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Would You Believe in Victory with 10 Seconds Left? (Minnesota Vikings Did!)At halftime the Minnesota Vikings were up 17-0 and feeling confident they would win the NFC Championship game against the New Orleans Saints.

But the Saints came back with a vengeance, scoring throughout the second half. With less than a minute to go, the Saints scored a field goal that seemed to secure their win.

There was no way the Vikings were coming back. They were 71 yards away from the end zone with 10 seconds left on the clock. Vikings fans were already mourning. Even the Saints started celebrating their inevitable victory.

But the Vikings never gave up.

They played those last 10 seconds with perseverance and determination.   They made every second count.

The quarterback Case Keenum threw the football to wide receiver Stefon Diggs who jumped to catch it, averted being tackled, caught himself when he lost his balance, and sprinted 61 yards for the game-winning touchdown!

It was incredible! But it wasn’t a miracle. It was possibility and intentionality (and talent!) in action.

How can we help our teams believe in possibility and act with intention to the very last second?

• Focus Don’t Flounder: The players ruthlessly battled together toward the same goal.
• Coach Don’t Rescue: The Vikings coach did not come running onto the field to grab the football and save the game.
• Praise Don’t Persecute: It was easy (and habitual) for the rest of us to judge and criticize from the sidelines.
• Strategize Don’t Victimize: Nobody can play the victim and rouse the remarkable simultaneously.
• Cheer Don’t Berate: Yelling and screaming doesn’t work to inspire dogs, babies, or team members.

When you’re racing the clock on a deadline, a project, or a race… use your words and actions to strengthen people’s belief in themselves and commitment to victory.

Police officers are charged with catching people doing something wrong. Ward Clapham, a retired veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, described it as “always looking for the dark side.”

In 2002 Ward decided to shift the obedience-by-fear paradigm. He started catching kids doing something right, polite, safe, or kind.

He issued Positive Tickets to kids he saw crossing the road safely, picking up litter, wearing a bike helmet, or doing their homework. And to add significance, he allowed kids to exchange their tickets for pizza, gift certificates, or movie passes. To his surprise, some kids held on to their tickets to display at home, like a trophy for being a good person.

But it’s not about the tickets! It’s about the relationship he built with young people in his community. By recognizing their good behavior and acknowledging their worth, he gained their trust.

People at work also crave “Positive Tickets.” According to research, more than 50% of employees say they would look for another job if their manager did not appreciate or acknowledge their work.

As leaders, we should be issuing Positive Tickets every day! People who feel recognized have higher self-esteem which leads to greater contributions. We all work harder when we feel good about ourselves. Positive Tickets can be as simple as a thank you email or card. Remember,

it’s not about the ticket; it’s about the relationship and the trust that recognition engenders – essential for our success in leading! Apparently, puppies crave Positive Tickets too.

The motto posted in the puppy training room at my pet store is: “If you want to stop good behavior, ignore it.”

We are constantly deluged with an unmanageable amount of information screaming for our attention.

Each day:

• 269 billion email messages are sent
• 8 trillion text messages are sent
• 500 million tweets are tweeted

Astoundingly, 90% of the data in the world today was created in the past 2 years. (IBM Marketing Cloud 2016) It’s not surprising that we get overwhelmed and overpowered by information. Defensively, we utter the phrase, “I’m so busy” like a salutation, “Good morning! I’m so busy!” So what can we do to stop drowning?

1. Identify our essentials
2. Consume only the information that contributes to our essentials

Without vigilantly deploying these filters, any information can seem intriguing, interesting, or important. To identify essentials… “Essential” gets defined by our aspirations, our goals, our commitments, our vision, and our battle cry. We need to ask, “What are my aspirations [goals, commitments, vision, battle cry] for my career, my family, my heath, my finances, and my life?”

To determine what information is important… Pause to evaluate: “Does this information [email, text, tweet, data, Yahoo story, LinkedIn announcement, Facebook update, YouTube cat video] I’m about to consume contribute to or contaminate one of my aspirations?” (“Contaminate” is any distraction, derailment, or sabotage.)

If the information does not help us move toward that which is important to us (our aspirations!), we need to: resist it, trash it, return it, or ignore it.

The only way to survive the deluge is by taking back our power over the information.

When we don’t use filters, we don’t have control. And then we helplessly grouse, “I’m so busy!”

We can do better than that…

Soto Zen Buddhist monk Shunryu Suzuki said…
“You are perfect just as you are, and you could use a little improvement.”

There’s nothing wrong with us!

Yet our world constantly reminds us that we are broken and need fixing:

• Report cards: here’s your grade and where you fell short
• Commercials: here’s what’s wrong with you and how our product will fix it
• Feedback: here’s my “constructive criticism” to change you

But if we start with the notion that we are perfect as we are, we could springboard from our strengths, instead of flail from our flaws.

With “perfect as we are” as our anchor, we can enthusiastically seek suggestions, feedback, ideas, and input from others by asking, “How can I improve from here?”

Without a need to defensively protect our ego, we can welcome suggestions and ideas, not as judgments or criticisms, but as contributions and building blocks. Each block helping us to become bigger, better, bolder versions of ourselves – to be even more perfect.

So how do we get a little improvement? By seeking advice, perspectives, and ideas from others through:

• mentoring and being mentored
• coaching and being coached
• attending classes and trainings
• reading voraciously
• joining mastermind groups

Now consider using this mindset to lead others: our people are perfect as they are, and they could use a little improvement. From here our job is to add the building blocks that contribute to our people being bigger, better, bolder versions of themselves. That’s the secret to becoming the boss people want to work for!

All by starting with perfect and improving from there…