7
A Culture of Character
For Everyone
Core Lessons
- It's hard to lead if you've never been taught how to do it.
- Culture isn't created by one person; it takes a buy-in from the whole team.
Chapter Summary
While Coach Washington takes a break from the whiteboard, Coach Smitty contemplates the culture he has instilled in the football program at Northwest. That culture includes the Six Pillars, but it's much more than that. In response to the concerns of his athletes, Coach Smitty established the Northwest Leadership Academy to teach his students how to lead, and the players helped to come up with the Six Commitments that all Northwest football players must adhere to as a standard of behavior. Coach Smitty notes that the culture he tried so hard to build is working, because now it has called him to be accountable for his actions.
Deep Dive Teaching
While Coach Smitty was developing the culture of the football team, one of his student athletes was courageous enough to admit that he didn't know how to lead, because he'd never been taught. Here are three steps to help you learn how to lead:
- Listen
The first step to learning anything new is listening to people who have already done it (or at least something similar). This could be listening to a person you know in the real world, watching a video online, or reading a book.
- Learn
Learning is not a passive act of absorbing information. If it was, tests would be a lot easier and wouldn't require any studying. Learning is what happens after we listen carefully. Learning happens when you repeat the information to yourself in new ways or when you think of examples from your life for how the information might apply. To learn, you have to think.
- Lead
Thought must turn into action. The only way to really figure out how to be a leader is by leading others. Some things just have to be done to be fully learned. You can listen to those who have gone before you and learn what they have to teach by thinking about it deeply. But to truly be a leader, you have to lead. It's that simple and that difficult.
For the Individual
My Key Takeaways
Journal Questions
- If you were designing a team culture, what would it look like?
- How would you get a buy-in from the team to support that culture?
- What makes a person a leader?
- Are you a leader? Why or why not?
- Who holds you accountable for your actions?
Exercise
Leadership Emblem Create an emblem to represent the type of leader that you want to be.
- If you aren't much for drawing, just draft out the ideas in words instead of sketching, but pick concrete imagery. For example, if courageous leadership is something you want to represent you, write “roaring lion” or “soldier” instead of simply “courage.”
Additional examples are provided next.
Images as Emblems
- Integrity: moose or scales of justice
- Excellence: five stars or trophy
- Purpose: arrow or bull's-eye
- Perseverance: lotus or beaver
- Patience: ox or owl
- Loyalty: dog or heart
For the Team
Discussion Questions
- What does it mean to have good character?
- What does a culture of character look like for your team?
- Why does character matter?
- What do you want your teammates to hold you accountable to?
- What makes a good leader?
Exercise
Who's It Gonna Be?
- Divide the team into small groups of three tofour people.
- Each small group must come up with words to create a cultural acronym for your team or organization, like the Six T.I.G.E.R.S. Pillars. The first letter of each pillar is one of the letters in the word “TIGERS,” which is the Northwest mascot. (Two additional examples follow.)
- You can use your mascot, your organization name, or a one-word phrase that's important to your team to create the representative acronym.
- After a set amount of time (10–15 minutes should be plenty), the groups will present their ideas. Gather the best and/or most popular ideas on the board and work together to pinpoint what set of words best fits the type of team culture you all want to have.
Cultural Acronyms
- Earnest
- Accountable
- Gritty
- Level-headed
- Eager
- Sage
- Never give up
- Open-hearted
- Robust
- Tough
- Healthy
- Warrior
- Effort
- Safe space
- Trustworthy
Notes