FANATICS: 1000 wins and 3 ways being a fan is great leadership

It happened to me in the fall of 2013. It was my ‘ah-ha’ moment. The moment I realized one of the most important things I could do as a leader was celebrate others. I was the young athletic director for the legendary New Jersey high school coach, William Bills. He was marching towards claiming his 1000th varsity victory as a coach at Timothy Christian School and I went all in on celebrating this milestone. You can watch an amateur 2-minute recap of it here. :-)  We hosted a variety of celebration events with members of the school community from around the country. It was an amazing experience. It was also the moment I really began to lead in that community because I had become their biggest fan and they knew it. 

Jeff Henderson, in 'Know What You're For', states ‘winning organizations of tomorrow will be more concerned with being fans of their customers instead of convincing their customers to be fans of the organization.’ I think that’s the most powerful quote in the book and it’s a relevant idea for leaders. Leaders have always had a platform from which to share a message. However, in current times that platform includes digital, and as Carey Niewhof often says, 'digital scales up in a way nothing else does.' A leader's platform is exponentially more influential in modern times which means that using that platform to celebrate others has an exponential return on investment. Simply put, being a fan of your people is good leadership.

Here are three simple suggestions for becoming a bigger fan of your people:

Express gratitude MORE. Let's say you consider yourself a fairly grateful person, but what if you were more grateful. Rather than send a thank you email, you went to an office to say thank you. Rather than send a thank you card, you picked up the phone and called to tell someone you were grateful for them and the role they play in our community? Good leaders express gratitude more often.

Celebrate achievement MORE. The people around you are accomplishing amazing things all of the time. Each time you celebrate the people around you, you are encouraging others to keep working hard towards their achievements. Celebration by a leader, in many ways, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more you lead the charge on celebrating, the more there is to celebrate.  A lot of people feel great when the leader is the biggest fan. Good leaders celebrate others more often.

Serve others MORE. The only thing better than springing into action to help a teammate out when they ask is doing it before they ask. That’s a huge difference that exists between a group of servant leaders and a team that has great chemistry. Leaders who express gratitude more and celebrate achievement more are in tune with what is happening with their people. It is that 'in tune' that allows a leader to meet needs before they become requests and that fosters chemistry that allows the sum to become greater than the parts. Good leaders serve others more.

Bonus content: Here are a few resources to help you dig deeper on this topic - 'Know What You're For' by Jeff Henderson, 'The Future Leader' by Jacob Morgan, 'I Love It Here' by Clint Pulver

‘Bite Down and Don’t Let Go’ is a collection of writings on being intentional about life in a way that produces great persistence. Read about it more here.

Dr. Chris Hobbs is an educational leader with more than two decades of experience. He’s earned a few degrees and won some awards. He’s happily married to his high school sweetheart and they have three teenage children. Life is messy and complicated most of the time. You can follow him on Twitter for all sorts of inspirational thoughts and good laughs.