(Jerry and John are so excited to announce the upcoming release of our new book The Champion Teammate: Timeless Lessons to Connect, Compete and Lead in Sports in Life. Throughout our lives, we will be part of many teams. From sports teams to community groups to our dining room table, our lives are filled with opportunities to come together with others in pursuit of a common goal, and people who thrive in these situations are highly valued teammates. We use terms such as competitive, selfless, loyal, inspiring, hardworking, and caring to describe great teammates, but what do those words actually mean, and how do you achieve those ideals? In our new book, we share wisdom accrued from decades of consultation with well over 100 conference, national, and world championship teams and dozens of Hall of Fame coaches; interviews with hundreds of athletes, coaches, and leadership experts on the Way of Champions Podcast; and hundreds of workshops on being an exceptional teammate, leader, coach, and parent. We wrote this book because this is the book that all our teams ask for: can we do a team read together that will promote discussion, help us get more connected, compete harder, and have our best season ever? Please enjoy this sample chapter.)

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER YOUR COPIES, RELEASE DATE IS MAY 20

Chapter 4: Be a Thermostat, not a Thermometer

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

 —William James

The great FC Barcelona teams from 2008–2016 were some of the greatest teams of all time, in any sport. They won multiple league, cup and Champions League titles, including all six competitions they entered in 2009 (Copa Del Rey, La Liga, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup). They played extraordinary soccer, and the team was filled with superstars such as Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Neymar, and others. The captain of those teams was Carles Puyol.

Puyol was a product of Barcelona’s famed La Masia Academy and had grown up with many of the team’s star players. He was not a flashy headliner like the others. He was a gritty defender. He did the dirty work, covered for others, made huge defensive plays, and led through his work ethic and inspirational attitude. He was the glue that held the egos in check, and though his top traits rarely made the stats sheet, without him Barcelona would have never achieved great heights.

Puyol was a leader, a warrior, and humble at the same time. He captained teams with stars such as Messi, Neymar, and Ronaldinho, and more-famous teammates often called him the best professional they had ever been around. If you google “Carles Puyol leadership,” you will find highlight videos of Puyol asking teammates to stop over-the-top celebrations that humiliated an opponent, or to quit complaining about or playacting for a foul. In one instance, he gets slapped by an opposing player, and then intervenes and pushes his own teammates away before a shoving match can start, taking the temperature down and keeping their focus on the game. Puyol is the ultimate thermostat, when many others are simply thermometers.

We have all been part of a competition, or a season, when things go sideways for the group. It might be a poor call by an official, or it might be a bad run of form, but all of a sudden everyone in the group loses their head, or starts to play tight, tense, and tentative. These are the moments we need thermostats, not thermometers. And while these two things seem to be very similar—something to do with temperature—they do very different things.

As you all know, thermometers take the temperature of a room. Sometimes it is hot, sometimes it is cold, and they reflect exactly what is going on. Many teams can get stuck in thermometer mode, reflecting what is happening in the moment or during that stage of the season. If one person is low energy, soon the whole group is. If one person loses their head or conflict arises, soon everyone is sucked into the drama.

The problem with many teams, and leaders, is that they act like thermometers. The culture of the group goes up and down based upon the temperature of the day, which leads to inconsistency and lack of identity or the inability to change things when they are going south. Next thing you know, you have lost a competition you should have won, or blown a conference championship, because of a couple of bad games.

Thermostats, on the other hand, adjust the temperature. If it is too hot, thermostats bring the temperature down, and if it is too cold, they bump up the heat a bit. Great teams, and great leaders, are more like thermostats. They recognize when something is not right, and they adjust. No energy in practice? They have the courage to bump it up a notch. Negativity and cliques arising? They bring that to an end quickly by addressing the issue when it is small.

If team members are losing focus, thermostats help everyone around them get dialed back in. Teams in thermostat mode know what the temperature needs to be, as defined by their culture and values, and they adjust accordingly. When these teams adjust the temperature, it isn’t done to call anyone out or shame anyone; it is done because the team has agreed to abide by these standards and values. When you act as a thermostat, you are demonstrating your love for each other, and sometimes that love needs to be tough love. This is a sign of respect.

Sadly, some teammates can be thermostats in the wrong way, turning down the temperature and sucking the energy out of a positive team by whining, complaining, and gossiping. These things are like vomit; the person doing them feels better and everyone else around feels worse. When you complain, whine, and gossip, no one says, “I am so glad I was a part of that, I cannot wait to hear them do that again.” It doesn’t achieve or improve anything, especially for the person doing the complaining. Your performance and your standing on your team will improve the moment you stop complaining.

Thermometers are nice to have on a team when things are going well, but thermostats are a necessity so we don’t get too high or too low. Thermometers are about reacting, and thermostats are about responding. Thermometers are about being a victim of our circumstances, and thermostats are about intentionality, realizing that we always have a choice to respond and not to react. Being a thermometer is easy; being a thermostat takes courage. Average teams are populated with thermometers, but championship teams are full of thermostats.

Which one are you? What about your team?

Every season, and every competition, is filled with thermometer and thermostat moments. If we want to get better every day, we need to have the courage to be in thermostat mode. When an opponent goes on a run, we need to know what is needed to stop it. When there is a bad call or a bad bounce and we lose focus, we need to adjust and get it back.

When practice is not at the required standard, we must demonstrate our love, reset our focus quickly, and be a thermostat. Dial it up a bit out of love for your teammates. Condemn the behaviors that are not helping you grow as a team, or you are in effect condoning them. Have a bad moment, but don’t string together a bunch of them.

That’s what thermostats do. If we can be thermostats this season, we can do great things.

Optimize Your Performance

1. Rate yourself on a scale of 1–5, where 1 is a thermometer who goes along with the current temperature of the group, and 5 is a thermostat like Carles Puyol, who raises and lowers it as needed. Think about the moments of highest stress (down on the scoreboard, after a bad call, etc.) because these moments are when it matters most.

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2. Gather with your teammates and rate your team on a scale of 1–5. Then break into groups and have a discussion around the following questions:
   1. Describe a difficult moment for our team when we all reacted in a poor manner, when we needed to be thermostats and instead acted like thermometers.

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2. What could we have done differently in that moment? Who could have stepped up and changed the temperature?

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2. Describe a moment when we responded to a difficult situation and acted like thermostats instead of thermometers. What did we do that worked well? How can we do that more often?

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2. Bonus: Have everyone anonymously write down the three thermostats on your team and compile the results.

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3. Coaches, consider selecting your team captains on a thermostat vs. thermometer basis, using some of the criteria from this rating. Would this help your team?

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