Watching television is not always a waste of time. In fact, sometimes it can provide important life lessons that we would otherwise overlook. John Coleman of Fast Company experienced just that when he recently watched the final season of “Friday Night Lights,” a drama that centered on high school football in Texas.
Coleman was inspired when Coach Eric Taylor had the difficult task of getting his team to work as a unit again. In one memorable scene, he walked into the locker room and wrote “State” on the whiteboard, indicating at the collective goal of winning a championship.
What Taylor possessed as a leader was an ability to communicate his purpose, a characteristic that can get entire teams on board with a single goal in mind.
“If those you lead don’t understand what you believe in, what your goals are, and what you personally are willing to do to help get there, they will never be able to maximize their collective potential,” Coleman writes.
This purpose will evolve and change over time, but knowing what it is and how to communicate it will get your over a major hurdle. More often than not, company leaders aren’t able to communicate to staff what the company’s goals are or what the identity of the organization is. Providing a clear, concise purpose will get employees on board with what you want the company to be, and will likely put a bit of fire back into a team atmosphere.
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