{"id":3258,"date":"2013-08-15T19:00:02","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T02:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=3258"},"modified":"2013-08-15T19:00:45","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T02:00:45","slug":"the-one-thing-that-can-unleash-your-teams-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/15\/the-one-thing-that-can-unleash-your-teams-potential\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cOne Thing\u201d That Can Unleash Your Team\u2019s Potential"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you want to get the most out of your team, start by making sure each one knows one thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Do you remember the scene in City Slickers <\/em>when Curly (Jack Palance) explained the secret of life to Mitch (Billy Crystal)?<\/p>\n

CURLY: Do you know what the secret of life is?<\/strong><\/p>\n

MITCH: No, what?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CURLY: This.<\/strong><\/p>\n

MITCH: Your finger?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CURLY: One thing. Just one thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u201cone thing\u201d was different for each person. The key was to find out what your own \u201cone thing\u201d is.<\/p>\n

And to maximize their contributions to your team, each person you lead must also discover their \u201cone thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

This refers to the unique purpose, or distinctive value they bring to the organization. Once they discover this it can unleash tremendous momentum.<\/p>\n

I first learned the power of this when I joined the ministry that eventually became The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada<\/em> in 1997. I had been hired in a rather vaguely defined role of \u201cMarketing Director\u201d, and immediately began to oversee the existing projects such as catalogues, flyers and brochures.<\/p>\n

I dutifully kept these projects rolling along, but I couldn\u2019t shake the uneasy feeling that I wasn\u2019t yet offering my best.<\/p>\n

One day I purposed to sit in our call centre and force myself to answer the question, \u201cWhat is my unique contribution to this ministry?\u201d<\/p>\n

And then it hit me. As each call was answered, I realized that those calls were generated by the marketing materials I sent out.<\/p>\n

And then I understood my \u201cone thing\u201d: I made the phones ring.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t there to produce catalogues, to design flyers, or to generate brochures.<\/p>\n

I was there to make the phone ring. That was my one thing.<\/p>\n

And being able to articulate this changed everything. Ever since I have made it a priority to help those on my teams to understand their one thing.<\/p>\n

Helping your team discover their unique contribution to your organization, their one thing, generates immediate momentum by;<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Keeping them focused on the highest priorities,<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Preventing them from becoming distracted by random activities,<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Enabling them to self-identify projects to help them accomplish their \u201cone thing\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So if your leadership gut is telling you that your team isn\u2019t firing on all cylinders, start by making sure each one can articulate their distinct contribution to the organization.<\/p>\n

    The \u201cone thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

    Can you articulate your own \u201cone thing\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If you want to get the most out of your team, start by making sure each one knows one thing. Do you remember the scene in City Slickers when Curly (Jack Palance) explained the secret of life to Mitch (Billy Crystal)? CURLY: Do you know what the secret of life is? MITCH: No, what? CURLY:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[738,478,7,583,705,744],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","category-staffing","category-strategy-2","category-team-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3258"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3265,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3258\/revisions\/3265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}