“Find the people who affirm your power. Who tell you to keep going. Who believe in your ability and who don’t enable you to be a lower version of yourself. Find the people who expect greatness and show compassion for your human flaws.”
– Dr. Nicole LePera
In business and in sport, team members fall somewhere within the 10-80-10 Principle. Elite or top performers represent 10% of any team. The team members who consistently perform good work make up approximately 80% of the group. And although we don’t love the language, there is always a bottom 10%; they are mostly uninterested in getting better. Focus should be spent on moving the 80% into the top 10%. This is not an easy task as it requires honest feedback; honesty is not always well-received. Yet leaders continue to spend 90% of their time on the bottom 10%.
Why?
I recently connected with former athletes of mine. We hadn’t connected in quite some time. After a few brief “what’s new?” and “how’s the family?”, we delved into the meat and potatoes of our connection. We rarely waste an opportunity to learn and grow from one another. We are lucky to have met.
We shared about leadership and glass cliffs. We discussed being better co-conspirators. We talked about being truthful to our needs and listening to ourselves. We admitted needing to do more for ourselves. It was one of the most enlightening conversations I’ve had this year. To be truthful, I knew it would be. I connected knowing exactly what I was going to get from these conversations… from these people. They are authentic. They are honest. They are true. They are part of the top 10%.
After conversations like those, I find myself highly reflective – always a sign of a deep and meaningful conversation. The reflection led me to think about pods…
When I hear the word pod, I used to always think of orcas. Killer whales are highly social creatures and thrive in community. You know who else thrives in community? Humans…
A friend shared an article by Mia Mingus. Mingus is a writer, educator and trainer for transformative justice and disability justice. In it, she describes pods as:
A pod is a tool to address and prevent harm, violence, emergency or crisis. Pods can also be used to address specific needs and aid in general support. Pods are made up of the people in our lives we can turn to first and rely on. These are the people in our lives who have consented to being there for us either for general or specific purposes.
I’m curious…
Who is in your pod?
I always said that I would give a kidney to a friend who needed one. That I would be there in case of emergency. That I would always pick up the phone and I would always show up. That is who I am as a friend and as a person. Not everyone is so lucky to have such support. Those former athletes I recently connected with know I’d give them a kidney. They are in my pod.
Who can you call for a kidney?
Pods: The Building Blocks of Transformative Justice & Collective Care Written by Mia Mingus and posted March 16, 2023:
The Boyd Effect 
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