Monday Motivation, 4.1.19

Written by: Ben Rogers

Every Monday, The Rogers-Long Team meets for one of its two weekly meetings. The Monday meeting always ends with “Monday Motivation” in which a few minutes are spent listening to one team member presenting a quote, a quick reading from a book, a scene from a movie, or anything else they find motivating to provide a “spark” to the whole team on a Monday morning.

One of my greatest passions is linking lessons learned from sports, business, and life. I’ve found success in leadership in applying the “cliché” from my sports background to my business: things like hard work, dedication, and pride, just to name a few.

A business partner of mine let me borrow a book that I’m in the middle of reading titled “The Captain Class”. In this book, the author sets out on a mission to determine the greatest 16 professional sports teams of all time based on many different parameters. In short, the 16 teams he defined as the “GOAT” (Greatest Of All Time) sustained “freakish” winning streaks over multiple years. Next, the author wanted to determine what the common denominator was for these teams: what was the one consistency each of them had that made them so good?

After countless hours, days, weeks, and years of research, the author finally found the answer. Each of the greatest 16 teams had a single leader or captain that was with the team during the exact period of time the team was on their winning streak. Two well-known examples would be Yogi Berra’s New York Yankees in the 40s & 50s and Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics in the 50s & 60s.

The author studied each leader and broke it down into “7 Traits of Elite Captains”. Below you will find each of these listed and after each one, I will pose a question so that you’re able to gauge your leadership strengths. I suggest pen & paper to write down your thoughts!

o   1) Extreme doggedness and focus in competition.

• Do you persevere when times get tough?

o   2) Aggressive play that tests the limits of the rules.

• Do you have a do whatever-it-takes mindset in order to win?

o   3) A willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows.

• What do you do when no one is watching?

o   4) A low-key, practical, and democratic communication style.

• Are you able to relate to your customers & co-workers?

o   5) Motivates others with passionate nonverbal displays.

• Are you leading by example and practicing what you preach?

o   6) Strong convictions and the courage to stand apart.

• Do you believe in yourself and have the integrity to do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it?

o   7) Ironclad emotional control.

• Are you able to bounce back when failures happen and do you keep going even after a big win?

Ben Rogers, The Team Leader of The Rogers-Long Team, has been in the real estate business since 2012. In 2014, he began The Rogers-Long Team with Kevin Long, which produced over $28,000,000 in volume production in 2018. In addition to selling homes and leading the team, Ben hosts a podcast show called the “The Bottom Line”, which can be found by clicking here. The Bottom Line is a Podcast that links lessons learned from sports, business, and life and is targeted at those who are striving for excellence, while ‘Average Sits on the Bench’.