Bonnie Richardson stepped up and accepted the 1A team track championship for Rochelle High School. Definitely, the state title was a great accomplishment for any high school. Winning the state title with one person, Bonnie, was an even more remarkable accomplishment.
Richardson crossed over traditional track boundaries and competed and placed in sprints (winning the 200 meters and placing second in the 100 meters) and field events (winning the high jump, placing second in the long jump and third in the discus).
With all of the personalized trainers and expensive state-of-the-art equipment being offered to athletes these days, Bonnie’s high school doesn’t even have a real track. The football field has a ring of caliche and grass around it.
During these times of escalating gas prices and financial tension in the economy, we can all learn from the accomplishments of Bonnie Richardson and Rochelle High School of DOING MORE WITH LESS. It is easy to get caught up in the media’s never-ending coverage of distraught and begin to “admire the problem” and believe it is not your responsibility to solve things.
In working with Southwest Airlines throughout the years, I often remember a pointed speech Herb Kelleher gave at an all-Employee meeting. He declared, “As long as we (Southwest Airlines) believe we are small and the underdog acting with a warrior spirit, we will grow and become large. Once we believe we are large, we will become complacent and quickly become small.” Southwest Employees often rattled off stories of how they found ways to do more with less – opening up service from California to Las Vegas with $0 budget for promotion (think Elvis contest and TV coverage on the news) and how Herb asked EACH Employee to have a goal of saving a $1 a day during a previous fuel crisis (with 30,000 Employees…this adds up fast).
As you look to DO MORE WITH LESS, ask yourself the following questions:
- As a leader, are you mobilizing your organization, team, and employees to take action and identify opportunities or encouraging them to admire the problems?
- Have you evaluated what you need to start doing that you currently aren’t, what you need to stop doing given the low return on investment, and what you need to continue to do and invest in going forward? Helping Southwest Airlines with their Employer Branding program allowed them to reevaluate their people investment and refocus investments on the areas delivering the most value (see a recent interview in Workforce magazine on this program http://email.workforce.com/a/tBIRU6dBmLlMBB7RP1FBvXUJZ8G/wfw75 and also Libby Sartain’s remarks in the Client Testimonial section of this blog).
- Are you challenging yourself to extend beyond typical boundaries for your role, function, and team to reinvent the game during these times? Bonnie evaluated what her skills allowed her to do and went out and did them versus letting the typical barrier of only participating in sprints OR field events get in her way.
Great opportunity exists in challenging times for those that seek it out.
Thanks to all of you for your comments on our blog and additional ideas utilizing sports stories for business insights. Please continue to send these to me and you never know when your idea will appear in a future post.
Tags: bonnie richardson, branding, Business, championship, coaching, leadership, Libby Sartain, performance, southwest airlines, talent, track
