NCAA Round One: Mission and Vision Trump Skill Set

I’m a proud Lehigh University graduate. Lehigh beat Duke in the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Lehigh was a 15th seed and Duke a No. 2 seed. This is only the fifth time out of 100 that a 2 seed lost to a 15 seed. It was Lehigh’s first ever NCAA tournament victory.

You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this and what it has to do with car dealerships, buying a car or our community at large. I believe it has everything to do with all those things. I believe the reason why Lehigh beat Duke is that the coach had a mission and vision for his team. Any successful organization needs to have a mission and vision that people can buy into. 

At Key Hyundai of Manchester and Hyundai of Milford, we too have a mission. We repeat it daily in all our meetings and interactions with employees. It is:

We help people drive nicer, newer cars. We are solution providers and not product pushers. We want to help people keep their cars fun and safe to drive for as long as they wish to drive them.

When Coach Reed from Lehigh University was asked what his team’s goal was, he said, “Our goal is to be playing our best basketball at the end of the year.” He didn’t say his team’s goal was win the Patriot League, or to get an NCAA berth, or to win the first round. It’s such a slight difference but such an important one. 

It’s the distinction between saying, “we want to be the #1 selling Hyundai dealer in Connecticut,” and “we want to be solution providers.” If we help people and if we provide solutions to customers, we will by default stay the #1 selling Hyundai dealer in Connecticut. If we don’t, we won’t. If Lehigh’s goal was to win the Patriot League, they may or may not have accomplished it. But, their goal was to be playing their best basketball at the end of year. By doing that, they won the Patriot League and got the NCAA berth and beat Duke. 

I will leave you with some inspirational snippets that I pulled out of video interviews with the Lehigh University Coach Brett Reed:

-  When asked if they were going to change their style of game for the tournament, he said, “we’ve had success playing Lehigh brand of basketball, we’re sticking with it.”

-   “We’ve made sacrifices, worked together and we have a family atmosphere.  These lessons will pay a lifetime of dividends to my team,”  Coach Reed.

-    “Our strength is our unity. We have five guys in the right place, doing the right thing. One player doesn’t have to carry the burden of everyone else,”  Coach Reed.

-     When asked about the team's lead player, Coach Reed said, “his real skill is his willingness to share the basketball, he makes the other players around him better.”

Have a meaningful week. I would love to hear about the mission and vision that drives your life.

PS: When asked the key to his victory, Coach Reed said, “Belief that we could do it. Everyone was telling us we couldn’t. We suspended that disbelief and knew that we’d be able to win on that particular night.”