The Huddle
Que the Monday night football music. The time of the year has arrived for the pigskins to start flying and it is also time to review your own team’s version of the huddle. A football team gets together before a game and pumps each other up, they get together before a play and the QB tells the team the play as well as other words of encouragement, support and/or challenge.
These huddles are key for the football team to transfer information as well as get their energy up. Before your work day or week does your business or department huddle? If not, I highly recommend you do. Here are 4 downs (4 tips for those of you who are non-football types) to help you and your team have a great huddle, whether you have been doing them for years or you are just starting out.
First Down. Jazz your huddle up with some ENERGY!!! I would recommend playing some music to get your day’s huddle going, and when people hear the music, they know it is time to leave the cubicle and come to the TEAM huddle. I recommend something with a good fast beat and that is fun. Go to our music tab on this site to find some great upbeat music to get your huddle started off right. I also recommend cheering and clapping after someone shares some sort of news. When you show your encouragement it opens the door for people to be willing to share and the clapping and cheering creates a fun atmospshere.
Second Down. Before you get started or when you close your huddle read something inspiring! Do not under-estimate the power of reading from a great book or a great quote to help people get in a great frame of mind to be productive for the day. I recommend switching up people who read the quote or passage from a book or having everyone say the words together, this gets your colleagues involved and when they are involved the knowledge from the quote or book passage sticks with them in a stronger way. There are many great quote books out there, some are general and some focus on a specific area of business – it is up to you which way you want to go. If you are looking for a great book to start from I recommend “The Greatest Salesmen in the World” by Og Mandino.(“The Greatest Salesmen in the World” is one of our favorite books and can be found in the book review section.) In the middle of the book are 10 great chapters that represent the words of wisdom that will help a person in business and in life. We use this book for our Team Huddles at our Leadership Trainings and we love it.
Third Down. Move with a purpose. Nothing takes the energy out of a team huddle more than hanging out there for a long time. I recommend a max of 8-10 minutes. Anything more is a meeting and that should be scheduled for another time. Team huddles are short revival and pump up sessions. People have work to do and want to get at it. By prolonging a team huddle you cause people to not want to attend.
Fourth Down. Share the news. These sessions are great for people to hear news and information. So open up and share yourself and what you are doing. It will be a dead huddle if nobody opens up and talks about the things that are happening in their department. When you talk I recommend sharing your info with energy and conviction. If you share your news as if you don’t care, nobody else will care and you will begin destroying the foundation of the team huddle.
Results are created through a combination of executing your job and the energy that you bring to your job. Team huddles, if done properly can add energy to you and your colleagues’ work day.
In Your Service
Brandon Johnson
“Positive Energy Guy”
