Find a Way to Win
improve your career by improving your performance as a manager

Always stay open to the possibility of learning. A few months ago I had one of my greatest learning experiences from a situation that I would never have predicted.

My professional passion revolves around improving group performances. I believe that extraordinary group performances are at the core of every successful business. Apple didn’t create the iPhone and neither did a single individual. It was the combined effort of groups of people within Apple that created such an iconic product. When you get great service at a restaurant or watch a great film keep in mind that the company didn’t deliver that service or product, nor did one person do it by himself or herself. It was done by a group of people within the organization. Improving the performance of your work group is one of the critical keys to the success of both your organization and your career.

Learn from the Winningest High School Soccer Coach in U.S. History

I encourage you to read a very, very special conversation I had with one of the premier experts on group performance that I’ve ever met. His name is Terry Michler. He is the head soccer coach at CBC High School. He is also the all-time winningest high school soccer coach in U.S. history. In 39 seasons he has won 809 games, six state championships, and six runner-up trophies.

But Terry is so much more than just that. As he explained his approaches to coaching high school soccer players, I saw very clearly the relevance of his ideas for managers in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. I believe you will benefit greatly by reading his ideas. You don’t have to know anything about soccer to learn powerful and practical insights on improving the performance of your group from Terry Michler. Rarely have I ever met anyone who is so dedicated to constantly improving the art of managing group performances.

Click here to read Find a Way to Win: A Conversation on Managing Great Team Performances with Terry Michler, America’s All-Time Winningest High School Soccer Coach.

New White Paper – Accelerate Your Strengths

On June 16th I gave a half-day seminar on “Accelerate Your Strengths: practical ideas to boost business momentum” for GE Capital. It was such an interesting project that I wrote a white paper for the group after the seminar based on what we talked about. In turn, that white paper was forwarded on to 7,000 GE employees. Consequently, I thought you might like to read the paper, except this version has all the references to GE taken out. Here is the link for the

Accelerate Your Strengths white paper: http://thecoughlincompany.com/accellerate_your_strengths.html

New Book, Find a Way to Win: Management Insights from Terry Michler, America's All-Time Winningest Soccer Coach

This book focuses on business lessons that can be learned from soccer. The foundation of the book is how Terry Michler used the powerful simplicity of Dutch soccer to win more games than any other U.S. coach in history.

On July 11th, the finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa between Holland and Spain was watched by more than 700 million people. While I was cheering for Holland at the beginning of the game, a major decision by their coach led me to learning a valuable lesson all over again.

Dutch soccer, which is highlighted in my book, is all based on extraordinary technical skill, efficiency, and precise attacking soccer. This is how a country with only 16 million people competes so extraordinarily well with the world's super powers in soccer including number-one ranked Brazil, whom they beat in the quarterfinals. However, in the World Cup finals Holland abandoned what made them great and instead focused on playing brutal, violent soccer. They wanted to intimidate Spain, and in the end they lost the game and the respect of so many people who love Dutch soccer. What happened and why did they do it?

They felt they couldn't compete with Spain if they allowed them to get into their normal passing game. So they consciously decided to physically attack the Spanish players with violent tackles all over the field. One Dutch player even shoved his metal cleats into the chest of a Spanish player. They received numerous yellow cards, a red card, and ridicule from the world-wide soccer press after the game.

What's the lesson to learn here for every business? Stay true to who you are. When the prize is close don't abandon what got you to be one of the best organizations in your industry. Too many companies in the past ten years have decided that what made them very, very good wasn't going to be enough to make them number one in their industry, and so they got away from their strengths. Big mistake.

I believe Holland will return to their traditional style of play, focus on precise, skillful, attacking soccer, and get away from their violent style of play. I think they learned a huge lesson. And hopefully every business that got away from its core strength in the pursuit of being bigger and more successful financially than anyone else in the industry will also return to its core and get back to winning again.

You can learn more about Find a Way to Win at http://thecoughlincompany.com/book_store.html

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

Back to Newsletter Page

P.O. Box 1245 Fenton, Missouri 63026
Phone 636.825.6611 Fax 636.825.9831
E-mail info@thecoughlincompany.com