⚽️ The Nouns of October 25, 2024

1. NEW WATCH THROUGH: Jamie Tartt is a Terrorist

2. NEW QUOTE: Too cool to tell you about it

3. NEW NETWORK: The asshole filter

Jamie Tartt is a Terrorist

There needs to be a word for when you’re rewatching the part of a show you have already seen so that you can be up to speed on the newer season of the show that you haven’t seen.

Regardless, we’re doing that with Ted Lasso.

If you haven’t seen any of it, Ted is an American football coach who ends up coaching a British soccer team with unbridled positivity. Jamie Tartt is the star of the team. An incredible soccer player. And a total narcissistic, self-righteous douche. Also, maybe just don’t read this. Because… ya know… spoilers.

The first season of Ted Lasso is the clearest example of Right People / Right Seats I have ever seen. Hopefully, the following 912 words will help you fix the Tartts in your own life.

In Good to Great, Jim Collin’s talks about the idea of getting the right people on the bus. In EOS, we call this Right People / Right Seats. In order to accomplish something great, we must build a team of people who are both right for our culture, and in the right role.

Right People are those who exude our core values. They live and breathe as our kind of people. We all know them. You light up when they walk in the room.

Right Seats are people who excel in their given role on the team. They innately understand how to do the job well, love to do it, and have everything they need to do a great job. We all know them too.

Now, wrong people in the wrong seat are usually pretty obvious. You can’t be both an asshole and bad at your job. At least not for long, and it’s a problem that tends to solve itself pretty quickly.

The biggest issues we face with Right People in the Right Seat is forgetting about them. They do such a great job that we assume they are happy until one day they quit, saying “I felt like no one was mentoring me” or “you give everyone else all of your time and attention and it made me feel like you didn’t care”.

If someone on your team comes to mind, please stop reading this email and go tell them (in person) how great of a job they are doing. Better yet, go ask them for advice on something that is affecting you personally.

The more common issues we usually see are Right Person /Wrong Seat and Wrong Person/ Right Seat.

A great coach once gave me a fantastic 2x2 for this. He called Right People/Right Seats STARs, and Wrong People/Wrong Seats RATS (conveniently ‘star’ backwards). But what about the other two?

Puppies

Right People in the Wrong Seat are puppies. They are wonderful. They live by your core values and make the culture of the team shine. You light up when they walk in the room. And then pee on the carpet.

It’s incredibly difficult to find true Right People, and you don’t want to get rid of someone who is clearly a core values fit just because they made a mistake or seven. More likely there is simply another role they should be in that would be a better fit, and by working with them to get clarity around their strengths and weaknesses, usually you can find that role.

The Peter Principle states that we “rise to a level of respective incompetence.” In other words, we continue to move up based on great performance until we land in a role where we cannot perform. Often, promoting the phenomenal salesman to sales manager is the poison slipped into your fruit punch.

Roy Kent is a puppy. While he may seem like a grump, Roy lives for the team and maintains the culture. But he’s old. And can’t quite perform at the level he used to. At that point, he must make a decision to move into a new role suited for his current skills and abilities. It’s painful, but ultimately, it's the right move for Roy and the team overall.

Terrorists

I know, we just jumped from puppies to terrorists, but hear me out.

Wrong People in the Right Seat are terrorists. They’re holding you hostage.

And we all know these jackasses.

“I’m the best salesman you have. I account for 20% of top line revenue for the whole company. What are you going to do, fire me? Your funeral.”

Jackass.

Terrorists are terrorists because they put you in impossible decisions. It can feel like that movie where the hiker has to cut his own arm off.

But that hiker lives. And so must you.

Wrong People in the Right Seat have simply got to go.

The funny thing is after the cancer is finally cut away, the team always says the same thing.

“What took you so long?”

Jamie Tartt is a terrorist.

Though he is undoubtedly a soccer phenom, Jamie is a poison in the team. His values don’t align with the other players, and in spite of his best intentions, he begins to corrupt them.

This is a point often overlooked by leadership. Wrong People don’t just affect themselves. They are actually a virus that slowly infects the people around them. Unfortunately, people spend more time with their teammates than the CEO, so if they hear their trusted teammate saying it’s all bullshit enough times, even the best employee will start to believe it.

Eventually - spoiler alert - Jamie gets moved to a different team.

Are his teammates, his apparent friends, upset to see him gone? Worried they won’t be able to win without him?

No.

In fact, immediately before discovering Jamie is gone, Ted walks through a party in the locker room and comments that everyone seems so happy.

“What took you so long”.

The team goes on to lose when it counts.

To an opposing goal from Jamie.

But they do it together, with a foundation of trust that will allow them to get back up after falling.

Ted Lasso is great. Certainly better than this email. You should probably go watch it instead.

Then go make the hard calls and get the Jamie Tartts out of your life.

Canopy: the asshole filter

As this email is ultimately about caring for others and having values alignment with the people around you, I want to take a minute to call out Canopy.

Based in Louisville, Canopy is a Good Business membership and certification nonprofit working to make businesses have a more positive impact in their communities, the environment, and ultimately on their own bottom line.

A little like B Corp light.

I am a Canopy member and often joke that it is one of the best asshole filters in town.

When the other folks at the networking event have already checked the box that they want to treat their people and the planet better, they tend to be good people to talk to.

It’s a great organization for meeting more Right People, and less Jamie Tartts.

If you’re interested in learning more, go to canopyky.org or grab a ticket to the Canopy Good Business Summit next month. I’ll be there.

Bonus Noun: the Lamy Safari

I recently picked up a Lamy Safari. I’m not a huge fountain pen fan, but this thing is a 10/10 from me. I like the big clip, the window to see how much ink is left, and the scratchy yet satisfying sound it makes.

Most of all, I like the way the little flat parts usher my hand into the perfect position to hold it.