The final seconds of an NCAA Basketball Tournament game can teach you a lot about leadership. The 64 team, single elimination competition captures the attention of viewers due to so many of the games being tightly contested. They can also become a microcosm of many of the challenges businesses face on a daily basis.
As a leader, these games can provide more than just entertainment. While your office may not feature sneakers, it can include unexpected challenges like you see on the court. (If you want to know what a coach goes through, physically on the sidelines, you might enjoy this article.) To Clear the Path to better productivity under pressure, consider these leadership tips:
Success is Not a Coincidence
Teams win with plays that have been thought out and practiced. A last minute, potentially winning shot, has been rehearsed for weeks. Players know what they have to do in a pressure packed situation. This includes what needs to happen if the shot is missed.
In your company, do people know their roles? Do they know them so well that the variable of pressure no longer affects their performance?
Successful Teams Don’t Believe in Upsets
In the NCCA Basketball Tournament, teams are seeded by a committee. In the beginning, the higher ranked teams play the lower ranked teams.
But then something funny happens: Upsets. While the committee and Las Vegas oddsmakers may have favored the higher seed, some lower seeds end up winning the games. Often these are small, non-basketball powerhouses that appear to come out of nowhere.
These Cinderella teams often share something in common. The players and coaches don’t go into the game, against a heavily favored opponent, expecting to lose. They’re not paying attention to the expectations of the experts. Instead, they’re playing a 40 minute game with the intention of winning.
In your world, have members of your team embraced other’s expectations for your success? Do they feel like they can’t compete against a larger firm? Find out if this is based in fact or fear. There may appear to be someone who is better, which doesn’t mean that they are.
If you’re good at what you do, stop worrying about the other guy’s reputation and focus on what you do best.
Make Adjustments
A college basketball game will often feature several spurts where one team pulls away from the other. A little later, the tide turns. What happened? The coaches made an adjustment.
Perhaps there was a matchup that could be exploited or a weakness that could be hidden. There’s a reason why the coaches are at the games. They need to take a big picture view of the competition and let their strategy evolve.
When your company tries something new and things don’t work out as planned, do you keep doing the same thing? While you may not have a halftime to think about it, you can approach a challenge in a strategic fashion.
Find out if the lower than expected performance is due to fluke (people bought less due to a snow storm) or a correctable problem (you would have sold more if your website could handle more traffic).
The key is being willing to have the courage to make a change if something isn’t working.
