Fight for our TCFF culture in all your daily actions!
As many of you may or may not know I have been a part of shaping the culture at Thompson for over 33 years and have also spent 30+ years on the sidelines coaching college, high school and youth sports. I’ve been a front-line staff member, manager, director, leader, supervisor, Vice President, Sr. Vice President, Executive leader, volunteer coach, position coach, assistant coach, assistant head coach, head coach and the one constant in all those roles first and foremost and the number one thing has always been to be a fighter and keeper of the culture we established and live by! A hall of fame coach once told a team I coached, “every one of you have to fight for your team culture every day or someone will steal it and try to change it and once you lose your established culture it will be hard for you to achieve the purpose you set out to achieve!”
So, what does it mean to “fight for our culture”? Culture in and itself means: -The sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another!
At TCFF we believe that we achieve our greatest gift of serving and healing and distinguishing us from others by living up to our core values: Excellence, Innovation, commitment, caring and integrity. These five core values shape our culture and we all must be “keepers of that culture” in order for us to serve and heal! So how do each one of us “fight for our culture”? Truth be told It’s really simple! When you are able to put the team ahead of self you become a prize fighter for culture! Culture allows us to assemble a diverse top tier team and work collectively to instill our core values in everything we do! We should ask ourselves each day, did I fight for our culture or did I permit and promote any culture killing actions to stand in the way of caring and healing!
Culture killers come in all sorts of ways and always tie back to integrity! Did I do the right thing even though no one was watching, did I respond to a child and family in need in a “caring” way, did I get all my reports and paper work in on time, was I responsive to staff’s needs, did I park in a designated parking area, did I respond to an ask for candid information needed in a survey, did I handle myself in a professional manner, did I say “that’s not my job”, did I get to work on time, did I stop and pick up a piece of trash I saw on the ground, did I stop to take time to ask my coworker how they were doing etc etc etc! As you can see every action or needed non action shapes and fights for or against our culture!
As our Thompson Team I challenge everyone one of us to ask ourselves everyday with every action, word, task and everything we do…….did I fight for our culture or did I permit and promote something that was a culture killer, all the while remembering fighting for our culture simply means “fighting” for our kids and families that need our support!