TOP LEADERSHIP TIPS TO BECOME THE MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
I shared the concept of composure on the ball at a breakfast event last month. The concept seemed to resonate very deeply with my guests, as leaders continue to struggle with conflicting priorities and activity overwhelm in a rapidly changing and highly demanding world.
It seems timely to share this concept here and provide some practical ideas to help you create clarity and focus on where you can make the biggest difference as a leader, without heading to burnout.
When my son was young, about 3 years old, his dad introduced him to soccer. Later, he was involved in a development squad. The focus was entirely on mastering the foundation skills of soccer. The premise was that to become an accomplished player who was an asset to their team, one who did not only participate in the game, but who became a play maker, it all begins with the foundations.
The foundations of soccer, or football, include kicking the ball, stopping the ball, and dribbling the ball as you run. When you first start to learn each of these skills, typically you need to look down at your feet to see what is happening. To see that your foot is connecting with the ball, to line it up so that you can kick it, and to be able to control the ball.
Over time, if you become more skilful, the need to look down diminishes. The ability to look up is important to your potential to contribute to a game of soccer.
The act of looking down at your feet and the ball minimises your vision of the rest of the game. It compromises your ability to see the field of play, to see the rest of the players, both your own team and the other team. This minimises your opportunities and increases your risk.
This often means you end up playing reactively and defensively, as things only come into your view at the last minute…while you are looking at the ball at your feet.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker, American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist
The concept of having composure on the ball means you have developed your foundation skills to such a level of mastery that you are able to stop the ball, kick the ball, and dribble the ball without continuously looking down to see where the ball is.
Having composure on the ball means you can control it without always looking at the ball. This means you can look up and, when you look up, you increase your vision of the field of play. Of your team, of the immediate risks, of being tackled, or of the opportunities and potential for you to make a great pass, to run the ball, to create an opportunity for your team to score a goal.
It is the same in business and leadership. If you do not have foundation skills mastered, then you spend your time looking at the ball, focusing on the things you should have already mastered. Whereas having composure in the everyday things means you can look up and look ahead to the horizon, look around you to identify the risks, the opportunities, and what can you create.
You can move from being reactive to being a play maker. To proactively considering how you can contribute at the highest level rather than at the lowest level of the most basic skills.
Quite simply, as a leader, the aim is to be efficient and effective with the foundation parts of your role, so you can be a creator, creating the future. Composure, because you have the foundations running smoothly, allows you the time and space to do the other things, which only you can do to make a difference.
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” — Peter F. Drucker
Here are the key principles for developing composure:
1. EFFICIENCY — Do things right
Ensure you do the routine things right the first time. The daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly routines. Things like managing your email, running your team meeting, have your one-on-ones, developing plans, communicating outcomes, preparing reports.
- Do these things right the first time, for minimum effort.
- Follow best practise.
- Do not waste time doing unnecessary things.
- Delegate early and often.
- Leverage the technology and tools you have available to you.
- Have a clear idea about when you are going to complete your routines so you are not doing them at the last minute without enough time left.
2. EFFECTIVENESS — Do the right things
Where do you make the most difference? Get clear and make good choices about what matters most.
- This is about doing the things that are part of your role today, not the role you had a year ago.
- It is about focusing on the activity that make the most difference. Not doing busy work that is easy, but rather doing impactful, important work that adds value and moves the needle.
- It is doing the things that only you can do.
- Doing the things that are in support of the organization’s purpose and vision, aligned and contributing.
It is the combination of these two aspects, doing the right things in the right way, that create the opportunity for you to develop composure on the ball.
Get the basics right. Develop your foundations so you can create the opportunity to make the bigger difference. Create the time and space to lead by having composure on the ball. Become invaluable.
I’d love to know your thoughts.
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