Tag Archive for: Corporate Culture

Rally Mentality and Football

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Why Mindset is the Game-Changer

Rally Mentality: A Winning Playbook On and Off the Field

Football is back! According to Statista.com, The NFL is one of the most widely televised sporting leagues in the world. Whether you are a football fan or not, it’s likely that you know someone who is (including me!). While I personally am a fan (years of cheering on high school, college and professional sidelines), today’s blog post isn’t about joining a fantasy football league, Taylor Swift attending games or who is going to win the Super Bowl.  

Today’s blog post is simply asking a question: What do football and Rally Mentality have in common? 

Everything that matters when the pressure is on. After years of supporting leaders and teams through my Rally Mentality™ program, I’ve seen the same principles ignite championship moments in boardrooms and locker rooms alike. Whether you’re suiting up for a high stakes match or a game-changing meeting, knowing how to rally is the secret to resilience, unity, and victory. 

The Heart of Resilience

Rally Mentality is the ability to rise, especially when the odds are stacked against you. It means resilience isn’t built at the beginning; it’s forged in the comeback — when you choose to get up, regroup, and push forward despite setbacks. The Rally Mentality program inspires this mindset, helping individuals and corporate teams leverage their inner grit and become unstoppable at reaching life and career goals. 

The Foundation behind Rally Mentality

The Mental Game Is Essential

Football might be famous for tackles and touchdowns, but ask any elite player or coach, and they’ll say at least half of the game is mental. I would say the same is true for any venture (including cheerleading!). When the stakes are high and the pressure is tough, your ability to stay mentally strong is what separates champions from contenders.    

Bouncing Back from Setbacks

Just like having a Rally Mentality, athletic success is determined by how quickly you bounce back when you make a mistake or things go wrong. A resilient athlete or a resilient team doesn’t dwell on losses. Instead, they are mentally equipped to adapt, pivot and use setbacks as fuel for improvement. 

Example in Action

Consider a team down at halftime. In the locker room, a powerful rally speech can reawaken belief and inspire a turnaround. History is filled with comeback victories sparked by a unified, resilient mentality. The same is possible for corporate teams. With the right leadership and the right mindset, you can turn anything around for success. 

Power of Teamwork: Rallying Together

 
Strength in Numbers

One of my favorite parts about cheerleading and football is the lesson in building a strong team. One of the biggest misconceptions about cheering in the NFL, is that we aren’t united. However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth! At least in Kansas City, we deeply respected and valued one another. The same is true in all team sports. It’s never just a solo act. The trick is, building a culture that rallies around each other. Just like what I teach about having a Rally Mentality in all aspects of life.  

Lessons for Leaders

If you have a leadership title, building a culture of encouragement and setting the foundation rooted in a shared mission is what’s going to help your organization thrive. 

Composure in the Clutch

Pressure packed moments define football. Think about all of the fourth quarter drives or turnovers. The same goes in life. When I lived on a canoe in the Florida Everglades for two weeks with a team of ten people, we were studying Situational Leadership. The purpose was simple: how did you react or respond when your back was against the wall? When you were at your most uncomfortable? When you had to think quickly on your feet and hope that you were making the right, split-second decision? 

The same goes for our careers. How composed we are for that big presentation or how we handled the deadline under stress or pressure. If you are able to adopt a Rally Mentality, you can master your mindset and perform, when it counts the most!   

Training Mental Strength

I’ll never forget when I first learned about mastering your mindset. I decided to run track in high school in my off-season of cheerleading. I wanted to stay active so that I could come back the following year as an even better cheerleader. Before my first big track meet, the track coach had us lay in the grass, eyes closed, and visualize our stride, coming around each bend, how we would strategically prioritize our movements. That first time of visualizing my race, coupled with strengthening my self-talk and mindset, helped boost my performance. 

These are the same strategies I talk about in Rally Mentality workshops! I strongly believe that everyone can learn to improve their courage and confidence.    

The Importance of Flexibility

Game Days can change in an instant. This is where great competitors thrive. Opponents adjust, new challenges emerge and market variables can change. However, teams with a Rally Mentality don’t panic; they adapt, trust, and innovate. Likewise, in organizations, teams need to regroup, find creative solutions, and conquer unexpected obstacles.

Celebrating Small Wins, Pursuing Big Goals

Motivation That Lasts

Football teams build momentum by celebrating every yard gained, not just the final result. Rally Mentality instills the same practice: cheer small victories, recognize progress, and use them as springboards to bigger achievements[2]. That celebration on the field or at work, fuels sustained motivation.

Rally Mentality in My Journey: From NFL Cheerleader to Keynote Speaker

Personal Lessons from the Field

My experience as an NFL cheerleader and peak performance architect taught me that spirit, unity, and grit are the seeds of success, particularly on any field. I created the Rally Mentality program to bring these lessons to business, sports, and everyday life; to show what’s possible when people rally together and refuse to let setbacks define them.

How You Can Build a Winning Mindset Today

Takeaways for Your Team

  • Embrace challenges: use setbacks as learning moments.
  • Support each other: celebrate small wins often.
  • Stay adaptable: change is part of every journey.
  • Lead by example: your attitude determines your team’s altitude.

Conclusion: Rally Mentality and Football — A Championship State of Mind

Whether you’re on the field or in the office, Rally Mentality and football both prove that it’s not what knocks you down that matters — it’s how you rally. The skills of resilience, teamwork, adaptability, and unshakeable belief are the true game-changers that drive victory in any arena.

Are you ready to rally?
📩 Get in touch: Shannon@ShannonMcKain.com 
🌐 Learn more: www.ShannonMcKain.com 
📱 Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonmckain/AI won't replace Human InteractionsABOUT THE AUTHOR Shannon McKain is a motivational keynote speaker and a business consultant based in Dallas. She has worked in nearly all 50 states with audiences ranging from corporate executives to student leaders. Looking for a keynote speaker or consultant who can speak on these issues with expertise? Let’s chat! 

The Great Resignation

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Recently Radio Host David Rancken from KRLD NewsRadio 1080 in Dallas contacted me about doing an interview on The Great Resignation. His questions and my answers follow.

The Great Resignation Conversation

David Rancken:

Hey, Shannon. First off, we have to define The Great Resignation. That name has been getting thrown around a lot lately. What is it?

Shannon McKain:

Thank you so much for having me on your show. The Great Resignation is a term coined at the beginning of the pandemic by a professor at Texas A&M. He predicted that this fallout was going to happen. The Great Resignation is simply saying that employees are quitting their jobs left and right.

David Rancken:

There is something to be said for the dynamic shifting some. It has gone from employers have all the control, to now the employees having a little bit more than they would have prior to the pandemic.

Shannon McKain:

Absolutely. It’s important to note that The Great Resignation is talking about employees voluntarily leaving their jobs. It’s not about unemployment or employees that are being let go. So, yes, in a sense, it all comes back to supply and demand. If employees aren’t willing to work under the restrictions or terms and conditions that an employer has, then they’re not going to work for them right now. So that’s the name of the game.

David Rancken:

So why would an employee decide to leave one company to go to another? Is there any guarantee that the other company’s going to be any better?

Shannon McKain:

I don’t know that there’s necessarily a guarantee, but it’s certainly an interesting shift that we’re seeing right now. And I think you just have to look at behaviors and psychology. This even goes prior to the pandemic and The Great Resignation. If you think about generationally, we’ve seen the most recent generations not as loyal as previous generations were to maybe one or two employers. And so, maybe this grass is greener mentality or just the advancement of technology and the opportunities that we have today that weren’t there 40, 50, 60 years ago that you have access to so many more types of jobs and types of employment. And so, therefore, employees can say, “Hey, we want to name the terms.”

David Rancken:

Previous generations would have seen on their resumes if they had multi jobs and multiple companies over a short period of time. They would be considered less hirable.

Shannon McKain:

Correct. Or considered what we would call job hoppers and somebody that wouldn’t stay with us. So therefore, we don’t really want to hire them. But, again, that mentality is shifting today with shifts like The Great Resignation.

David Rancken:

So what industries get hit at the hardest by The Great Resignation?

Shannon McKain:

We’re still looking at that data, but if you look at an overall whole of the information, we’re really seeing that food and service industry-related, also healthcare, and retail types of positions. Those are the three industries that we’re seeing have been hit the hardest over the last year, year and a half by shifts like The Great Resignation.

David Rancken:

If you’re on some kind of a career path, you know you want to be at a certain point at a certain period of your time. If you decide you’re going to leave at one company and then go to a different company, aren’t you starting out at the bottom, and doesn’t that hurt your path?

Shannon McKain:

It’s an interesting question you raise. But what I’m seeing right now with a lot of the employers that my team recruits for, and also looking at the trends and the data and analytics, is that because companies need employees so badly right now, companies are willing to offer new incentives or different types of incentives than we’ve seen before. So it’s not just like, “Oh, you’re now the new low man on the totem pole again, but now maybe we will raise other benefits that you maybe already had, and we’ll get in a raise to keep you, or to get you to come over to us.

David Rancken:

You bring it up that companies are now looking to hire people. Does that mean they have to lower their standards in the kinds of people that they’re going to take on because they need to fill quotas of just bodies?

Shannon McKain:

So that’s another interesting question. With the employers and the CEOs of companies that my team works with, they are not willing to settle just to put a body in a seat. In one sense, it creates a different stress on the current employees because there is a workload that still needs to be accomplished. However, I understand and respect the employers that I’m working with, that they say no: we don’t want to change our workplace culture solely to just go grab candidate A or candidate B. If they don’t fit, they don’t fit. And we’re willing to hold out until we find the right fit.

David Rancken:

How tough is it then for companies, employees that are already there? They’ve given their years. They’ve given their blood, sweat and tears to the particular job they have, to see their company going out and looking to recruit as much as possible. What’s in it for the people to stay where they are?

Shannon McKain:

Yeah. Well, I think in the circumstances that I’ve seen over the last year is that in most circumstances, it’s because the company is expanding. So these are new roles they’re looking to fill. It’s not necessarily because they’ve let somebody go or that they’re looking to let people go. So from that perspective, the psychology is great. Th current employees understand that, “Hey, things are going great here. We’re looking to add more team members to the table.” And I think it all comes back to, again, communication and psychology. If you’re communicating to your current staff, “Hey, this is what we’re trying to achieve here. And if you’ll just bear with us, it might take us a few more months to find the right person. But if you’ll just bear with us.” Then I think it just alludes itself to saying, “Hey, we all understand, and are in agreement about what we’re trying to achieve.”

David Rancken:

Is it a good thing to change companies every so often just to learn a different way of doing something that it could be better for you?

Shannon McKain:

Well, I’m a millennial and I probably come from the mindset that, yes, absolutely. I don’t think it hurts anything to maybe switch it up every three, four, maybe five years. From a recruiting standpoint, it’s an unofficial line where we say, if somebody’s with a company at about seven years, seven years is that marker of saying, we don’t think that that person’s really going to leave, or at least they’re not going to leave as readily as somebody who’s only been there a couple of years. So, from my standpoint, the advantages and the gain of maybe changing it up a little bit is not only monetarily, but as to your point that you can learn new skills and you can learn new perspectives.

David Rancken:

So what happens when an employee says, “That’s it. I’m done. I’m going to another company.” And then they find out that company is worse. Will they go walking back to the old place with their tail between their legs, and will that old place take them back?

Shannon McKain:

Well, again, I can’t speak for others, but what I’ve seen over the last year is that companies know what the market looks like right now. And they know that it’s so much harder right now to be able to find somebody if they have to replace someone. So they’re doing anything and everything they can to keep their current employees. Just to give you a couple of examples, I’ve never seen so many companies so aggressive with increasing pay. Now, this gets into a double-edged sword here because, at the end of the day, human beings are not motivated by money. They’re really not. There are so many other motivating factors that go into why somebody gets up every day, performs the job that they do, goes in and selects the type of work that they want to do and or who they want to work for.

We have a misconception that people are going to be satisfied with an increase in pay. I’ll get to that in a second, but it is happening. And I think employees are “chasing the shiny object syndrome” right now because we are seeing such an inflation in people’s pay and salaries. So again, it’s a double-edged sword. People are getting thrown money at them left and right to either stay or to be recruited to another company. And then, ultimately, at the end of the day, I think we all need to asking ourselves, really, what’s going to make us most happy, most productive, and want to be able to give 110% in our careers?

David Rancken:

Are employees getting smarter about what to ask for from a company?

Shannon McKain:

I think as a culture, we are all getting smarter about what we want out of our lives. The American way or the Western way is that you live to work. You are supposed to work 60, 70, 80 hours a week and not say anything about it. And I think that we’re just getting smarter as humans saying, “Hey, that’s not realistic anymore.”

David Rancken:

Is it the whole concept because the phrase work-life balance has become so popular in the last couple years, especially during the pandemic?

Shannon McKain:

Yes.

David Rancken:

We worry more about making sure we have a balance in our lives.

Shannon McKain:

Yeah, absolutely. #WorkLife balance. Look, at the end of the day, human beings are complex individuals. We have so many different interests. We have so many different pieces of our lives that pull us in different directions. And so, really trying to find that balance and what works. I think also too, the one size fits all mentality, it’s just not applicable anymore. Again, humans are complex creatures, and we need to really understand those intrinsic values and motivations.

David Rancken:

One last question. How long does The Great Resignation last?

Shannon McKain:

Oh, my goodness gracious. I think we were really surprised with the data that just came out from November. We kept seeing this trend of increasing resignations from month, to month, to month, and then it dipped in October. And we thought maybe this is the end of it. But then November, we just saw a record high of 4.5 million resignations. Golly. I think we’ve still got a few months ahead of us here.

David Rancken:

. A follow-up to that one. In another survey you found, almost 30% of people are willing to leave their jobs even if they don’t have another job lined up. They must be really confident they’re going to find something quick.

Shannon McKain:

The psychology behind that, I personally don’t understand. I personally would never put myself in a situation like that. But I guess if the rhetoric that you’re hearing on a daily basis is that there’s all these openings, then maybe yeah. Maybe it is affecting people’s thought process and how they handle that.

David Rancken:

People looking more at jobs versus career. I mean, looking to do, I’m going to do something like this right now, five years from now, maybe doing something different.

Shannon McKain:

I don’t know if the trajectory is still the same as it was 20, 30, 40 plus years ago. We were conditioned to believe that you go to primary school, then college, and then you enter the workforce at the bottom and then you work your way up to management, middle management. And again, I just don’t know if that’s the mindset people have anymore. Again, going back to the idea that we really are honing in on this idea of work-life balance, and mental health, and really trying to take care of ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally, that a job is a job, and it pays the bills, and it’s not the same as building a career.

The Great Resignation conversation

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shannon McKain is a motivational keynote speaker and a business consultant based in Dallas. She has worked in nearly all 50 states with audiences ranging from corporate executives to student leaders. Looking for a keynote speaker or consultant who can speak on these issues with expertise? Let’s chat!

Fake Job Posts: Have You Been Hacked?

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Employers, have you ever used a job board to recruit top talent? If so, keep reading about cyber criminals hacking job boards.

You might not be aware that cybercriminals are scamming companies and job seekers via job boards. These nefarious individuals are savvy in their approach, creating vulnerabilities from several angles. I’ve put together some safety tips and tricks for employers to know while creating job board listings.

Hackers are logging into your job board accounts and creating listings under your company profile.

Perhaps you created an account with a job board years ago and haven’t logged in since. Or maybe you are using an easy password so that multiple people inside your company can log in. Regardless, it’s important to note that you must keep all of your online accounts secure. Otherwise, they are vulnerable to hackers stealing your company data, posing as you, and stealing applicants’ information. Here are some tips to mitigate this issue:

  1. Make sure to monitor all of your accounts, whether you are actively using them or not. Do a periodic checkup of all of your accounts and make sure you know exactly who has access to them. Perhaps you need to change user permissions or access.
  2. Update your passwords. Make it a habit. While it’s frustrating to keep remembering new passwords, it will also safeguard you from unwanted drama. By periodically changing your login information, you can proactively get ahead of hackers.
  3. Always check your credit cards for bogus charges. Hackers are using the data in your account to create new job listings to attract candidates. These extra charges will show up on your credit card statements alerting you that your company profile on a job board might’ve been hacked.

Hackers are creating fake profiles on job boards posing as your company.

Seems like a lot of work, right? But, it’s the latest way hackers are trying to scam folks. Perhaps your job board accounts are secure. But, what you might not realize is that online scammers are creating fake profiles that appear as your company. While this may not directly impact your business, it can create confusion within your community, reduce confidence in your organization, and hurt potential employees.

  1. Take a few minutes today to cross-reference and check that everything on your job board listed is active and credible. This is a super easy step that can be done periodically and quickly.
  2. Do a quick google search and make sure nothing false or shady appears. Try searching different keywords and phrases to see what comes up. This is also great practice for brand awareness too!

If you DO have an active job opening, take these precautions while interacting with potential employees.

Hackers are incredibly savvy in gaining insights, data, and knowledge into your organization. They go at it from every angle.  Additionally, something as simple as a link on a resume can take down your entire computer system. Here are some best practices to mitigate any company-wide damage.

  1. Always double-check the email address you are receiving information from. Hackers can pose as individuals applying to your company, but if the email address seems fishy, it could very well be.
  2. Avoid receiving or opening word documents from any applicant. Encourage applicants to send you PDF copies of their materials. This will cut down on any unwanted malware or clickbait.
  3. Do not click any links that candidates send you without 100% confidence.

Have other tips or advice? Feel free to leave us a comment below. While we are busy helping organizations create world-class teams, we also stay on top of the latest news and data impacting our clients.

Fake job posts: have your company job postings been hacked by cyber criminals hacking job boards

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shannon McKain is a motivational keynote speaker and a business consultant based in Dallas. She has worked in nearly all 50 states with audiences ranging from corporate executives to student leaders. Looking for a keynote speaker or consultant who can speak on these issues with expertise? Let’s chat!