"Twin Thieves"

There is a great leadership book by authors Steve Jones and Luca Jadin. The book, Twin Thieves, uses a sports related story to paint the picture of how to build a championship level team. The main obstacles to doing so are the two “thieves” themselves. The thieves are the two primary fears leaders have when trying to build a successful program, company, business, you name it. Can you guess what the thieves are?

Think about it. What two things hinder a winning program?

Here you go…..

Fear of failure and fear of judgement.

Twin Thieves works through these major fears and offers tactics to combat them. Here are my three main takeaways from the book.

People Power – Winning whatever game you are playing can only be done with a group of united individuals that will do anything for their teammates.

Positive Accountability – As the leader, you need to hold your team accountable, however you must do so in a positive way. Build the team up at every opportunity.

Preparation – Like all great athletic teams, work teams need to prepare for when an opportunity shows itself. There isn’t time to cram for a final exam in the business world. When a game changing chance is there, you have to be ready to pounce on it.

Don’t fall victim to the twin thieves – fear of failure and fear of judgement. If you are afraid to fail you won’t ever take the chances prepared teams sometimes do. If you fear what others think, it’s unlikely you will ever stick your neck out there and go for the victory.