The Meaning Of A Calder Cup Ring

The Calder Cup is awarded to the best team in the AHL.

The timing is strange, as it ends after the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs have finished.

It’s an awkward ending to hockey season.

Last year, the Toronto Marlies won.

They beat the Texas Stars in Game 7.

They were the best team.

So they hoisted the Cup.

And they get championship rings.

Championship rings are an interesting thing.

They’re a North American sports phenomenon

(They don’t really exist in sports outside of Canada and the US.)

The rest of the world collects trophies.

We collect rings.

A ring means that you’re a champion.

That you’ve won.

But does it mean the same thing in the minors?

The goal of those leagues is to develop talent.

To become better players.

To make it to the majors.

If you’ve graduated to the NHL when you get your ring, fantastic!

They’re a testament to the grind

To improving your skill set,

To testing yourself,

To winning a championship,

To graduating to the next level.

But what if you’re not?

If you’re still pounded it out in the minors.

What does the ring mean then?

Is it a memento of past glory days?

A reminder that you already hit your peak.

Or is it motivation to keep grinding?

To trust the process.

Minor league championships are not the end goal.

They’re a step in the process.

Your startup secured Series A funding.

Your work won a Canadian marketing award.

Your company broke $100,000 in revenue.

Congratulations! Pop some fucking bottles and celebrate.

But you know that it's not the end goal.

You don’t want one round of funding … you want to build an industry leading business.

You don’t want to be the best in Canada … you want to make work with a global impact.

You’re not stopping at $100k … you want to hit $100 million.

That minor league championship - the ring - represents the grind.

The process.

The hard work that you’ve put in throughout the season.

And that you’ll have to continue to put in.

It takes character to win a championship.

You gain experience in high pressure situations.

You getting reps under your belt.

You build the belief that you can win.

That’s the meaning of a Calder Cup ring.

It’s recognition of the grind you’ve put in so far.

And a reminder of the work still to come.

- Christian

Texts To My Mom. (Or How To Hire People For Cultural Fit.)

A couple of weeks ago I got a text from my mom. Which is unusual - not because she doesn’t text. But because she doesn’t normally text me. I’m not the favourite. That’s my brother. He’s that one that gets all of the texts / phone calls / extra slice of pie.

But messed up family hierarchy aside, she had a question:

I’m interviewing a potential colleague. What questions should I ask to find out if she’s the type of person who would fit in here?

By that stage of the hiring process, they’ve been through rounds and rounds. They knew the candidate was qualified. She could do the job. And do it well. They were trying to figure out the cultural fit of the potential hire.

In order to know if someone is a good fit, the first questions you ask need to be directed at yourself. You need to understand the culture you are trying to create on your team. And you need to create clear expectations for the role that the new player will be responsible for. 

Rich Clune is a veteran on the Toronto Marlies - the development team for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Over his 12 year professional career, he’s played 139 NHL games and 400+ games in the AHL. And he’s been through some shit. He’s publicly battled addiction and mental health issues. He will likely never crack an NHL roster ever again in his career. But he is a veteran brought in to the team with a very specific purpose - to show the rookies and the young guys trying to make the NHL what hard work looks like. To lead by example in the locker room, in the gym and off the ice. To protect the young guys on the ice.

The Marlies are building a hard working, process oriented culture. And they bring in personnel (players, coaches, trainers) to act as pillars - holding everyone up and accountable to that common mindset.

To find out if a player is the right fit for your team, you need to know the role you’re asking them to play within the broader context. Ask yourself:

1. What is the team’s mission? (Ie. Treating cancer patients, developing NHL players, winning championships, making money)

2. What is the culture that you will need to create to get there?

3. What role are you looking for your hire to fill with respect to your culture?

Once you understand the full context of the culture you are building, the reason behind it and the role you want a new team member to play in it, then you can dive into properly evaluating a candidate's fit. 

There is no magic list of questions to ask. So we have to switch our mindset. It’s not about asking the “right" questions, but about a general curiosity. Worrying about the questions can lead you to focus intently on the answers. A genuine curiosity allows you to dig beyond the answers and probe a couple levels deeper. Why they chose to answer it in that way. What they are trying to signal to you. How that represents their true communication style.

It’s easier and more natural to have general conversations steered towards specific topics than to plow through a list of questions. And what we are looking for is alignment. 

Is there alignment between their values and those of your team?

Is there alignment between their communication style and the members of your team?

Is there alignment between their goals and the goals of your team?

Often hiring the right person takes lot more work than originally expected. It’s not just picking the top off of a stack of resumes. It’s about taking the time to look inward on what your needs are and what you are trying to change. If the candidate is the best contributor for the role, both on the ice (their day-to-day job performance) and in the locker room (their cultural contribution) then you have a winner. 

At the end of the day, the most important questions you ask are directed at yourself and your team. The last one being - would hiring this person bring us closer to our goals? Or would it take us away?

- Christian

Storytelling In A Crisis

Maybe you fucked up. Maybe it was someone from your team. Maybe it was poor planning. Maybe it was an honest mistake. Or maybe it was completely out of your control. 

Either way, something went wrong. And now you’re in crisis mode. 

THE SHIT HATH HIT THE FAN!!! 

People are freaking out. There is a weird mix of figuring out what happened, how you got there and what to do. It’s not logical … everything is jumbled together. You’re putting this giant mess of a puzzle together piece by piece … but it’s as if a toddler has run off with half of the box and is smashing them into half-eaten yogurt. 

Graphically too specific? Yeah, it’s happened. 

Most of us have one goal when navigating a crisis - survive. Survive, survive, survive. Get out the other end with a job. And that survival mode triggers your adrenaline. While that may help you in outrun a saber-toothed tiger, all of those stress hormones pulsing through your veins won't help you in today’s crisis. They just make you sweaty. (Believe me, I know.) 

And some people, when in survival mode, just start swinging wild stories around in an effort to save their own asses and minimize damage to themselves. Don’t be that person. That person breeds misinformation that will lead to ill-informed reactive decisions. 

Our goal is to stave off those survivalist reactionary bullshit and uncover the true narrative. The true story of how we got here and where we are. Only then, can we lead a team into action and lock in on what we are going to do about it. 

TAKE A BREATH

The first step is to pause and collect yourself. Projecting a sense of level headed leadership instills confidence in your team. It’s much easier said than done. I know. 

But what’s the worst that could happen? You lose a client. You have to rebuild a reputation. You lose a job. If Elon Musk can figure out how to live on $1 a day, so can you. You will get through it and you will survive. The worst case scenario is rarely as bad as we make it out to be.

TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT. AND THAT YOU’RE ON IT.

A big wrench that gets thrown into a crisis is the time it takes to manage people’s expectations. Whether it’s internal, clients, the media or your customers … everyone wants to (1) make sure that you know that there is a problem, (2) tell you how they feel about it, and (3) demand to know how you’re going to fix it.

All of that sucks up precious time and energy. The freak out factor can quickly become the biggest challenge to solving a crisis. Well-meaning people often blow things out of proportion and make a non-problem into the end of the world. 

That’s why you have to get out ahead of it and tell people what is happening early. Even if you don’t have all of the information. Be the one to let them know. 

You need to be the one delivering the news to your key stakeholders - your boss, your executive team, the board, your customers. You don’t want someone else to break the news for you. By getting out ahead of it first, you control the story and dictate the timing for the next steps. You move from reacting to everyone’s expectations to setting them. Boom. 

BUILD THE STORY

Next, you figure out what the fuck happened and create the plan to move forward. You bring in the right people involved to paint a full picture of the situation. You dig into it. It’s not about assigning blame. You want to understand the full scope of the crisis so that you don’t solve one part and another problem pops up. 

Then you work with your team to build out the options for moving forward. It’s not about driving to a plan as quickly as possible … it’s about getting to the right plan. You have to keep an open mind. Listen to concerns. Collaborate and be flexible. 

The goal is to present a narrative that shows the correct context, the options before you, and the recommendation for moving forward. It demonstrates that you’re attacking the crisis from all angles and better insures that you don’t respond with an ill-advised knee-jerk reaction. 

The story should contain:

1. How We Got Here

2. Where We Are Now

3. The Options For Moving Forward

4. Your Recommendations For Next Steps

5. Key Decisions That Need To Be Made

TELL THE STORY

Now comes the tough part - selling that story in. Presenting in a way that shows that you’re on top of the crisis and instills confidence. To your executive committee. To your board. To your client. To your customers. 

It’s not an easy feat. Trolls love conflict. Emotions are running high. Blame is easy to assign. Politics come into play.  But you need to stick to the script. Lay out a clear narrative. Accept responsibility. Propose solutions. And be open to feedback. 

The key is to showcase the options on the table and provide your recommendation. It demonstrates that you’ve done your due diligence - you’ve thought about it from every angle. And that builds confidence. Presenting the options and the recommendation also allow for the people you are presenting to feel as thought they are part of the decision. And people like that. 

NEXT STEPS AND FIXING SHIT

After the story is taken care of and people are bought in, the hard part starts - actually fixing shit. Rebooting a team’s work culture. Recalling and replacing people’s phone batteries. Actually upgrading the scoreboard so that it doesn’t get stuck 20 feet off the ice. 

Throughout the process, you need to continue to lead the narrative. Listen to feedback. Be ready to adjust the plan if necessary. And communicate, communicate, communicate. Make sure everyone knows what’s happening. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

What adds to a crisis? Mixed messages. Confusion. Inflammatory remarks. To successfully navigating a disastrous incident, you need to ensure that there is a clear story for people to latch on to. One that provides the correct context. One that demonstrates knowledge of the situation and the next steps. One that leads people to an obvious resolution. 

The goal we have in navigating a crisis is to come out the other side stronger. And with the right story telling in the situation and reflection after it, we can do just that. 

- Christian