Many of us treat our individual career success as an individual sport. We feel our performance is judged solely on what we do. This forces us to develop a ‘me’ frame of mind where all actions we take are related, in some way, to ourselves; regardless of whether we work in someone else’s company or for ourselves. This mindset can limit your success, especially in an economy that is growing more global every day. In learning to play the corporate game to build greater success, you may want to consider the advice from some professional team players. In this post, I share some key advice from a few NFL football players.
A couple of years ago, I decided to get myself back into better physical condition. I joined a local fitness club where I can run, swim (my favorite activity) and lift weights. After a few months, I started noticing a few physical specimens that were quite impressive. These guys stood out from the crowd. Yeah, men are competitive so we notice when bigger guys are in the gym. Normally, my ego would entice me to push out my chest when walking around these guys, but in this case, it would have been pointless.
One day, I decided to talk to these guys to find out who they were and what secrets they had obviously discovered. I knew they couldn’t be doing what the rest of us were doing. I knew it wasn’t any of those programs you could buy on TV. Their results were much greater than anyone else in the whole gym. They were bigger, stronger and had about 2% body fat. These guys looked like machines.
Turns out, they were. These guys played in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons. That little fact added a lot clarity to my observations. From their physical appearance, I knew they had to put a lot of effort into their workouts, despite the fact they had some of the nation’s best fitness experts guiding them.
Day after day, I asked these guys what their secrets to achieving their success were. I’ll have to admit, it wasn’t what I expected from a professional athlete, especially considering what you see from interviews on TV.
The Lineman. The lineman resembled a California Redwood. He was tall and as wide as a bus. His claim to fame was the fact that he worked on a team. His skills were evaluated and improved by working out day after day with his teammates. The team identified what he was doing right and what he was doing wrong. He had to do a good job on every assignment. If he didn’t, he let the team down. Most of the time his failure to perform is immediately noticeable. Missing a blocking assignment could lead to quarterback sack and the loss of a potential scoring opportunity.
“Individual performance is important. We must do our jobs. But if we don’t function as a team, individual performance doesn’t mean too much, since the team loses the game,” he told me. Wow! This is pretty easy to overlook in the corporate world. Too often when we don’t get the rewards we want, we lose sight of the fact that we are hired to make the company successful. Many of us will resort to the opposite performance level; that is, we’ll intentionally do the minimum amount of effort, falling into the mindset that we’ll only ‘do just enough to keep from getting fired.’
The lineman didn’t understand my thoughts. If he did that, he would not only ruin their chances of winning the game that day, it would also impact their performance for the whole season. Every day, he had to perform at his highest level possible. Anything less would be a failure. Now that’s a winning attitude!
The wide receiver. I thought it was just another day at the gym when this guy walked in, with a friend, and began working out beside me on a leg machine. This guy looked like a cheetah, tall and lean (and extremely quick). You know…those guys that look like they could run 100 yards in about 5 seconds.
The weekend before this encounter, I had played a game of flag football with my nephews, who are teenagers. Man, did I ever learn a lesson about running. The football field seems a bit smaller when you are looking at it from the bleachers. But when you step onto the field, it looks like it’s a mile long.
Hearing all of my whining and complaining as I tried to work my sore, aching legs, this world class sprinter walked over to ensure I was okay. I guess the screaming was louder than I thought. He told me his secret to building greater speed was developing the right skills by doing the right exercises. The guy who I thought was his friend was really his trainer and his source for the right things to do to improve.
So, here is this NFL player, a highly paid professional athlete, working with a trainer who was about as fit as I am. The receiver told me that his trainer was an expert and had a perspective on his performance that he couldn’t see, at least not until his performance was over and they were watching the game video. By then, it would be too late to notice bad behaviors, no matter how small. That’s why he used a trainer. “Getting your performance right the first time is the best way to ensure you don’t let the team down,” he said.
Sure, he could have taken chances with his career by trying to make the right improvements of his performance by what he saw, but this guy wasn’t about to risk it. He was playing at the highest level possible and was going to use whatever expertise would keep him there. For those of us playing in the corporate game, this is advice we can use. We treat our performance as our responsibility and ours alone. If a world class sprinter has to get advice on how to run faster, then I can learn a thing or two about how to improve my own performance from a mentor, subject matter expert, or career coach. Of course, it takes more than just asking questions. You have to spend time together building a plan, measuring results and making positive changes. But that's another story.
Thanks, Falcons. I’ll see you guys at the gym tomorrow.
Author:
Todd Rhoad, MSEE, MBA is the Director at BT Consulting, an Atlanta-based Career Consulting firm, and author of the book, Blitz The Ladder (www.blitztheladder.com). He can be reached at todd.rhoad@blitzteamconsulting.com.
