Leader’s Top Disciplines Series I: Finding What is Right

What is a Skill and What is a Discipline?

You might be thinking, “What a weird question!” But I don’t think so. In fact, I’ve been emphasizing the distinction between the two for many years. While skills and disciplines are certainly linked, they are not the same. So, how are they different? Let’s break it down with a simple example: Being a Good Writer.

1. Being a competent, above-average, or even great writer is a discipline.
   (Not a skill? No. Why not?)
2. To be a good writer, you need a variety of skills (or aptitudes), including:
   • Good spelling
   • A strong vocabulary
   • Solid syntax (sentence structure)
   • Strong content creation
   • Effective time management and meeting deadlines
   • The ability to “put thoughts on paper”
   • A good grasp of the content or topic (reasonable subject matter expertise)
   • A sense of humor
   That’s already nine skills—and I’m probably missing a few!

In general, mastering a discipline like being a good writer or driving a golf ball well requires proficiency in about 8–12 distinct but related skills. Try applying this concept to other disciplines, such as lag putting, public speaking, or driving a car. You’ll see that each discipline is made up of a combination of correlated skills.

With this concept of disciplines being made up of skills, we can now get rolling on the first in our “Top Disciplines of a Leader (in Hospitality) Series.” For this one, we will call the discipline, “Finding What is Right (or Excellent)” and we’ll find inspiration from Marcus Buckingham.

As you know, this isn’t the first time I’ve found one of Marcus Buckingham’s perspectives to be on point. In fact, for the last article of the Paradox Series (#12), we quoted him to delve into a deeper understanding of The Pro’s Performance Paradox. In that article, there were some solid takeaways from Buckingham including: 

• Our Why/Our Purpose is important, but on its own, it falls short in helping us maintain engagement, resilience under stress, productivity and effectiveness
• Purpose really matters but, as Buckingham asserts, “when push comes to shove…it doesn’t matter what your why is, if “the what” you’re doing every day doesn’t energize you.”
• We also highlighted Buckingham’s expertise as a Psychometric Analyst, a “Strength’s Revolutionist” and author of Now, Discover Your Strengths, First, Break All the Rules and StandOut 2.0: Assess Your Strengths, Find Your Edge, Win at Work. Watch this summary video on the book for a quick, but worthwhile review.

Top Disciplines of a Leader #1: FINDING WHAT IS RIGHT (OR EXCELLENT): MARCUS BUCKINGHAM | (I suggest you click the link and watch it on Instagram, but in so many words, I’ve created a sort of transcript for reference.) 

Clearly, Marcus Buckingham knows a lot about what makes people (like you and me, and those we work with, lead, serve, sell to, etc.) “tick” and more. In the post and transcript of his post, he gets right to it with the following:

• Discipline yourself to find what’s right. Discipline yourself to find what’s working. | This wording is key. Discipline—this is not a skill; it’s a “bucket of skills” learned over time, built by continually choosing and choosing well, with intentionality.
  • Buckingham points out that we tend to go to the problem first, partly because we all came to a realization when we were aged 6–8 that “there is something wrong here.” With that realization, we all tend to default to it as if it is our “operating system.” Instead, let’s commit to looking for what is right, what is working, and at the same time, point to who is doing it right and who is doing the work.
• Avoid – Your natural reaction is to go to what every single person is struggling with. | As leaders, especially as people who became leaders because we could produce, execute, and “#Get Sh!# Done,” we find meaning and value in supporting the broken parts of our team, operation, or systems. Fixing these things (or these people) is often a “first down” style win for us. Naturally, there’s nothing wrong with this, but if it comes at the expense of those we lead—essentially in a selfish way—it can be detrimental over time to the health of our team culture. It can also undermine the development of the individuals we lead who are “training on the job” to be like us (or at least aspire to be).
• Avoid – Your natural “deficit mindset, a fix-it mindset.” | This concept continues from the last. It’s not about you—or is it? This serves as a litmus test of sorts, where the rubber truly meets the road. If it is about you, you’ll find yourself “fixed on the fix mindset” and discover that you can only win when someone else is losing (or needs to be fixed or is in a deficit). Instead, wouldn’t it be better to focus more and commit more to the “when we win, I win” kind of approach?
• Be the person that shines a spotlight on what works… | At golf clubs and golf facilities, there are—and will always be—plenty of people who shine a spotlight on what is wrong. It seems like a never-ending line of people. This isn’t about wearing rose-colored glasses either. It’s about pointing out what works—with proof, with data, with trends, with before-and-after pictures and receipts. It’s about tracking the “make a difference” comments and outcomes and finding ways to put them on the scoreboard for ownership, the board, or whomever needs to know.
• If you want to get more excellence you’ve got to understand and point out where excellence currently is. | What a great point! What is excellence? What is the goal, the vision? What does it look like, feel like, sound like? Most golf clubs out there don’t really know, so they lean into copycat decision-making or “plug-and-play” concepts. It worked over there for that club; maybe we should do that. That is not a plan—it’s actually lazy.
  • Chick-fil-A. They could have copied KFC, Popeyes, or any other “fried chicken place,” and they did for a while. Then, they did the work to create a vision for who they wanted to be, and they got after what excellence truly meant for Chick-fil-A. As a result, they went from a $1B enterprise to a $21B one. Click here to learn more.
• You’ve got to understand how it works so you can do it again. | Continuing with the previous point and the Chick-fil-A example, not only is there a clear need to define what excellence is for your team, your operation, or your facility—that is the first step. Next, you have to work with your team to bring them along on the journey to excellence. Help them help you find ways to #GSD in a more effective, efficient, and excellent manner. In some cases, it may be an outside staffer finding a better way to pick the range or stage the carts in a manner that is more efficient or more professional-looking. Instead of patting them on the head and saying, “Good try, but don’t do that again,” maybe we need to find out what they were thinking, what they were trying to accomplish, and not only celebrate the improvement but also their approach and attitude that led to the result. From there, work with them and others on the team to organize how it can be done repeatedly by others for the win—for everyone.
• Always take a positive strength-based focus on the way that you understand your world and your team. | Once again, I suggest you read The Pro’s Performance Paradox article, specifically the part about Strengthfinders and how to benefit from it. Knowing your strengths and how you can “lead from within those strengths” is very useful and valuable. Knowing “what is right about you” should lead to more confidence, more belief, and more competence in all you do—especially when it comes to speaking your mind, leading from the front, making courageous choices, and being more disciplined about finding what is right, what is excellent, and similar.
• Look for what is right with people, look for what’s right with situations. That way you’ll get more of it. | Similar to the last point, looking for what is right with your people means identifying their strengths (or their innate talents). Furthermore, when you build a team or pod to work on a project, you form groups based on their strengths so they complement each other. At the same time, you can help them see how their strengths can be impactful and winning. You can also help them recognize where they might allow another person—who has a certain strength they may lack—to take the lead in a given context while they step into a more supportive role.

Back to a point of summary–Buckingham’s last thought is “that way, you’ll get more of it.” A classic concept for sure: We tend to find what it is that we are looking for, or seeking after…what is your “looking magnetized for” at this point as a leader. For the coming year, would you (as a leader) or manager benefit from being more disciplined about finding what is right? Would your team or your teammates benefit from you being more disciplined? Yes, it won’t be easy to stop seeing what needs to be fixed or what is in deficit. One way to see what is right and not what is wrong is to focus on the right. Just keep it simple and try to find what is right and see what happens. Specifically, what could happen in 2025 for all of us, for our teams, our facilities if we grew by 5-10% in this key discipline?

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. If you have a story to share, an issue you’re facing professionally or similar, please reach out to me when you can. If you are seeking any help with your career or similar, please click on the “Book an Appointment on Monte’s Calendar” link below.