Listen to the Engine

Mark Eppler in his 10 Leadership Musts shares a story about listening to the Engine. Eppler says "I met a railroad engineer recently, the guy who actually drives the train. I told him that as a boy I loved seeing the engineers, whistle rope in hand, leaning out the window to inspect the tracks as they drove by. "Actually," the man said, "that's not exactly what they were doing." He went on to tell me that the primary reason the engineer sticks his head out of the cab isn't to check the tracks but to listen to the engine. "He's so familiar with his machine," the engineer said, "he can easily catch something wrong with his ears alone."

The best way to keep your engine (team) on track is to listen ... really listen ... to it daily.

How many times in our family, sports or corporate team do we NOT pay attention to the signs of the times. People are talking and we arn't listening. NHL coach Pat Quinn says "they say that coaches lose the room... but I don't agree. Coaches don't lose the room rather players start listening to a different voice."

Whose voice is your team listening to... and are you listening to see how your engine is running?

I recently visited Washington DC with my wife Jenni, where I spoke to 200 executives. I played professional Hockey for the Washington Capitals from 1978 to 1982, so for us it was amazing to return to see the core of the city again. We discovered one significant change in the Mall: the addition of the WW II Memorial between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. As we walked the periphery the words of author Walter Lord etched into the east wall, describing the impact of the Battle of Midway June 4-7 1942, caught my eye:

"They had no right to win, yet they did and in doing so they changed the war... Even against the greatest of odds there is something in the human spirit, a magic blend of skill, faith and valour that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory."

How aptly Walter Lord's words describe the difference that a hungry spirit can and will make in this next season of your life and my life.

So the question to ask ourselves building up to the busy September and the last quarters of 2008 is... what plan have we in place personally and culturally to stay HUNGRY?

Former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms was asked: "What is the most compelling coaching advice you have ever received?" His answer was a gem.

He responded that his Giants coach Bill Parcells once told him he would never be the perfect football player. "Therefore, I had to let go and take some risks; be spontaneous and not be afraid to make mistakes."

Bill Parcells is a wise coach. He was trying to get Phil Simms out of the left-brain analytical "thinking it" into the free flowing, fun, go-with-it, in the ZONE.

I call this the difference between the PLAYING MINDSET and the PRACTICE MINDSET!

Enough Hungry information, enough pondering, enough process, enough practicing! Professional athletes are wise to understand that the practice mindset is left brain and very analytical while the playing mindset is free flowing, fun, and in-the-zone reactive.

The practice mindset is the thought process on steroids. Golf is a great example. Let's compare Tiger Woods with me playing the game of golf. Playing my second round last summer, I had what I call second game expectations. With these expectations that I should be much better than I played in my first game, I'm thinking instead of just playing. My mind is focused on analyzing my hand-grip, feet-positioning, weight-transfer, and this whole open loop process of thinking through the steps is a thinking traffic jam that slows down or hijacks my performance. In a funny way our educational system teaches us to be in the practice mindset most of the time.

The opposite of me golfing is Tiger Woods playing a round. Is there a better example of someone in the zone - in the playing mindset? Tiger is loose, reactive, focused; everything just flows. Here's the key. Use the practice mindset to prepare for performing but the playing mindset when the game's on the line. Don't merge the two concepts; separate them.

A group of villagers in the Orient decided that a towering hill with a bamboo thicket on top had to be leveled so the ground could be used for farming purposes. That same hill in North America would have required the aid of giant earthmoving equipment to level the ground, but the Oriental mind didn't see things quite that way.

Thousands of people who lived in the immediate area got together and started removing the hill basket by basket of dirt. They handed down the baskets from top to bottom, and in some cases the lines were 2 miles long.

For many days it seemed as though nothing was happening; the hill was not disappearing. But over time, due to incredible teamwork and the commitment of thousands of people, the hill was leveled to a beautiful, flat farming area.

By their example, the Orientals demonstrated that when we are confronted with seemingly impossible tasks, if we break them down into small segments-or one basket at a time-we can literally accomplish the impossible and move mountains. The villagers took a liability and used TEAM to turned it into an asset.

The power of TEAM (people working side-side to accomplish a dream) is exponential and exciting. The key to this type of TEAM working together is keeping all focus and energy on the task at hand. What if some in this 2 mile line said "This is stupid and insn't working - I'm out of here?"

Here at ryanwalter.com we call this desire to accomplish a dream the HUNGRYspirit. Keeping everyone HUNGRY towards accomplishing the team goal sets the atmosphere or environment to complete the task!