#272: When picking your team, be like Nebraskans
Whether it’s sports or politics, you can wear the jersey of your choice
I would have loved to have grown up in Nebraska. Why? Simply because they do not have a professional football team. They are not automatically tied at birth with a loyalty that they have to live with. Football is not my favorite sport, but the Detroit Lions are my favorite team. I am confident that it is mainly due to the fact that I grew up in that environment. Why couldn’t my parents raise me somewhere else?
Entering every new NFL football season, there are two types of people; those that love their sport, and others that love their team. One side may be blinded by loyalty of their teams jersey (fanatics), and the others have a fierce devotion to the traditions of the game itself. You can see it every Sunday and Monday in the Twitter and Facebook comments. The team lovers blame their losses on others defending their team, the sport lovers explain things away because of the rule book.
Nebraskans can go into every season and look for a team to follow that year without any prejudice or bias baked into their decision making. They can objectively look at their choices sometime in August and say - Yep, I’ll follow the Bills this year. They can make their decisions by asking simple questions:
How did they do last year?
What did they do in the April draft?
Did they sign anyone in free agency that will help?
Going into the season, do they have any injuries, suspensions, or other negative characteristics?
What does their schedule look like?
What have they done lately?
That’s it in a nutshell. You don’t have to be a lifelong fan of the Bills. If they win this year, great! You followed a winner. If they lose? Okay it was fun while it lasted. You won’t lose sleep in the future, you may have lost a few dollars by betting on them though.
I know that the football season is almost half over, so you may be asking what does this have to do with anything?
Election time
Next week you are going to have to pick a team color. Unlike Nebraskans that have 32 teams to choose from, you only have 2 that have a chance of winning. You are either blinded by loyalty of the jersey, or your love of the game.
On November 8th the game is politics. The team colors are red and blue, and the game is your countries future. It’s not just a game that you are a spectator in. In this case you are the coach and general manager. You get to pick the starting line up. Your voice determines the plays they call in the coming years. How are you going to prepare for the game? With warpaint showing your colors? Or maybe this year, you can be a Nebraskan. You have no salary cap, there is no rules on who you must pick, it is your right to choose.
How will you prepare?
What questions are you going to ask? And what research are you going to do?
What team will fight for the rules (Constitution)?
How did the current starting line up do the past few years?
Did you lose money betting on them?
Did they take advantage of the jersey’s lovers, and disregard their promises?
What team will not only defend, but uphold the rules?
Will they break their promises?
What have they done for me lately?
It is okay to be selfish! This is your country, your life, your future. As Ronald Reagan asked so many years ago; “Are you better off today, than you were 4 years ago?”
Go into Tuesday’s voting booth like a Nebraskan. I don’t care what type of household you were brought up in. We don’t care if you are part of a group that all loves one team or the other. You can be a fan of whatever color jersey you want! Don’t let anyone tell you how to pick your team. What is important to you? Do you like the direction that the team (country) is going on that issue? What plays will the other team call that could help or hinder?
And regardless of what team wins on Tuesday, be a good sport. Shake their hands, and say good game. No matter what happens, we get to play this game a lot in our lifetimes. If both sides start playing fair, we could really have a lot of fun in the future, and there won’t be any season or lifelong injuries that we need to deal with.
For those of you looking for the business and leadership lesson
As a leader, you are paid to make decisions. Although loyalty is a characteristic you want to have as a leader, you can’t let it override what’s good for the team you are leading. Decisions need to be made on what matters most to the business, and how it will be affected by them.
As a leader, you have a vision. That is the promise of the future that you are offering the team. Should they choose to come along for the ride, this is where you are going to take them. Basically it’s your version of the Super Bowl.
Your decisions should be transparent. If they do not support your vision of winning, how do you justify them to the team and your followers? This person gets the promotion because they check boxes? Or because the deserve to be on the starting line up?
Yes, you want to be loyal to your followers. However, if you have been true to your word over the years, they will understand that qualifications mean more than time of service. Cutting a popular player to add a more impactful one, is a touch decision, but in the end the team may be better off. It’s lonely at the top, and hard work, but it will lead to a better tomorrow.
Next week, as you pull a lever, fill in a dot, or punch a ticket, remember to make your decisions like a Nebraskan! Do it for the love of the game!