“I do love a locker room. It smells like potential.” Ted Lasso

I’ve been in my share of locker rooms. I’ve heard pre-game speeches, half-time pep-talks, and post-game celebrations and consolations.

My favorite half-time speech I’ve heard of occurred in 1929. 

The Rose Bowl was between Georgia Tech and the University of California. In the first half, Cal’s Roy Riegels picked up a fumble, only to run the wrong direction. A teammate eventually caught him and turned him around, but the result of the play eventually resulted in a safety. Cal would lose the game by one point, and Roy became known as “Wrong-way Reigels.”

At halftime, the locker room was quiet, and Roy sat in a corner with a towel over his head. The coach said nothing, until eventually informing the team that the players who started the first half would start the second. As Cal players walked to the field, Roy hung behind.

“Roy, did you hear me? You’re starting.”

“I can’t coach. I embarrassed myself, my team, the fans and you.”

“Roy,” said the coach, “the game is only half over. Get out there and play!”

Roy did, and continued to play, establishing himself as an All-American player.

Not All Locker Rooms Smell Like Potential

You can lose a locker room. The phrase is popular in sports, speaking of coaches or managers who, over time, have lost the confidence of the team. The coach is a voice they hear but do not heed.

You have not heard enough about this problem in business. You have seen it, perhaps been a part of it, or may be leading it:

• Employees who are going through the motions
• Teammates griping about each other
• Hostility, bitterness, cynicism towards the company
• Ego inflation
• Passive aggressiveness
• Doing the minimum that you need
• Silo work style
• Looking for a new job

When I’ve seen CIOs lose the locker room, it’s usually boiled down to:

Trust was violated. Team members were not involved in planning. The leader chose blame over accountability. Credit was hogged. Urgency dominated over priority. Empathy was lacking. Candor was absent; criticism was rampant.

Maybe you have been there or are sliding there. Maybe you are to blame, and maybe you are doing the best you can with the circumstances you have. After all, you are part of the C-Suite locker room, and maybe it stinks in there. 

You and I need to commit to winning back the locker room. One, for our own leadership. Two, because we can help any stinky locker rooms we are in but don’t lead. Three, in our locker room are leaders of their own locker rooms. They can’t lose theirs or it affects ours.

Win The Room

I’ve been the leader in the locker room where morale was down and heads hung low. Entire books are written on elements of a confident locker room - culture, vision, values, efficiency, competence, development, mentality.

But as I reflect on what I did right, three key dynamics always have to be addressed: the leader’s, the team’s, and the system.

Step into the mess.

I’ve had to bear my heart. I’ve had to confess my mistakes. I’ve had to admit my fears. And then I’ve needed to show my strength and resolve. No locker room is recovered where the coach is blaming the players and not taking ownership of the mess.

Strength and resolve isn’t manifest in words alone. I’ve had to detail the changes I was making, the accountability I had put in place, and the action I was taking. In other words, lead by example in doing what I needed my team to do also. 

Checkpoint:

• What leadership changes do you need to make in yourself?
• How will you be held accountable? By whom and at what frequency?
• What behavioral actions must others see to believe your commitment?

Preach possibility believably

Not a person on your team is trying to be a failure or the worst player of the bunch. Intrinsic in each person is a desire to do well. Appeal to the desire. Re-envision who they are as individuals and as a team.

You do this with integrity. Nothing turns us off more than cheap encouragement. I can hear “Be all you can be” and still feel like I’m not enough. “Just be you” is often the problem I face. “You can be or do anything” is a lie. Limits are part of life, and a beautiful part at that. 

But, I can see differently and think differently about myself, the people around me and the opportunities and challenges that we face. It is often true that the game is only half over, and that there is redemptive effort to be made.

Checkpoint:

• Where is your team beginning to lose vision?
• What value do they bring that needs reinforcement?
• How can you minimize the giant challenges you face - reframe your situation?

Adjust your scheme

Pushing harder or working smarter on a bad plan is still a bad plan. Your ideas and ways of doing things need to be challenged, and best challenged by those who enact the plan.

Often, simplifying is the best solution. Allow for mastery. How many of your team cannot improve because they are too far immersed in too great a scope?

Checkpoint:

• How will you let your team challenge your ideas and plans?
• What will you do in response to the challenge? How will they know you have listened?
• In what ways are you trying to do too much? What can you trim to allow for quality of output and mastery of skill?

I’ve won back locker rooms by being clear on my own improvement, by resetting the team’s vision, and by changing the game plan.

"So, I've been hearing this phrase y'all got over here. 'It's the hope that kills you.' I disagree, you know? I think it's the lack of hope that comes and gets you. See, I believe in hope. I believe in belief.'" Ted Lasso