I’m from Milwaukee originally and a Green Bay Packers fan. So after the Packers became Super Bowl Champions in Dallas on Sunday, I was exhilarated, excited and downright ecstatic. (Okay, I was jumping up and down, screaming.) Now five days and a couple of online stories later, I look on the team with both awe and respect.
My admiration for the Packers goes beyond the skill of this young team. It centers on personal energy. The players’ energy and Coach Mike McCarthy’s energy. I’m talking about the kind of energy that builds team spirit and team chemistry. Based on some reading I did this week, I’d say the Packers’ course to the Lombardi trophy included a strategy that was creative, focused and emotionally intelligent. Here’s why.
First there was Dave Begel’s commentary, Lessons learned from Super Bowl XLV, published Tuesday in OnMilwaukee.com, where I learned of Mike McCarthy’s brilliant move to have his team measured for Super Bowl rings the night before the game. When I asked Dave about it, he said there’d been reports in The New York Times, on Fox Sports and elsewhere. He told me that in interviews, McCarthy had said it was his experience the team with the most confidence had the best chance of winning. And that was going to be his team. Measuring for rings was setting the expectation of winning. It was an effective leader’s act of assurance, of his unshakable belief in the team’s ability to win.
Then Mary Roberts, the human spring of ideas at Buzz Monkeys PR, directed me to a Jan. 25 Super Bowl XLV story in Bleacher Report (B/R) about Charles Woodson’s desire for a post-Super Bowl trip to the White House.
President Obama had said he’d only attend Super Bowl XLV if his hometown Chicago Bears were playing. So after the Packers’ NFC victory over the Bears, Woodson made it known the Packers would indeed be going to see the President. That “Declaration of Intent,” as B/R columnist Tom Edrington put it, was followed by a Packer locker room “White House! White House!” chant.
According to Edrington, there had been no talk of visiting the White House back in the Steelers’ locker room. And he mentions the “Pittsburgh mentality” as a response to pre-Super Bowl hype, which I interpreted as a Steelers’ attitude that nothing meant anything before the game. But I would believe otherwise.
I think Mike McCarthy’s act of measuring for rings and Charles Woodson’s statement of intent for the team to be Super Bowl Champions are indicators of a mindset that illustrate beautifully the energy of success I call Qinomics.
The Packers focused only on winning. They were determined to win. They expected to win. They knew they’d win. There was no room for doubt, uncertainty or worry. In other words, no energy was wasted thinking about – or creating – an unwanted outcome. They were a team of pure, positive energy in action. “Conceive, believe and achieve” is a winning strategy every time. No exception.
Tags: achievement, human energy, leadership, managing yourself, personal effectiveness, positive energy, success
This is such an insightful blog posting. But I would like you to address the difference between genuine confidence and faux confidence. I understand Qinomics will help generate that genuine confidence. I think we have all seen people and institutions that have that fake kind of confidence which can be a very damaging status, setting up for major disappointment. Can you please address the difference between the two? thanks.
Don’t forget the winning attitude of the fans. No other team in the country has hometown fans like the Packers. They expect them to win and love them regardless of the results. BTW, Kurt and Kaitlynn were there to experience the feeling that one can only feel at the game. There is nothing like it!
I think the difference, Dave, between feeling genuine confidence or false confidence comes down to a state of mind. And while I view confidence as a feeling, all feelings are triggered by thought. So to have or feel true confidence, one has to believe in hirself and hir abilities. And with self-confidence and self-trust, one can begin to hope and expect that events will be favorable. Confidence is like yeast in bread; it constitutes the action element. And with enough confidence – as evidenced by Mike McCarthy and the Green Bay Packers – a leader and team can act in advance as if they’ve achieved already the desired outcome. That’s thought-energy at its optimal best.
As for false confidence, or a lack of confidence, I’d have say that comes from self-distrust, a feeling activated by thoughts of doubt, uncertainty and worry. I don’t believe goals or aims are met ever from that standpoint.
You are so right about the fans’ winning attitude, Judie. I think Lambeau could be renamed the Energy Field. I’m sure you know it was there fans turned out in 8 degrees below zero wind chill last week to cheer our Super Bowl Champions and hear Aaron Rogers say, “We’ve got the greatest fans in the world.” I bet Kurt and Kaitlynn are still floating on air.