Champions!

Congratulations to the New England Patriots! Kevin Duffy from the Boston Herald made an interesting observation the day before the big game – “an unusually high number of Patriots players come from military and law enforcement families.” According to Duffy about 1/5th of our champion Patriots grew up around the military. It’s a wonderful article and I’d highly recommend you take a moment to read it. What I found interesting was the discussion around the importance of teamwork is ingrained into the teams culture.
Teamwork is one of those things we talk about, but how often do we really make it a priority? When we go out and meet with organizations, one of the easiest ways to spot a good team is through language. It was one of the simplist lessons in leadership that we learned at Norwich – leaders take responsibility for the bad and push credit off towards others. The GOAT echoed this perfectly following the AFC Championship during a post-game interview. Rarely did he use the word “I” prefering to use “we” and when asked about his performance, he gave credit to the line. As a former offensive lineman, it warmed my heart – no one ever says nice things about the line – but Brady did, because the Patriots culture is about team work. When you are a leader on a team, you give more credit than you take.
At Easterseals, we spend a lot of time working with employers who want to hire veterans for all the right reasons, but something is missing. Like any new hire, the person you are bringing on should create value for your business. We know that veterans have the potential to be high-performers individually, they are detail-oriented, respectful, and they adapt well to changing situations. Where veterans truly excel is in what they do for the team. Veterans are humble leaders, willing to put the team above themselves. We know, and businesses know, that veterans create value for the teams they join and they are often top performers in their field. The challenge we face today is to help our veterans break down the barriers to employment they face – some are large and some are small but it takes support from the community to ensure our veterans are able to find meaningful employment. It’s one of the many things our team does to ensure that every Veteran is appreciated not just for what they have done, but acknowledged for what they have left to give.
We can’t do this without you. Please go to www.vetscount.org/maine to learn how you can support our life-changing programs. Go Patriots!