In high school, I competed on the speech and debate team. At the conclusion of the tournament (which was always on a Saturday), our coach, Mr. Jordan, would tell us to take Sunday off and enjoy and celebrate our success. On a Monday following a tournament, we always had a team meeting. Each two-person team would summarize their results from the tournament. The first question that Mr. Jordan would always ask – win or lose – was "What contributed to those results?" At that point, we began dissecting our results and how we ended up with them.

We were never allowed to simply make excuses. Mr. Jordan hated that! One time, one of the debaters, Jim, said, "The judges just don't like me." Mr. Jordan looked him in the eye and said, "You know, I suspect that you are right. So let's talk about why they don't like you." It was a bit painful at first, but it was a very revealing discussion which led to Jim making some pretty big adjustments (and, not surprisingly, he started getting better results).

At the end of the team meeting, Mr. Jordan would wrap up by telling us that he was proud of our effort and our results. He would then gently remind us that no matter how well – or poor - we had done at the last tournament, there was a new tournament right around the corner and that we all had a fresh start and an equal shot at winning it. What we did last time, simply didn't determine the outcome of the next tournament.

Mr. Jordan was loved by his teams and he always had winning teams. I think, in looking back, he had three essential steps that we can use with ourselves and our teams.

1. Celebrate your success but don’t rest on it.
2. Analyze and dissect your results. ("What contributed to the results you got?)
3. Prepare for the next opportunity.

How can you keep your teams (or yourself) looking forward to the next challenge instead of resting on what they've done so far?

To Your Success,

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