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What If Your Team Were More Like the Blue Angels Than…

Alan Andersen

Building Teams and the importance of trust and confidence with all team members - these are a passion of mine and I am inspired when work groups are functional, like each other, and over deliver on their results.

How would you rate your leadership team’s effectiveness? Are you compromising great results for good ones because you don’t want to deal with the issues? Is your team a joy to watch like the Blue Angels, or is it a nightmare that you wish would just go away? Be bold and courageous and build your team!

I love the Blues!

In my experience, U.S. Navy Blue Angels are one of the best evidences of team work. Last week I was on vacation near Pensacola where they are stationed. They were kicking off their season in a week, so invited the public to watch their practice shows along with friends and family. What an incredible experience for me.

I took this picture and was in awe at the precision. Can you imagine if you didn’t trust the guy on the left to:

1. Be skilled at what he does.

2. Follow through on exactly what he said he was going to do. (18 inches and no closer!)

3. Tell me, or if you will, confront me, if I have a blindspot and/or am underperforming (dude, you’re too far to the right – tighten up)

4. Like me as a person and want me to succeed and shine.

5. Listen to “The Boss” in the #1 plane for the instruction so we all are precisely performing as we agreed upon.

6. Communicate with me what he was going to do, when he was done doing it, and what he was going to do next.

7. Debrief honestly – celebrate the wins and be clear about how to improve next time.

Obviously, I could go on and on but when I watch them fly I am re-energized to be excellent at my job in supporting leaders to build extraordinary, high-functioning teams.

As I left the practice show totally inspired and driving like I was a pilot screaming down a rural Florida street to some Top Gun song, I slammed on the brakes at the name of this housing development.

It was called Chandelle, which is the original spelling of my name, Shandel. You see, my dad changed my name the day after I was born to Shandel because he loved airplanes. A Chandelle is a steep climb to gain altitude and then change direction of flight. In WWII, I am told it was the fastest way to get to a higher altitude while changing direction. Well, you can see why this moment was memorable.

Bringing it all together upon my return is super fun. I was made to help teams turn their focus in the right direction and gain altitude toward their ultimate mission and strategic goal. What a fun way to come back into reality to share with all of you my heart for teams and my passion for the Blues!

Your Coach For Clarity,

This article originally appeared at True Life Coaching

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