only have a common vision, but they are actually good at sharing it. Successful teams learn to share. Sharing is simply a willingness to divide what you have with others. Selfish teams are unsuccessful teams because they aren’t willing to share themselves, their ideas or even their discomfort with those on the team. A selfish team is an immature team. A shared vision is a selfless act on the part of each individual member to sacrifice what they want or how they feel in order to achieve the common vision. In order for teams to accomplish or reach a common goal it will always take a strong measure of selflessness and great sacrifice. Selfish people will never give up their right to get their own way and they will never sacrifice. This unwillingness to sacrifice demonstrates an immaturity that says, “This team must be run the way that I think and the way that I want.” Selfless people simply say, “How can I help you get better?” Sacrificial people simply say, “Tell me what needs to be done.” This attributes to the shared vision. When you get out of the way, it is easier to see a common goal or shared vision. But, too often selfish individuals are in their own way of seeing a shared future. A shared vision always paints a picture of a shared future. The problem that many teams have is that individuals on the team don’t see a shared future with the others on the team. They will never find success until they do.

Shared vision presents a shared future. Successful teams always have a picture of a shared future.  A shared future is never focused around a single individual.

3. Unity: Successful teams always fight for unity, they don’t fight in it. A divided team is a dead team. Factions are the quickest way to kill momentum and delay any sort of shared vision and common goals. Factions are where individuals group together to do what they think is best. Teams don’t ever work well when individuals do their own things. Smart coaches don’t pick only the most talented individuals, but also the most harmonious individuals. A team can never achieve unity, which is the unanimous joining together without harmony. Harmony means that everyone is in agreement. The French National Soccer (Football) Team is a primary example. In 2018, they won the World Cup. It was a talented team, but the team was not selected on talent alone. Didier Deschamps had become the head coach. In fact, the French National Team had left the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 in shame and division with players even refusing to train. According to the Guardian, “he has placed the importance of squad harmony above nearly everything else. Anyone who threatens that unity is cast out immediately” (White, 2018).

“We have good players in our team but that is not all. We are a true family.” -Benjamin Mendy, French Soccer Player & World Cup Winner

Unless a team becomes a healthy family it will never achieve the level of success that it could without the strong bonds and deep devotion that are able through family bonds.

4. Humility: Successful teams will never function to their fullest without humility. Humility is a more powerful bonding agent than pride. Pride actually pushes people apart. Humility pulls people together. Proud people don’t like to suffer. Humble people accept suffering as a necessary part of the journey and are willing to suffer with one another.  In fact, humble team mates never let others on their team suffer alone. Until the entire team embraces humility, a team will never truly achieve unity. Humility is the willful lowering of self. Personal goals and personal ambitions must be lowered below team goals. This is a challenge for many skilled and talented individuals because it’s their ability that they see has gotten them this far. A single, individual player will never achieve what a group of dedicated, humble players can achieve. There is power in numbers.

Momentum never comes from beating one’s chest and saying “Look at me.” It is often the most selfless act that creates the most momentum. In fact, the quickest way to lose the energy is to point to individual accolades or accomplishments. Leaders must lead with an example of humility. Humility allows the team or organization’s momentum to grow.  It takes humility to forgive a slight. It takes humility to break up factions and cliques that are dividing a team. It takes humility to admit that you are wrong. It takes humility to take your work level to another level. And it takes humility to serve one another. See, successful teams learn how to serve one another and not be served. Arrogance demands others serve you. Humility serves others. Successful teams are a collection of servants. A great compliment in European football (soccer) is to be called a “servant” of the club. If more players took a humble, serving attitude more success would be had sooner.

5. Transparency. Successful teams may wear helmets, but they don’t wear masks. Successful teams are transparent teams. Transparency is the ability for light to pass through an object. It means you can see through it. Teams that are not transparent create questionable environments where motivations and ambitions are hidden, yet undeniable forces that actually serve to hinder the team rather than help the team. These hidden ambitions wreak havoc on a team’s ability to build a culture, find success or win a championship. Transparent teams are teams that work in the light, not the dark. The reason a team fumbles and stumbles is often not from a lack of preparation, but from a lack of transparency. When an individual member of the team suspects another member of the teams motives or ambitions, it creates a rift or a divide. These kind of cracks can quickly turn into canyons.

Transparency creates a climate for conflict. But, it’s conflict that you can see. Teams will have conflict. Conflict that you can see is conflict that can be addressed. Conflict that you cannot see is erosive. Conflict is not bad unless you avoid it or turn it into a battle royale. Conflict is a part of life and you will experience it. There is healthy conflict and there is unhealthy conflict. Healthy conflict actually is where differing ideas or opinions meet and worked through without penalty or punishment for either party. Unhealthy conflict is where ideas, personalities or the past meet in a collision. A collision is force on force where neither party wants to or is willing to budge. This is always unhealthy and destroys team chemistry. Successful teams have great chemistry. Unsuccessful teams have volatile or explosive chemistry. Leaders must take the initiative to discover and uncover the conflict.

Transparency creates trust. There will never be trust without transparency. Transparency takes vulnerability. If you are wearing masks or hiding things, if you lack integrity and character, then you will never get vulnerable. Many people fear vulnerability. This fear of vulnerability will prevent your team from bonding and trusting one another. Everyone has flaws. There was one perfect man, Jesus and he is in heaven. We all fall short. Acknowledging your shortcomings and your vulnerabilities if handled with maturity can actually lead to a stronger, more trusting team.

“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability” -Patrick Lencioni

6. Forgiveness: Feelings are going to get hurt. This too is a fact of life. Successful teams must get over individual hurt, perceived slights and manufactured offenses. Then, they must actually forgive one another. They must forgive for things that were done and things that weren’t done. Today everyone is “in their feelings.” Successful teams don’t follow their feelings, they follow their leader. This means individual members of the team must learn to overcome offenses, especially when the leader or other members of the team are unaware that an offense has been given. More offense is taken today than actually given. So, don’t be quick to take offense. Rather, be quick to forgive. Forgiveness is not a blind mind wipe. Forgiveness is the intentional act of releasing someone from a slight, offense or harm that has some way affected you. Forgiveness is not only a gift you give others, but a gift you give yourself.

Leaders and teams who are quick to forgive, are able to be a more fluid, synchronized organization or unit and will accomplish more. Often, the overall leader will need to take responsibility to investigate the cause of disharmony. This may mean the leader needs to make an individual apology to someone who feels hurt or slighted. Forgiveness always takes humility. Many proud leaders harm their teams simply because their pride will not allow them to admit that they did something wrong or didn’t do something more that they could have done.

7. Love: Successful teams have a genuine care and concern born of love for one another. Until a team learns to take good care of one another, they will have a hard time reaching their goals. The path to reaching your goals is a difficult one. A difficult path takes a toll on those traveling it. When you travel together, you have to stay together. You can’t merely exist with each other. Successful teams go to another level: genuine care and concern. This means successful teams tend to the well-being of their members. Some members need more than others. Some members are able to give more than others. Love is the tie that binds. Love is the bond that you build from. See, without love, you will never have the heart that you need to achieve what you set out for. Successful teams have a heart that not only beats to achieve the goal, but really beats for its individual members. Love means when one suffers, all suffer. Love means when one hurts, all hurt. Love means when one has joy, all take joy. Love is the deepest and most powerful element that great teams have.

Jesus said it best, “Greater love has no one than this,  than somone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

(c) Alex Vann