Posted on Tue, Feb 21, 2012
By Scott Weighart, Director of Learning and Development
The other morning, ESPN SportsCenter had a short feature about a first in professional sports. A pro lacrosse team has decided to ditch the idea of having names on the back of their jerseys.
Instead, their shirts now feature their Twitter handles, such as @MaxSeibald42. Why, you may well ask? The team is looking to break down barriers between the fans—their customers—and the players—their employees.
So what’s my point? While some organizations are finding creative ways to use social media, banks are lagging behind. A recent Boston Business Journal lead story talked about how banks are “reluctant to jump on the social media bandwagon” because of concerns about compliance as well as bandwidth.
Here’s my news bulletin for you as a banking leader: You do need to jump on the social media bandwagon soon if you haven’t already. So here are some myths that I’d like to bust about social media for banking executives.
1. “We don’t need to be active in social media.”
Social media today is like playing golf. There are all sorts of hazards and traps that are easy to hit if you aren’t careful. But you won’t come out ahead by taking your ball and going home.
Your customers are already talking about your bank out there on Facebook and Twitter. Whether they’re sharing a great experience or a complaint, don’t you want to be a part of that conversation?
To put it another way, your company already is involved in social media. Just now, I looked up a bank’s Facebook page and clicked on “Related Posts,” which allowed me to see what anyone on Facebook was saying about that bank. Within 30 seconds, I found a profanity-laced tirade about that bank from an unhappy customer. Somebody from that bank really should contact the customer and see what’s up.
This does take bandwidth—that’s no myth. Somebody needs to be monitoring your social media presence every day, and they need training and expert support at times. So there is a price of admission for meaningful, active social media.
2. “We don’t have time to deal with all of the compliance issues around social media.”
There is some validity to this concern. It does take a steady commitment to monitor social media content, especially given that the SEC issued a recent advisory about social media.
Start off with baby steps. There is some easy, low-risk ways you can connect with your customers on Facebook. Share posts that highlight how your bank and its employees are helping charitable causes. Create a Facebook wall, and respond to customer issues without venturing into making financial recommendations or any sorts of sales pitch.
Make it fun! The other day Eastern Bank put this post on Facebook: “Fill in the blank! The lack of snow this winter is _______.” They received 39 replies within an hour! They’re keeping their name in front of customers without doing anything remotely risky.
For the Super Bowl, Eastern Bank encouraged followers to post football-themed photos on their wall. In the Boston Business Journal article, their spokesman said that people can post anything on their wall except profanity and threats. They’re creating a sense of community… and none of the content would make the SEC bat an eyelid.
3. “You can’t run any substantial content without running into compliance problems.”
A neighbor of mine used to work for the SEC. She admits that social media is confusing her and many others in the banking and investment world. However, she believes that this is an opportunity for banking executives to get some clarity by talking to compliance experts. There are lines that you can’t cross, and everyone in your organization needs to understand them. And someone will need to monitor your output.
If you’re okay with that, you definitely can go beyond asking people what they think about the weather or the Super Bowl. According to my expert friend, the key is to stick to providing useful information that is objective, public, and not advisory in nature. You can blog about the economy, for example, though you need to include a disclaimer to ensure that your comments are not interpreted as investment advice. But nothing says you can’t offer your thoughts about the history of the price of gold or trends with economic indicators—as long as you have that disclaimer.
4. “Everyone else is doing it, so why can’t we?”
You can go too far with social media. As a compliance expert, my friend sees some investment companies that are basically offering investment advice or not using disclaimers. It makes her cringe. Given that people are confused about social media, she thinks that some companies are checking out what competitors are doing… and assuming that a given practice must be fine if it’s out there in social media. That would be a huge mistake. You need to consult compliance experts when creating a social media policy. Be sure to get advice—in writing—from an expert before you post, blog, or tweet any content that is related to banking rather than friendly chit-chat.
Otherwise, like many a golfer, you could find yourself in a stubborn trap or in deep water.
Posted on Fri, Feb 10, 2012
By Scott Weighart, Director of Learning and Development
Brainstorming exercises always sound like such great ideas. If you’ve received any leadership communication training, you’ve heard the drill countless times throughout your career: Working as a group, blurt out any idea that comes to your mind, and we’ll capture it on a flipchart. Let’s focus on generating possibilities…. And no matter what you do, never criticize or debate a proposed idea. You might just short-circuit the creative process altogether.
This process is positive, polite, and downright democratic.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. I just read an article called “Groupthink: The brainstorming myth” by Jonah Lehrer in the latest issue of The New Yorker. He describes how brainstorming has been an accepted practice since 1948, when an advertising agency executive celebrated the practice in a popular book.
As Lehrer describes, however, several decades of research has shown that brainstorming is actually quite ineffective as a tool of creativity. It’s far better to tell people that they should propose any idea that they want… but that they also should feel free to debate and critique any proposed ideas. In fact, debate and criticism force us to reassess our ideas and dig deeper to come up with the best possible alternatives. At times, understanding why an idea is off can be very helpful in coming up with the best answer.
Drawing from the article’s advice as well as my own experiences in executive consulting, here are some leadership communication tips to get the best ideas and decisions out of a group.
1. Bring together people with different perspectives
People with different backgrounds, functions, and personalities generate a broader range of possibilities. The ideal group would be a mix of some people who work together all the time while others who are relatively new to the mix. This creates a healthy balance of chemistry and novelty.
2. Give people some time to brainstorm individually in advance.
Lehrer found that a good tactic is to give people a problem or challenge in advance, and have them generate ideas on their own. Then you can bring them together to share ideas, debating them, and developing new ideas. The research indicates that this leads to the best results.
3. Challenge people’s ideas… but with a neutral tone
Our executive coach Sarah Woods is an authority on executive consulting and an excellent facilitator. One reason is that she will challenge you to flesh out your idea. If you propose an idea, she might say, “And what would that do?” or “So then what?” or "So they willl...?" This pushes you to dig deeper, and you’re game to do so because her tone is not judgmental or dismissive; it’s purely neutral. She’s forcing you to either refine or improve your idea… or to see its holes and abandon it expediently.
4. Really creative solutions are more likely when you bring in very different perspectives—even from other fields or disciplines.
Plenty of research supports the idea that groups benefit from looking at lessons from completely different industries. At a recent Speak Like a CEO Boot Camp, we had some real synergy because of a fascinating mix of participants. We had executive leaders from Fortune 500 companies, but we also had an entrepreneur of a small business in Canada. One of our partner pairs featured a supply chain management guru and a former NFL football coach… and they were amazed at how much they learned from each other!
In our work in executive consulting, we often get asked about communication that drives business results. One suggestion: The next time you need to come up with a creative solution to a business challenge or a way to move the needle forward with your revenues, by all means pull together a group and let them have at it.
For effective leadership communication, just remember to encourage some healthy, courteous debate and criticism. Sometimes you do need to generate some heat to shed the most possible light.
Posted on Wed, Feb 08, 2012
By Scott Weighart, Director of Learning and Development
One of my favorite things about attending our Speak Like a CEO Boot Camp is watching our executive clients have a eureka moment—some sudden epiphany about who they can be as a leader.
At one recent event, we worked with a gentleman who already had exceptional executive presence. Within a minute or two of meeting him, I could imagine him being the CEO of a large company—and maybe he will be someday.
He was so good, in fact, that you had to wonder why he came. He was already a great communicator. The answer? He knew he could get better. So it was a real treat to be in the room when that happened.
During the Boot Camp, we ask the participants to develop a three-minute presentation. It’s a real presentation that they will be giving to a decision-making audience within weeks—nothing hypothetical about it. Using a presentation structure that we provide, the participants create some speaking notes, take some practice time, and then they stand and deliver with no help from PowerPoint slides.
When it was his turn, the gentleman who had impressed me did exactly what I thought he would do: He hit it out of the park. His fellow participants and the executive coach in the room gave him rave reviews.
The fun part about all of this is that he was stunned with the outcome. “I’ve never done a formal presentation in this style—by just having a handful of notes and speaking directly to the audience without the help of slides and charts.”
“But that’s what was so great about it!” someone said. “You were very natural and authentic. Your executive presence just stood out. You really connected with us!”
Suddenly he saw himself very differently. He already knew that he was good at impromptu talks—chats with college seniors about careers, for example—but it had never occurred to him to think about how the formal presentations were not so different. Now he could see that creating a strict script and data-heavy visuals were actually not helping him—they were making him uptight and less connected to the audience.
Leaders who attend our workshops or sign up for executive consulting have different motivations. Some know that they need to work on their leadership communication skills to make them every bit as strong as their technical skills and functional expertise. Others know that they are already good, but they are tantalized by how much they could drive economic value into their business by being truly great.
Either way, it’s a great idea to give yourself opportunities to see how good you are, get real feedback, and expand your thinking about the kind of leader you can be. If you work with experts in executive consulting, your whole career can change with just one eureka moment.
Posted on Mon, Feb 06, 2012
By Scott Weighart, Director of Learning & Development
Lately I’ve been trying to develop a new habit of getting to the gym by 5:45 AM several days a week. I’ve been a baby about waking up a little earlier, so I’m not always in the best mood when I scan my card at the gym.
The other morning I shuffled in. Before I could scan my card—which would make my name pop up for the front desk attendant to see—she greeted me with a bright “Good morning!” Then, much to my surprise, she said, “It’s Scott, right? How are you doing today?”
This struck me. Here it was, some ungodly hour of the morning. She had only been at the desk a couple of times before when I had come in. Yet she remembered me and made a point of greeting me personally and with positive energy—despite the fact that I had only grumbled a hello before.
As I went through my usual elliptical exercise that morning, I felt a little more energized than usual. What she had done was a small gesture, but it made me happier to be there. On the way out, I made a point of thanking her for giving me an energy boost, and I also resolved that I would come back the next morning with a more enthusiastic greeting for her.
This experience makes me think about the nature of energy and how it relates to ideas for employee engagement—a big economic issue these days. How do employees—or customers—become engaged or disengaged? Here are three employee engagement ideas for you:
1. Query your key players about employee engagement
Our president, David Casullo, is publishing a book in a few weeks called Leading the High-Energy Culture: What the Best CEOs Do to Create an Atmosphere Where Employees Flourish. The book features a series of practical steps that leaders can take to energize their employees. One step is to “query the key players.” You need to seek different perspectives on your company in a forum that feels safe to those that you interview. With the process described in the book, you’ll understand that your people are yearning to be engaged…. And they’ll help you understand how to make it happen.
2. Break the big goal of employee engagement into a series of small steps.
No one speech or conversation is going to be the miracle drug to improve employee engagement. That’s just unrealistic. You need a series of words and deeds over time. When we provide executive coaching to leaders, we break big goals into a series of specific actions over months of coaching. The goal that seemed like Mt. Everest eventually gets conquered—very strategically and not overnight.
3. Start taking small steps TODAY to energize your people.
As with my example of going to the gym, it doesn’t necessarily take much to tip someone’s mood from negative to positive. Some employee engagement ideas are very simple… but how often do you do the following?
- Catch someone doing something right.
- Take a minute to solicit input from someone who typically just takes orders
- No matter how smart you are, slow yourself down to listen and ask questions instead of jumping to an answer.
- Make the effort to learn people’s names and greet them personally.
That last one worked for me! That makes sense, because implementing employee engagement ideas is like going to the gym. You have to commit to do it regularly if it’s going to have a real impact.
Posted on Fri, Feb 03, 2012
By Scott Weighart, Director of Learning & Development
A few years ago, I asked my brother to attend a Christmas Eve service at our high school chapel. As a teenager, my brother found the mandatory chapel services about as exciting as watching paint dry. So he said he wouldn’t go. But I had gone the last few years, so I was able to convince him. “The Christmas Eve services are different,” I told him. “They’re upbeat; they move right along. A few readings, a handful of carols, and then we’ll get to join some old friends for a glass of wine afterwards. It’s really fun.”
So we went. As it turned out, there was a new chaplain that year—an alum. It was an 11 PM service, but the place was packed. People were ready to belt out some carols and were happy to be back among friends for the holiday. You could sense a festive spirit in the room. But not for long.
Instead of the usual three minutes of reflection on the meaning of Christmas, the new chaplain went on…. And on…. And on…. One story began on a promising note—a childhood memory—but it quickly went nowhere. So he tried another strand of a story…. And then another.
The sermon rambled on—I kid you not—for a solid 50 minutes. Before or since, I have never seen an audience make such a 180-degree shift in mood. We moved from eager attention into patient tolerance. This shifted to boredom, resignation, impatience, and finally outright hostility.
By the time the service came to a merciful end, it was pushing 12:30 AM. At that point, there was no thought of wine and nostalgic conversations. All we wanted to do was go home.
Working now at Bates Communications, this experience makes me think of something our communications experts talk about all the time as their top tip: If you could have only one tool in your communications arsenal, you would want it to be something we call the Audience Agenda System.
When you’re preparing any form of important communication—a speech, a talk, or even an email—it’s very easy to get caught up in your agenda—the things that you are eager to say. However, this is often at odds with your audience’s agenda. What do they want from you? Do they even care about your topic? How long are they willing to give you their attention? What are their needs or concerns as they await your opening words? Clearly this was not an exercise that our chaplain went through before the service.
Our communication experts do an outstanding job of making our clients walk in the shoes of their audience. Using a flipchart, they write up your agenda on the left-hand side and your audience’s agenda on the right-hand side. Every single time we do it, there is a real disconnect between the two sides. So what do we tell people to do? Draw a big ‘X’ through your agenda and concentrate on your audience’s agenda instead.
If you don’t, your presentation will fail. This is probably the most fundamental fact of life from our communication experts, and it’s an important lesson for any presenter to learn.
Because sometimes when you lose your audience, you lose them permanently. That chaplain has come and gone from the school, but my brother and I have never returned for the Christmas Eve service.
Posted on Thu, Jan 19, 2012
By Scott Weighart, Director of Learning and Development
You’re a busy executive. You’d love to accelerate your company’s growth and do everything you can to ensure that your leadership team reaches or surpasses its business goals. You can’t afford not to do that.
So a leadership training course might make sense… or not. The last thing you want to do is to pull people away from their jobs to waste valuable time on a bunch of theory that won’t help move the needle with the bottom line.
And you know what? You’re smart to be wary. The worst-case scenario is that your people will emerge from a mind-numbing seminar grumbling about how much real work they could’ve done if they weren’t stuck for hours or day sitting through a course and learning nothing of value. If the training is not solving a business problem, why bother?
How do you avoid wasting your time and money? The key lies in avoiding courses that feature these deadly sins:
1. The glorified lecture disguised as a “workshop.”
You want your team to emerge from any workshop armed with new tools that will drive growth and productivity. Don’t let anyone convince you that a one-way lecture with a token amount of Q&A is going to build real muscle when it comes to driving down the values and behaviors that will translate into dollars. If the content can be learned so passively, consider having people read or listen to the material instead of forcing them to sit through a 50-mile death march of PowerPoint slides that are basically read by the “expert.”
In our experience of working with executives like you, people learn best with a blended, interactive approach. If you can apply a new tool to an existing problem while working with a partner, hash out best practices in a small group, and get some feedback from an experienced facilitator who gets your business, your energy will stay high… and you’re way more likely to use what you learn.
2. A failure to connect the dots between new ideas and real-time problems.
Too often, people leave workshops having little or no idea as to how the content connects to the real-time, real-world challenges that they face at work every day. Presenters usually know their subject matter pretty well, but a differentiator is what they can do “in the moment” to help people connect it to their own world. That’s what trips up many inexperienced facilitators, who want to stick to a script rather than risk connecting it to your very real problems.
The best leadership training courses force people to work on their real-time challenges right in the workshop. We believe in challenging leaders in workshops—getting you to think and act about what you can do now to drive your business forward. If we’re going to teach your team how to make powerful presentations, for instance, we’re going to make sure that they’re working on real ones—nothing hypothetical. When they leave, participants feel like they got a significant jump on something they needed to do anyway… and they have some new tools in their toolbox to do so faster and better in the future.
3. Not grasping the difference between “learning” and “training.”
This may seem like a matter of semantics. To us, “training” implies something that is done to people—telling them how to think and act. That has its place: It makes sense to train someone to operate a forklift or to perform CPR, for example. There you’re learning a series of mechanical steps that must be followed to be successful.
But when we’re trying to help people become leaders, we have to understand that we’re dealing with really smart people who don’t need or want to be told what to do. Where we can help most is in asking questions and engaging people in activities that help them learn how to think like a CEO. When we do that, understanding emerges from within the learner—but only if there are meaningful, relevant activities and skillful facilitation. We aim to unlock learning for people rather than fooling ourselves into thinking we can force new approaches down their throats. The most exciting parts of our workshops are those “eureka moments” when leaders have those flashes of insight about how our tools and methods will drive great economic value for their businesses.
So perhaps the best “leadership training course” is not something we would even want to call a leadership training course!
Regardless of what you call your program, remember to ask tough questions to nail down the specifics about whether the provider can provide interactivity, real-time relevance, and proven experience working with leaders.
While leadership skills are complex, we’ve had great success helping leaders turn their overwhelming real-time business challenges into manageable micro-goals. Imagine the impact on your business when a workshop shows you how to knock down those barriers to growth.
Posted on Thu, Jan 05, 2012
By Craig Bentley, Vice President and Executive Coach
Is it just me, or is a year shorter than it used to be? Another New Year’s Eve has appeared on the calendar – sneaking up on us just as we were finally getting comfortable with 2011. And of course with another New Year comes another round of New Year’s resolutions. On formal spreadsheets, backs of envelopes, or just via mental note, most of us create lists of promises to ourselves to change our behaviors, modify our life styles, expand our minds, flatten our stomachs, spend more time with our loved ones, while transforming ourselves into absolute business powerhouses. I know I do it every year – make that long list of all those things I am going to do to make the New Year a real winner.
But “going to do” is an interesting phrase. It certainly can convey a real sense of commitment, an ironclad personal guarantee, as in “This is something I am absolutely going to do!”
It can, however, have a very different meaning. It can be a mechanism for delay, for putting off those things that you really should be doing. I’m "going to do it” is a promise of future action –I’m “going to do it” after I finish what I am doing now, or tomorrow, or next week, or if and when I remember it at some point in the future. And the longer our intended actions remain future intentions, the less likely that we will actually do anything at all. Isn’t that what often happens with our resolutions – our “going to do’s”?
Planning is a useful and meaningful exercise in almost every sphere of human life, but there is greater value in doing. As I am regularly reminding my kids (now young adults), “Yeah Dad, I am (or was) going to do it” isn’t the same as “Dad, I’ve done it!”
At Bates we express this concept a bit differently –
Plan the Intention --> Schedule the Intention --> Honor the Intention
So as we yet again make out our newest self-renewal plans for the year ahead, let’s think about what we really are prepared to DO, what intentions we will truly honor -- not everything we convince ourselves we should be doing. Let’s throw out the long lists that require a spreadsheet to categorize and track. How about making just four resolutions, set just four goals for the year, and focus our energies and efforts on tackling those four – maybe one a quarter?
When we succeed, my guess is that we will feel we have actually accomplished something, actually made a difference that looks and feels real to us. And we will be ready when 2013 rolls around to face the challenges and opportunities of that New Year with greater confidence and enthusiasm.
Happy New Year!
Posted on Sat, Dec 17, 2011
By Scott Weighart, Director of Learning and Development
Just before Thanksgiving, our CEO, Suzanne Bates, asked everyone on our team to submit a brief email listing a handful of things for which we are thankful, personally and professionally. She compiled them into an email and sent them out to the group.
Everyone’s thoughts were expressed in a variety of ways, but it was a very powerful, positive exercise. I liked it so much that I suggested that my family do the same out loud over the Thanksgiving dinner. It’s a new tradition that I’m sure we’ll continue.
Why did this activity have such an impact? Whether at work or home, it’s easy to get immersed in day-to-day tasks. We can all lose sight of the big picture of what really matters… and it can be human nature to focus on the part of the glass that remains empty—even when it’s a mostly full glass.
With that in mind, I’ve thought of two team-building activities that leaders could use with their teams as we approach the holidays.
In the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah, ask your team to reflect on the gifts that they’ve received and the miracles they’ve witnessed this year.
This could be framed a few different ways, but I prefer an internal focus. With gifts, ask your team to think about their colleagues. Can they name a few teammates who have been giving of their time, support, advice, and expertise—perhaps in some quiet way that might otherwise have gone under the radar? With miracles, it’s an opportunity for people to talk about someone on the team who pulled off something that was seemingly impossible.
Maybe it was the sales representative who worked tirelessly to close a huge deal when no one thought it could happen. Perhaps it was the financial analyst who somehow did the job of two or three people due to budget cuts, turnover, or illness—and did so skillfully and gracefully.
Odds are you’ll hear at least a few stories or perspectives that will surprise you as a leader. Compile them—addressing any omissions as you see fit—and share them with your team.
With New Year’s Day looming, ask your team to weigh in with “resolutions” related to some value or behavior that you want to drive down or reinforce with your team.
In the case of our company, I would like everyone on our team to list three learning goals for 2012. In what areas are people yearning to improve? Where do we want and need to get better? As our Director of Learning and Development, this information naturally would be valuable to me. But it also would be interesting for our president and CEO to compare to what they see as our development needs… and it gives everyone an opportunity to reflect on where they are versus where they want to be in terms of knowledge.
However, this wouldn’t necessarily have to revolve around learning goals. It also depends where you want your team to focus. I could see asking people to reflect on any number of things that they could be done differently and better: collaboration, innovation, customer focus, and so on.
The holiday theme could eventually become overkill. Could you imagine doing this for Groundhog Day? I don’t think you’ll want to ask your team what signs will make them want to retreat into their cubicles for the next six weeks. Still, team-building exercises like these are great ways for everyone—including you, the leader—to acknowledge what’s really important to your organization and what might otherwise go unnoticed.
Posted on Wed, Dec 14, 2011
By Scott Weighart, Director of Learning and Development
The other day I read a story called “Where Donkeys Deliver” by Susan Orlean in Best American Travel Writing 2010. Within the first four paragraphs, I was reminded of some powerful principles of storytelling that all of us should keep in mind as we keep our radar up for stories we can develop and deliver to our important audiences.
Years ago, Orlean was travelling in Fez, Morocco, when she bumped into a small donkey that was lugging a herculean load of six big, boxy television sets that were secured across its body “in a crazy jumble by a tangle of plastic twine and bungee cords.” The donkey walked steadily by her with an endearing expression of serenity, weariness, and determination.
Then it was gone… but the experience stuck with her. She wasn’t sure why, but she trusted her gut and dug deeper and deeper into the incident, trying to understand it. Eventually she had an epiphany. The donkey was the perfect metaphor to describe contemporary life amidst the ancient walled city of Fez: “It was seeing, in that moment, the astonishing commingling of past and present—the timeless little animal, the medieval city and the pile of electronics—that made me believe that it was possible for time to simultaneously move forward and stand still. In Fez, at least, that seems to be true.”
Reading this masterful bit of writing—just the opening vignette in a longer story that is loaded with evocative detail and interesting insights-brought to mind two important principles of storytelling.
When a memory is powerful enough to bubble up repeatedly over months and years of time, trust that there is something there that is definitely worth exploring, mining, and developing to get to What It Means.
When we teach storytelling in our Bates Communications workshops, we have people close their eyes while we read a list of words that serve as memory triggers. We encourage people to just let things bubble up without worrying about what the point might be. Often we end up hearing amazing stories that work beautifully in presentations—despite the fact that it was something the person hadn’t thought about in years. If it bubbles up, then there’s likely something work exploring.
The epiphany, resolution, or lesson of a story needs to simultaneously be surprising yet totally organic to the story.
This is something I learned many years ago while participating in fiction writing workshops, but I hadn’t thought about for a while until I read the donkey story. When listening to a great story or reading one, we usually can’t quite guess where the story is going to land in terms of the resolution or insight. But when a good writer or speaker gets there, we go, “Of course!”
What do I mean by “organic” to the story? In the best stories, the lesson emerges from careful scrutiny of actions, thoughts, and feelings. It’s seldom as convincing to choose your theme in advance and then contrive a story to prove your preconceived point.
The trick is to avoid jumping ahead. Instead, try to capture every iota of what happened—you can edit out the superfluous details later—and then don’t settle until you’re reached a carefully crafted and unique insight.
Mastering these two skills is essential to developing powerful stories that will resonate with your important audience. If you keep after it with the stoicism and determination of a Fez donkey, you’ll end up with a heavy load of stories that you’ll be able to plug into all sorts of communications.
Posted on Thu, Dec 08, 2011
By Scott Weighart, Director of Learning and Development
Last week one of my favorite athletes retired after a 14-year career in the National Hockey League. His story is a real testament to the power of coachability on your way to reach the highest possible levels in your career.
Mike Grier grew up in Holliston, Massachusetts, the son of former National Football League running back Bobby Grier. Mike wanted to play football like his dad. The problem, believe it or not, was that he was too big. His weight exceeded the limits for Pop Warner football. So he took up ice hockey.
Due to his size, his parents developed the habit of bringing his birth certificate to games to prove to skeptical parents that he was not too old for the competition. As a rare African-American player on the ice, he sometimes endured racial taunts. His parents told him the best way to respond: “Put the puck in the net.”
A Boston University assistant coach noticed him as a high school player. When head coach Jack Parker first noticed the young man’s build, he said to his assistant, “So I guess what we like about this guy is his size?”
“No,” the assistant coach replied. “What I like most about him is that when the game is over, all of the kids from both teams want to be around him.”
So Mike Grier went to Boston University, where I first saw him play in 1994. He was huge-6’1 and about 250 pounds. When he caught up to an opponent, he often flattened him. And he always had a big smile for the fans. He was an immediate favorite. The problem was that he was just too slow. I remember thinking, “Well, he’ll be entertaining to watch for four years.” There was no way he’d have a long-term future in hockey, I thought.
What I didn’t know was the advice his parents had given him before starting his collegiate career. “We only ask one thing of you,” they told their son. “Be coachable.”
Think about the power of that. They didn’t ask their son to be a star or to score goals. All they wanted was for him to be open to coaching. If he could listen to an expert and follow their advice to the nth degree, everything else would take care of itself.
They were right. The coaches told him he would need to follow a rigorous offseason conditioning program. He lost 27 pounds and started his sophomore year as a sculpted athlete. And he became committed to becoming a better defensive player.
The rest was history in more ways than one. He emerged as a collegiate superstar that year. With the blessing of his coach, he left college early and went directly to the NHL. He became the first ever African-American player to make the NHL after being born and trained in the United States. While he was never a superstar, he was considered a strong defensive forward and an outstanding guy to have in the locker room. He played in over 1,000 games, and I estimate that he earned more than $15 million in salary over his career.
We all can get better if we work with the right coach and are willing to work hard to improve, and the financial upside can be staggering.
If you haven’t done so already, I strongly recommend that you consider investing in a coach who can help you reach the big leagues in whatever it is that you do. In a competitive world, it can make the difference between being stuck in a modest role and being poised for a rapid ascent to being among the best in your profession.