Hey Chicago, What Do You Say? … Cubs are Going to Win Today!

As I watched Joe Maddon being interviewed the Saturday night after the Cubs National League Championship victory, I found one of his answers to a routine question to be pretty interesting.  “Joe, how did you motivate the team tonight?”  I paraphrase his response: “Other than routine baseball stuff, I didn’t say anything to the team.  At this point, if I tried to give a pep talk, I’d just screw them up.  We’ve already done the preparation, they just needed to go out and do what they’ve done all year.”

If you Google “Joe Maddon Quotes” you’ll find all kinds of great snippets that define his leadership style and are directly applicable to business leadership.  My favorite is: “Never permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure.” Another popular one: “If I tell you the truth you might not like me for a day or two.  If I lie to you, you’ll hate me forever.”  It’s obvious that Joe is a leader who prepares his team over the long haul, communicates with them honestly, trusts them throughout, and then gets out of their way.

If you think about it, everything he does and says is designed to build self-confidence. He’s not asking people to be superhuman, or even go above and beyond.  He’s not even asking them to operate out of their comfort zone. He’s just asking them to be themselves as self-confidently as they can be.  He gets the right people on the bus, makes sure they understand his expectations and does everything possible to make sure they are totally prepared and confident that they can do the job.

I am no Joe Maddon, but through my eight years in the EFBC I’ve learned that my most important job as the leader of my business is to build self-confidence in all of my team members. This is one of the many reasons I find the EFBC to be such a valuable resource.  Every aspect of the EFBC is designed to build our confidence as leaders.  From forum protocol where we manufacture a positive sharing environment, to our Roots family business curriculum where we lay the foundation for creating a lasting family business structure, it’s all about sharing knowledge and growing leaders.

Coincidentally, we have some great opportunities to move your leadership team needle this month.  I’m particularly looking forward to our “Inspiration to Innovation” event on November 3. This workshop is a rare opportunity for the EFBC, as we will be joining a DePaul MBA class in learning and engaging with leaders from some of today’s most innovative businesses.  On November 9 we have a great opportunity to grow and improve our financial skills in a program called “What Do the Numbers Mean?” with Ken Stemke of MB Financial Bankand Brian Kot of Cray, Kaiser Ltd.  Finally, on November 30, we have a Human Resources Roundtable planned that I am having my “HR Guy” attend and I encourage you all to do the same. The “Roundtables” are designed to involve your functional non-family leaders with the EFBC, while helping to improve their skillsets. There’s also an upcoming Financial Roundtable coming up on December 7.  Be sure to keep an eye on the monthly newsletters, as we will be adding Marketing and Sales Roundtables in the near future.

It’s a jam-packed month of exciting events. I hope to see you all there.

Jeff Conner
Liners Direct
EFBC President 2016-2017

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