Building Paradise:
Culture and Core Values

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How many times have you heard the word culture this week? Bad results in sports or business chalked up to bad culture. The amazing startup or championship team that heralds the amazing culture.

As a new club it’s important to foster a culture that helps you achieve your vision and mission. Since club culture is how our people act, there needs to be some guidelines that can create the behavior that we want.

The basis for those guidelines comes from our core values. When building Paradise it was important for me to have core values that reflect my own beliefs as well as what I think will help us achieve our mission and vision.

However, any set of values you have for your club, team or group needs to be anchored in the people who are a part of your organization. Where most people go wrong is brining in people who are not aligned with their core values. That leads to trouble, even in paradise.

I have made the mistake of hiring people who were not fully aligned with our values. They said they were, but their actions soon said differently. At that point, my most important job is to cut these people loose, regardless of how nice they may be.

As the leader, my job is to be the Chief Guardian of Culture. This means that I need to remind our people of our values, our mission and our long-term vision. In addition to being diligent in moving people out who are not aligned. That saying of “hire fast, fire faster” is true. As soon as you have confirmed that a person is not in alignment, they need to go…

When you set core values they need to reflect you at the top. Because whatever you say or whatever values you set, the people you lead will end up doing what you do. If you’re not aligned with the organization - you’re the one in the wrong spot!

Okay, so now you’re wondering what our (my) core values are in Paradise and why. Here goes…

1) Inspirational - We want to inspire our community to make it a better place. We want to help people have more fun and have fun ourselves. Because life’s too boring sometimes…

2) Discipline - We do what we say we’ll do. Whenever we tell you that we’ll do something, we follow through and get it done or seek help to achieve our target.

3) Transparency - We don’t keep secrets and we share our progress and challenges with each other. We are an open book both internally and externally. Life is easier when you just tell people what’s going on…

4) Accountability - We hold ourselves and each other accountable for our actions. It’s okay to mess up, we all will. The important part is to own our mistakes and take responsibility for our actions.

5) Growing - We continually learn and grow as individuals and as a club. As mentioned, everyone will mess up. The important thing is to learn from the mistakes we make, grow and make new mistakes the next time around!

6) Result-Oriented - We play to win on and off the field. This means that we do everything in our power to help each other perform and win. We win and lose together, as a family.

You may look at these values above and either think “not for me” or you think “this would be awesome”. If you’re in the second category you might be a good fit in paradise. However, there’s need to issue a caution. You may think you want to be held accountable for example. But when I call you out to your face, potentially in front of others, how will you react?

Personally I think most humans want to be aligned with our core values but I also realize that it’s only a minority that actually are. We want the people who want to grow and develop. Those who take responsibility for their own actions and are disciplined, able to share while going after the win.

Are you one of these?

MW
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About the author Marcus Walfridson is the founder of Sarasota Paradise Soccer Club, leading its transition to USL League One. A seasoned soccer coach and author of Lessons From The Beautiful Game. He champions individual liberty and personal accountability, striving for success both on and off the field.