Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Jim Boyce, Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the New Jersey Medical School at Rutgers. Jim may be reached at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.
There have been a lot of sports this summer – we recently had the MLB All-Star game, the WNBA All-Star game, the Euro and Copa America soccer championships, the Wimbledon tennis final, the British Open golf final, the Tour de France final, and the Olympics have just concluded.
I grew up immersed in sports. Both my parents loved sports, so they signed me up for everything – baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, golf, tennis, skiing, sailing, swimming, volleyball, racquetball, handball, other variations of things ending in -ball, many of the events in the Olympics, both summer and winter. I enjoyed most of it. Some stuff I became good at, some I was terrible at, and most I was just average. But playing all those sports gave me some early lessons on leadership as a young teenager.
For instance, when you are good at a team sport, you might find yourself put in the role of team captain at some point. These decisions are often based on athletic skill rather than leadership. No one ever sat down and told me how to be a captain; this was a responsibility to learn on the fly. After much trial and error, I learned things I want to share.
Lead by example. It sounds obvious, but it doesn’t become evident until you try to get a team to play at a certain level. You cannot ask your team to give you that top-level effort if you are unwilling to do it yourself. You must establish the effort, set the example first, earn everyone’s respect, and then ask the same of your teammates.
Praise in a group and give feedback one-on-one. There is a lot of yelling in sports, at the other team, at the refs, and sometimes at each other. A lot of it is at the spur of the moment when emotions are high. When mistakes were made, it was your fault. Why were you not covering that player? How could you have missed that shot? As a captain, the first thing you must be able to do is curtail the yelling at each other and use constructive moments. Most teammates appreciate the public praising of their overall game effort or the beauty of well-executed play, but not the public critique or feedback. This is best handled one-on-one and privately, at half-time, after the game, or at the next practice. If you critique (yell) in front of the group, you impact the player and the team. Having the discussion one-on-one gives room for a back and forth and a clearer understanding of the feedback.
Networking. Again, as sports fans, we heckle referees and umps (and players), but as a captain, you must be strategic. “Working the referees” is not just for the coaches but for the captains. Reaching out before, during, and after games impacts future games where you may have the same ref, ump, etc.
Everyone is different. Not everyone learns, is self-motivated, and responds in the same way. As a captain, you must know your teammates, what works, and what doesn’t. I played on a soccer team where the starting 11 were from 11 countries. We sometimes chatted back and forth during games in several languages. It made things more exciting and challenging, but the same premises came into play for motivating 11 different team members at work. What are everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, who works well together, and how can I put someone in the best position to succeed?
You are going to lose/fail (and how to deal with it). Most sports have winners and losers. You are not going to go undefeated. And losing is a challenging emotional experience. But when you play sports so much, you have so many chances to succeed and fail that you learn how to deal with both. Winning and failing provide opportunities to learn, change, and improve. The same applies to work and leadership. Don’t be afraid to fail. Make mistakes.
When things look insurmountable, break them down into manageable tasks. When teams are down in a big hole, you often want to get a score, hold them / stop the bleeding, and take it one inning, one at bat, one pitch at a time. It’s helpful to break things down since instead of focusing on the “insurmountable,” it helps you focus on a tiny part of the game’s greater picture. And sometimes, those little things help turn things around. Just like managing a big project, breaking it down into smaller projects and knocking them out gets you moving toward your overall goal.
Finally, there is being a good sport. As I watched the Olympic games, I saw many examples, athletes consoling one another after a tough loss, applauding the effort, and embracing the spirit of the games. It’s something I enjoy, and as a young athlete, it sometimes gets overlooked, especially if you have a terrible coach or are in a bad environment, where you are told winning is the only thing and that second place is for losers, and where you are pushed to run up the score to embarrass and humiliate the other team; and sometimes, it’s taken even further, where not only the opponents are painted as the enemy, but your teammates, to build that supposed drive / competitive edge. I’ve seen the same happen in work environments, where work is done in silos and behind walls, there is a lack of communication and cooperation, and groups are competing against each other. So, building a great environment where being a good sport is embraced is just as important at work as it is in sports. Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter. Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together (Olympic Motto).
Which lesson would be most helpful for you to focus on with your team?
Last week, we asked what step in Ericcson’s deliberate practice is most important on your path to becoming a more effective leader.
- 21% said to develop a detailed plan to stretch and improve performance.
- 21% said to commit to regular, focused, structured practice sessions.
- 20% said to engage a coach who can provide real-time feedback.
- 19% said to establish a compelling goal and attend to achieving it.
- 19% said to develop the correct mental representations.
While there were slight variations, our results were effectively a five-way tie. This underscores a core premise of Ericcson’s framework on practice: all steps are needed to be successful. Collectively, we are split on where we most need to focus, and all remain important.