Barb and I took part in a well-attended mushing get-together last month at La Pine, OR. Wet trails, remnants of a few inches of snow, cool temps and overcast all lent themselves to great training conditions for fall wheeled training. Our Iditarod coaching student Chuck ran three of my dogs to round out his team of eight, and I ran the remaining 14. It was wonderful to be back in fall training after a long layoff with traveling, leadership presentations and urban mushing clinics. We were training with many teams, everyone barking and screaming to go, lots of passing with other teams large and small. Dogs and I all fell into the training regime from years past, including the most important part — when you think you’re done, just go a little bit further. This expectation and experience is so important to build trust, self-confidence, perseverance and patience — for both humans and dogs. Obviously, when I am fixated on how I want to get back for lunch, looking forward to a shower, remembering to call so-and-so…then I am not with the team, in the here and now. And they know it, immediately. Their performance lags, they act out (for example, stopping, visiting other teams, grumbling at each other, and other assorted undesirable behaviors), and they mirror the lack of focus that I am transmitting to them. But when you have a vision for what team behavior and performance you are expecting, and you focus on that, that vision is transmitted to the team as well…and they invariably rise to your expectations. I have found that maintaining that focus is the key to having a good performance. And when you are “done”, when you have completed your expected distance or time, when you have accomplished your initial goals…take everyone just a little bit further in order to bring your team’s performance to the next level. This mechanism is a powerful tool to enhance team performance. Partly because you have transmitted your initial expectations to the team, perhaps verbally, but certainly mentally and emotionally. So they expect to go and accomplish X. As you get there, you decide to add Y…let’s do one more loop, let’s take a little different way back to the truck, let’s go past the truck and not stop, etc. Then the new expectation is transmitted to the team, and when you validate that new goal with them, they experience, understand and believe they can do more than they originally thought. Most importantly, this exercise reinforces the trust that the team has in you, their leader. See, you did it! I will not ask you to do something you cannot do. Therefore…when I ask you to do something, give it everything you’ve got. Naturally, this lesson of trust needs to be established over time, and with repeated application. But by going just a little bit further, whenever possible, the team develops that trust, both in your leadership and in their own abilities. They come to believe they can accomplish any task set out before them…because they have! What situations in your life have you decided to go “a little bit further”? What results have you achieved?
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