What happened to the notion of being original? In this day and age, it has become too easy to imitate competitors in the hope that it will increase the organization’s stature of who it is trying to be. But is that being true to themselves or just a way of sounding what potential customers or clients are wanting?

From the very beginning, I wanted our club to be different. Different in culture, different in structure, different in how we create teams, different in how we manage teams, Different in how we position our players and families first.

We weren’t trying to be different to make a statement or to be difficult. We wanted to be unique to change the landscape around us.

Imagine all houses looking the same, everyone wearing the same clothes, eating the same food, driving the same-looking cars. That’s what we found in our industry, and I’m sure in others as well. clubs mirroring other clubs, because that’s how people perceive being successful and give long-term life to their organization.

Didn’t help that leagues also took a stance that all teams playing home would have to wear white. Any given weekend you couldn’t distinguish who the team playing in white belonged to. Brand recognition could only be identified by the team playing in away colors.

It’s important to know what the “others” are doing to stay relevant, but more so to be original.

You know your business, you know it better than anyone else. Taking the organization in a direction you know means understanding the club’s culture, management style, community needs, the organization’s position in the local landscape, understanding the various pathways, and communicating to players and families.

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Other organizations seemingly trying to build on those values, styles, programs, mission, and training material simply won’t understand their nature, context, or reasoning of them.

You know your business. You are living your business, that’s why it breathes success. Copying a competitor’s work as a shortcut to your end goal isn’t going to be successful. Organizational material, culture, and values are organic and borne from their own experiences and curated culture.

Stand up, be the company that shouts from rooftops. Even if that means being different, then be distinctive, stand by who you are.

Bringing value, creating culture, and developing tradition can take time. The kind of time only you can provide through the organization living it.

In our previous blog, we discussed Status Quo. This isn’t any different, even if you feel you’re not copying. Just because you changed or modified the original transcript to your branding it’s still going to be a system, value, or mission statement that you aren’t living.

Do your competitors see your mission emanating from parents, players, and staff? Are teams visibly playing the organization’s style of play? Can values be clearly seen by outsiders? Are your players and parents able to communicate the organization’s culture, mission, and values? Have you developed tradition? Is that tradition true to the club? Are your members wanting to be part of that tradition? All these questions are key to your organization’s success. You cannot communicate one set of principles and live another or have others perceive another.

So why imitate other organizations?

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Distinguish your key metrics, identifiers, and statements as the ‘why’ you created the organization. From that point know what you’re wanting the entity to look like externally. Take those factors and apply to internal communication, policies, management and you’re on your way to creating club culture.

Luckily I was extremely green to the soccer landscape when we formed Storm F.C. I had the vision to create the same culture I experienced and created in England.

Seizing initiative from our inaugural year, we set out to create what I felt a community organization should be. We wanted the club to have a family feel, a bond if you like. This meant all teams would be familiar with each other, support each other, follow success and encourage teams when they observe obstacles.

Ensuring the club becomes a focal point in the community is important. Supporting community events, people, and partnering with local businesses by driving more traffic to the community through events and programs.

Publications pertinent to the organization’s mission, culture, values, and methodologies are essential. It gives credibility and substance to your messaging.

It took three years to write, but penning our club’s technical manual supported our playing philosophy, playing style, and created a blueprint that would run throughout the spine of the club.

Furthermore, we published a Charter of Quality, outlining the expectations of staff, players, and parents. Printed internal and community magazines emphasizing success, recognizing volunteers, players, coaches, and staff. All the printed material was there to be seen by all. Our staff has it as a reference, players and parents can refer or learn from them, and communities can join in the success stories, learn the mission and assist in promotion.

Having an annual awards banquet to honor and recognize teams, players, and volunteers was essential to our culture. Each year at the banquet we would bestow lifelong appreciation of an individual’s dedication to improving the organizational structure, efficiency, or developing policies through induction to the club’s Hall of Fame. These lifelong recipients as well as the annual club level awards created history and tradition from our inception to modern times.

Instilling programs, events, and soccer-related activities based on our mission statement and values shape and evolve our culture.

Developing a brochure openly explaining why we do things the way we do, gives context. Although very easily copied, it can only be lived by our organization.

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Did we want to position ourselves to compete with fully established soccer clubs that had been in the marketplace for decades? No that would have been suicide. We needed to be who we are, let that breathe and evolve through organic growth. Seventeen years later and in a very competitive market we have history, tradition, values and most of all are unique. Always wanting to be different and offer opportunities that will not just make soccer players, but human beings that our community will be proud of.

Former families and players still wanting that connection to the club, they come back as parents of the next generation, return to become coaches or play on the professional development team.

Don’t impose ideas and programs from other organizations on leadership that can’t live those ideologies. It doesn’t correlate to those leaders’ views and become a muddled mess from the outside looking in.

Be true to yourself, your business will thrive because of it.