It’s Monday, January 9, and the last bowl game of the 2011 college football season is about to wrap up this evening – Alabama versus LSU. I am a huge fan of college football, so it’s only fitting that I kick off my first blog post of the New Year with the transcript from one of the best football halftime speeches ever. It happens to be from the movie – “Friday Night Lights.” In Coach Gain’s words – “Can you live in that moment, as best you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart?”

May 2012 be a brilliant year for you, one where your reach for perfection is measured by how you live moment by moment with “clear eyes and love and joy in your heart.”

Happy 2012!

Coach Gaines (Friday Night Lights Halftime Speech): VYN4jnA8fKs

Well it’s real simple: You got two more quarters and that’s it.

Now most of you have been playing’ this game for ten years. And you got two more quarters and after that most of you will never play this game again as long as you live. Now, ya’ll have known me for awhile, and for a long time now you’ve been hearing’ me talk about being perfect.

Well I want you to understand something’. To me, being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship to yourself and your family and your friends.

Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn’t let them down, because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you did everything that you could. There wasn’t one more thing that you could’ve done.

Can you live in that moment, as best you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart?

If you can do that gentleman then you’re perfect.

I want you to take a moment. And I want you to look each other in the eyes. I want you to put each other in your hearts forever, because forever’s about to happen here in just a few minutes.

I want you to close your eyes, and I want you to think about Boobie Miles, who is your brother. And he would die to be out there on that field with you tonight. And I want you to put that in your hearts.

Boys, my heart is full. My heart’s full.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

In my experiences in leading, managing and participating in teams, I’ve discovered a number of variables that lead to the success of a team. Below are five team attributes (from the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team) that I have tried to use in some form or another in building and maintaining high performing teams.

1. Trust - In the context of the team, trust and confidence must exist around our intentions, our mission, our goals and objectives. We need to be willing to be vulnerable with each other, to be open to input and feedback from each other, and recognize that everyone on the team has something to contribute.

2. Constructive Conflict - I believe that all strong teams and any good relationship for that matter, the ones that last over time, require constructive conflict in order to grow. This is true in marriage, parenthood, friendship, and the workplace as well as with high performing teams. Demonstrating and teaching the emotional intelligence to embrace opposing thoughts and constructive conflict is important to the health and productivity of the team.

3. Commitment - There needs to be a common commitment to achieving the end goal. There needs to be clarity and buy-in from every member of the team. That doesn’t mean there is always consensus and certainty. However, at the end of the day, the team needs to be moving forward together toward that common commitment.

4. Accountability - Goals and milestones need to be tracked, and the team needs to be willing to hold each other accountable for achieving those goals. We must hold each other to a higher standard.

5. Results Oriented - We need to embrace the collective results of the team. It should be an unrelenting, collaborative focus on specific objectives and clearly defined outcomes. The team needs to be achievement and results oriented as a team, not just as individuals.