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Below is a transcript of this video, modified for your reading pleasure. Have a question that you'd like answered? Drop us a line!
In this video, we are going to talk about the number one behavior I am going to use on myself that I am most excited about. I think it is going to have the biggest payoff for me personally over the next couple years. Here is what happened.
In June, I got to go play Worlds for Ultimate Frisbee for people of my age. It was in Sardinia, Italy, an island off the west coast of Italy, and we were playing against the very best teams in the world in Ultimate. It was awesome. On the first day of this five-day tournament, I had a heck of a day. I played really great in our first game against Sweden. At the end of a game of Ultimate, especially in these world championships where people have flown in from every corner of the globe, there is something called a Spirit Circle. We get together, our team and their team, in a big circle and we talk about the game, and we give out some funny awards. It is really just a wonderful experience.
The Swedish team gave me an award. They named me MVV. Most Valuable Viking. I got the MVV award against Sweden. I had scored three times, played good defense, made a layout catch in the end zone. Just had a wonderful day. Had a good second game against the other team, and then things went south.
We stayed out pretty late that night because there was a big festival in Villasimius, where we were staying. I was jacked up from the game. I did not sleep very well. I think I only slept three or four hours, and the next morning, we played them again.
And, let me tell you, I did not win the MVV award that day.
I had a tough day. I was tightening up in my hip flexor. I could not run in my normal gait. I was super tired. I was not as alert as normal. I had a tough day. Unfortunately, I sort of collapsed in on myself and I quit communicating as much with my teammates.
When I went to sleep that night, I just did not feel good about my play or myself. I realized something had to change. So, on day three, I went back out to the fields, warmed up, and pulled a couple of people aside and said, "Listen, give me feedback. I need you isolating me on the field every time I am on the RD line; I need you yelling at me front, back, strike, nothing deep, you are hot. All these Ultimate code words that tell me what to do and how to position myself on the field on defense, and then, hopefully, if we get a turn. It helped immensely. Dan helped me. Dawson helped me. Lars helped me. Lars especially helped me. We just hit it off and he would not only yell at me on the field, but after every point, I had come off. He would always tell me two things: keep doing this and change that. We got into this rhythm where my play started to improve and I started performing a lot better.
We did great. We won Worlds. We went 10 and 0 in a five-day tournament. Had really tough games against Finland and Germany in the end, but we won. I had a wonderful experience. Since I came back in the United States, I have tried to bring this idea of asking for more feedback all the time to my team at work. What should I keep doing? What would you change? For this email, what would you keep? What would you change? For this copy we are writing, for this video, for that pitch, for this meeting, everything we are doing. What should we keep? What should we change?
What I have found is if I generically ask for feedback, too often I get, "Oh, it was great!" And we all high five. Maybe it was great, but I am not getting anything I can improve on. But when I specifically ask people, "What would you keep? What would you change?" You have to pick one of each. That is when I am getting meaningful information that I can use to get better. So, I hope you can employ this tactic. What would you keep? What would you change? And asking it from everybody at every opportunity, because I think it is going to help me improve faster and more often than I was before.
As with all our videos, we hope you win MVV, and we hope these help you help your clients succeed.