by Melissa Janis.
Okay, I admit it. I’m not a football fan. I do watch the Super Bowl though, for three reasons: the commercials, to be social, and because I’m a bit of a leadership junkie. There, I said, it. I’m fascinated by what leaders do in big moments, the results they achieve and what we can learn from them. Here are my take-aways from Sunday’s game:
According to the announcers, Manningham has a habit of fading back on passes and cuts it too close to the line. In a critical play, he went where he was comfortable catching the ball, but was out of bounds. To work your way to the end zone, sometimes you must move outside your comfort zone.
The announcers also reported that Belichek’s practices leading up to the game included extending the halftime break from the 15 minutes allotted in a regular season game to the 30 minutes given at the Super Bowl. To succeed, practice the way you will be tested.
Bradshaw wanted to stop short of the end zone in order to run down the clock, but couldn’t stop himself from scoring what was to be the game winning touchdown. When you practice success, you can’t stop success.
There’s probably a book to be written about the differences in the leadership styles of the Manning brothers, but you’d have to ask someone who knew why Indianapolis residents would support the Giants. :-)
Effective leaders should always set organizational objectives that stretch the team beyond their comfort zone. Champion organizations are those that consistently “reach the end zone” regardless of the defense. This level of execution results when, like muscles, individuals and teams within the organization are expected to work at the margin of their capability and beyond what is comfortable. Muscles grow in size, endurance and strength when worked to the margin of their capabilities and beyond the “comfort zone”. Consistent, predictable and extraordinary organizational performance and growth is obtained exactly the same way. Just like individual muscle fibers, some individuals will charge to the performance level required, some will fail and the majority will grow to the expected performance objective thus establishing a new norm for both individual and team performance. When this cycle is repeated over time, organizational capability and learning will consistently be enhanced and occasionally you’ll develop a truly “high performance” team that achieves extraordinary results. A critical component of managing this cycle, without making the organization feel as though you’re continually “whipping the horses”, is significant and targeted recognition for results that exceeds expectations, both for individuals and teams. However, this is can be a very painful process for the leadership team at the beginning and until you “weed out” the underachievers, but in the long term organizational learning and growth can be almost self-sustaining if managed and led properly.
Thanks for the previous post! You are absolutely correct that you must “practice the way you will be tested”.
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One more lesson perhaps?
Sometimes your comfort zone is out of bounds?
Ha ha. Great post Larry and Melissa!
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