You Missed the Bus

You can't claim ownership and act like a renter

“Culture is what people do when no one is looking.”

— Herb Kelleher

Chasing Influence: Transformational Coaching to Build Champions for Life and What’s Your Juice? Unlock the Energy that Transforms Performance, Fuels Purpose, and Ignites the People Around You are now available on Amazon and Audible!

You Missed the Bus

I heard performance coach Jeremy Boone say something recently that really stuck with me. “Belonging without responsibility is entitlement. You can’t say you have ownership and act like a renter.”

Healthy cultures don’t suffer from a lack of belonging. A healthy culture can, however, suffer from confusion between expectations and standards—between what we hope people will do, and what we actually do.

That distinction hit home when my longtime coaching friend Shannon Blansette shared a story recently.

Blansette has been the head baseball coach at his school for thirteen years, and in all those years he’s been a stickler for punctuality. His players know the mantra by heart, because they’ve heard it countless times.

Early is on time. On time is late. Late doesn’t get on the bus.

Coach Blansette isn’t obsessed with time. But he is adamant about what being on time stands for—respect for your teammates, your coaches, and the commitment you’ve made to your team.

Along comes the playoffs this year and the team bus was scheduled to leave at 8:45am. Coach Blansette had forgotten some of his scouting charts, and after circling back to get them from home, for the first time in thirteen seasons, he was running late. He pulled into the parking lot at 8:47—two minutes late—to find the lot empty, the bus nowhere to be seen.

He quickly texted his captains. The reply came back: “Sorry Coach … early is on time, on time is late, late misses the bus.” They had left without him.

Coach Blansette then drove the thirty minutes to the playoff game alone. When he got there, his team gave him a round of applause. He could have been irate. Instead, He told me it was one of the proudest coaching moments of his life.

That story made me think of what I had just heard Jeremy Boone explain, “Belonging without responsibility is entitlement. You can’t say you have ownership and act like a renter.”

So many cultures run on belonging without responsibility. They feel good. People show up. There’s energy in the room. But the standards are soft. Everyone wants to be part of the team, and few are willing to live up to what that actually requires.

That’s what makes Shannon’s story so powerful. His players didn’t make an exception for him. They didn’t want to embarrass their coach, but the standard was bigger than him—and they knew it, because he had taught them so.

For thirteen years, Blansette had told his team that nobody was bigger than the rule. Then one morning, the rule came for him, and because he had lived it long enough, his players had the courage to hold him to it.

That’s not entitlement … that’s ownership!

Most leaders want ownership on their teams. Few leaders actually build it. Ownership isn’t created when people follow the rules because the boss is watching. It’s created when they uphold the standard when the boss isn’t there, or when the boss is the one running late.

That’s the difference between expectations and standards. Expectations are what we hope people will do. Standards are what we live, what we model, and what we hold each other to. Including the leader.

Anyone can enforce accountability downward. Healthy cultures hold it in every direction. People don’t believe what their leaders preach. They believe what their leaders practice. And eventually, they become what their leaders consistently permit.

When the standard you’ve been preaching finally comes for you, and it will, what will the people around you do?

Would the bus leave on time? And, how would you react?

(p.s. Coach Blansette’s team indeed won the playoff game.)

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”

— Albert Schweitzer

Connecting this quote to the story. Coach Blansette’s players didn't just hear the standard—they watched it being lived long enough that it became their standard too.

This week’s Chasing Influence tip: If a standard doesn't apply to the leader, it isn't a standard—it's a rule for everyone else.