This is the final post in my blog series which covers three management consulting solutions I learned from coaches in my life. I apply these solutions to my work life in Management Consulting. This blog explores the impacts of humility in leadership.

One of my favorite coaches was my high school swimming and water polo coach. He recently announced his retirement after teaching and coaching for more than 35 years. He could have announced his retirement prior to the high school swimming season and enjoyed a long (and well deserved) victory lap throughout the season. Instead, he chose to announce his retirement after the season was over. This kind of behavior is typical of the coach – being humble in a position of leadership.

My coach was a leader, but he was never the center of attention. This behavior helped create one of the best team atmospheres I have ever experienced. Some of my teammates won state championships and went on to compete at the highest levels of collegiate swimming. Most would consider this success for a swimming program. I think if you asked my coach, he would say he is more proud of how many of his former student-athletes are now coaches of their own programs.

Leadership through humility can help build a high-performing team and more importantly, helps builds future leaders.

Attention, those of you who are in a leadership or supervisory position in a company: you are in that role for a reason. Maybe you were super successful in your previous role. Or maybe you were promoted due to your experience. Whatever the reason, don’t change who you are, and stay humble! I hired and promoted folks who were successful in their individual contributor roles who turned out to be terrible managers! After being promoted, some completely changed how they treated colleagues, others made themself the center of attention and others went into their new office and never came out!

Managers: you are there to build (or enhance) a high-performing team and build future leaders. Be engaged. Give folks a shot. Stay humble.

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This blog series covers three management consulting solutions I learned from coaches in my life. I apply these solutions to my work life in management consulting. Previously I discussed engagement, and how to inspire your team. This entry explores the benefit of giving the inexperienced folks a shot.

Millions of kids play high school sports in the United States. Sports are challenging, fun and a great way to get more connected to your school and community.

In high school lacrosse, for example, a team plays roughly 15 games. These games have a length of 48 minutes each with 10 players on the field. This means that there are 7200 minutes for players to be on the field. This is enough time for EVERYONE to get meaningful minutes.

How does a coach make sure everyone gets on the field?

One of my son’s soccer coaches had a large roster of very deserving players who all wanted playing time. The coach knew he couldn’t couldn’t coach and manage playing time during games. So he asked me to keep track of the team’s stats.

I created a neat spreadsheet (because that is what I do!) that kept track of each player’s time on the field among other things and provided that to the coach weekly, so he could ensure every player got at least 50% playing time over the course of the season. Conversely, I have seen coaches that are afraid to play more inexperienced players in what I think is a plan to avoid potential failure.

However, if you don’t play your more inexperienced players, it causes problems down the line when your experienced players move on and you are left with a group of ALL inexperienced players. I have realized that you can’t allow fear to dictate how you play (or work) and you need to allow people to fail.

Failure can be some of the best training!

Personally, I have learned a lot from my failures throughout my career. When I first started in Management Consulting, I worked on a project with a huge broadband cable provider. My project lead gave me a critical portion of a presentation to our client, who was a company executive.

Although the slides in the presentation were solid, I stumbled through my portion of the presentation. It certainly was not my finest hour as a presenter. But, the project lead pulled me aside, gave me feedback and we created a plan to ensure I would be better prepared for the next presentation to our clients.

Since then, whenever I have a presentation in front of important clients, project sponsors, stakeholders, executives, or even my team, I rehearse. I practice my portion out loud, prior to the meeting.

SIDE NOTE: to coaches who might be reading this – this lesson applies ESPECIALLY for end of year banquets. I can’t tell you how many times I have been to a team banquet and the coaches haven’t practiced their remarks prior to giving them in front of administrators, the team, and all their parents! What a disaster!

Do you have an opportunity to allow a more inexperienced team member to get in the game?

What is one lesson that you have learned from failure that you apply in your work life?

This blog series covers three management consulting solutions I learned from coaches in my life. I apply these solutions to my work life in management consulting. This blog explores engagement, and how to inspire your team.

When we moved to Colorado from the East Coast eleven years ago, we won the coaching jackpot! My oldest son would be coached by a former Major League Soccer All-Star. He coached players at the highest levels of soccer in the U.S.! It was clear from day one that the coach loved the game and he loved this team.

Even when it was raining or snowing, he found fields that weren’t closed so he could train them. His practices were interactive, and he was always in the middle of training, doing the drills and scrimmaging with them. He never asked them to do anything that he hadn’t already done himself.

Through his engagement with the kids, he was able to build a real sense of trust and respect with the boys. Thus, could hold them to very high standards. He held them accountable to be on time, to give their best effort, to have a good attitude and to make sure they had all their equipment for each practice. You would be amazed at how many pre-teen kids forget basics such as cleats, shin guards or even water on a 90-degree day.

Flash forward five years to when I got a new job and got the worst piece of advice from a supervisor.

I walked into a new company and inherited a very experienced engineering team and the hiring manager told me that there was no need to learn the technical ins and outs of what the team did because I was just going to manage the team. I took that advice and began “managing” the team.

While I don’t look back at that role as a complete failure (we created data-driven goals, increased productivity and mitigated some long-standing issues causing friction within the team), it certainly wasn’t my finest hour. Because I was never fully invested in my team, members didn’t have a sense of trust or respect for me. This caused a myriad of problems between me and the team.

That experience taught me that engagement is a big requirement to lead and motivate others. Which is why I enjoy the management consulting team at Perficient. We have a big focus on engagement.

Some of the ways that I try to be engaged daily are easy; simple things like:

• Making eye contact
• Shutting down my laptop during one-on-one meetings
• Silencing my phone during meetings

We also adventure outside of the office and make a real effort to be in each other’s lives and community. We do lunches, coffees, happy hours, dinners, events and community service work. All with an eye toward staying engaged with one another, even though we are spread across the country at client sites during the week.

What are some new things that you can do to increase your engagement with your team?

With many years of experience being coached and observing all types of youth, high school and college coaches, I identified some key points that I apply to my work life in management consulting.

Sports are a big part of my life, and the lives of my kids. I was a swimmer and a water polo player in high school and for a couple of years in college. My son’s chose their own sporting paths. This year I have a collegiate soccer player, a youth soccer player, and two high school lacrosse players. One will play in college next year and one who doubles as a tennis player as well.

This blog series will cover three management consulting solutions I learned from those coaches, that I apply to my work life in management consulting.

1. Engagement: Getting in Deep to Inspire Your Team
2. Give the Inexperienced Folks a Shot
3. The Humble Manager

I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with you.