Tag: decisions

Sports Metaphors for the Non-Sports Leader

I have never been a sports guy. During first grade, my parents signed me up for kids soccer. I’m pretty sure this was at the recommendation of our family pediatrician. He probably thought I would benefit from the physical activity. We honestly lost EVERY single game we played. I may have been one of those kids who kicked the ball into the other team’s goal. I’m not proud of that season of play and my parents didn’t make me do it again. Even at 6, I knew it didn’t mean much when we got a trophy at the end of the season.

sports metaphors for leadership

My sports prowess didn’t improve later in life. I took Band to keep from having to take PE in middle school. In high school, PE teams were not looking for me when they had a choice. This translates into my watching habits also. Unless it’s Carolina Basketball, the Super Bowl or the Olympics, my TV rarely lingers on sports.

But regardless of how much of a sports person I am, sports metaphors are EVERYWHERE around me. In life, in work, in ministry. Sometimes a good sports metaphor is the simplest way to achieve shared understanding. So whether you’re into sports or not, you should have a working knowledge of these. If you can use them, it will help you when you speak to an audience that does have sports awareness.

measuring progress toward a goal“move the ball down the field”

In football, the goal is to gain yards every play with the eventual objective being a touchdown by getting to the end zone. As such, moving the ball down the field is making measured progress toward your goal.

To use this metaphor well, though, you need to clearly identify two things:

  • What’s your goal? Is it clearly defined? When I was kicking the ball the wrong direction as a 6 year old clueless soccer player, I wasn’t moving toward the goal. In the same way, many teams spend lots of time and energy moving things around without a clearly defined goal. You can’t claim to be moving DOWN the field, if you don’t know which direction the end zone is!
  • What counts as progress? If you identify your goal but it is not easy to measure, anyone on the team might regard any activity as progress. It’s important for us as leaders to spell out our goals and activities in ways that our teams know clearly when we are, OR are not, moving toward the goal.

“who dropped the ball?”identifying the source of the team breakdown

When a sports team is working together to achieve a goal, dropping the ball ends the forward progress.

In a project team, even if there is not actual competition, there are often times when things stop moving forward. Things aren’t going the way they are supposed to and you are not seeing the results you would like. In such a moment, the team needs to identify where things went wrong and if any particular player was the source of the failure. This should NEVER be unto tearing that person apart.

If you can identify the breakdown, you can work to address it. You can try to bring healing or restoration at the point of failure. Maybe that team member needed better backup or more resources. Whatever the need may have been, you won’t fix it well and start moving forward if you don’t take the time to think it through.

Maybe the breakdown happened in a handoff. The pass moment is one of the most critical moments of any basketball game. The ball is moving from one player’s hands to another, often through open air. If an opponent can get in at just the right moment and gain control of the ball before it gets to the other player, the tide of the game is turned.

In a team setting, make the new ownership clear when a work task is passed from one player to the next. This is where our next metaphor comes in.

“the ball is in your court”team sharing roles on a project

My girls spent a brief time trying out youth tennis. It was rather painful to watch because they didn’t quite have the coordination to keep up with where the ball was moving. They tried hard though and I was proud of the attempt.

Doubles tennis is when two players compete on each side of the net, typically each taking responsibility if the ball comes to their half of the court. The girls’ coach kept telling the kids “you have to call it”. Inevitably, the ball would go to one girl’s side but the other girl was so focused on hitting it, they would run over top of each other. Alternatively, both girls would be watching one side of the court and not go after the ball when it went to the other side.

As a team works together on a project, it is important that everyone clearly understand who is responsible for details every step of the way. Sally thinks Jim is working on things and Jim thinks Fred took over that piece. Fred was out of the office the last couple of days and suddenly we are making no progress.

If everyone thinks someone else is on it, no one is on it. If you’re a team leader or a player, take time to make sure everyone knows who is responsible for different functions each step of the process.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the common ones I have seen in my experience. I use these metaphors all regularly even though I would not be likely to excel at any of these sports in actual practice. What about you? Are there any others you can think of?

 

Considering Value in Managing Your Schedule

I feel like I can always squeeze one more thing in a trash bag. My wife and I even had a fight about that our first year of marriage. For me, it wasn’t full yet and therefore did not need to go out because I was sure could still squeeze in one more thing. We laugh about this years later! Many people, including me, adopt a similar approach to their personal schedule. But filling a schedule the way you feel a trash bag only makes sense if the items in your schedule have relatively little value. Squeezing one more minor errand in probably makes very little difference.

Things in your schedule may have more value though.

But how would you pack something that includes items of value, like your grandmother’s fine china? Very carefully. With cushion wrapped around it. With sufficient space given for every piece. Because these things are important!

I have learned over time that I can’t be creative in a 15 minute time segment. Creativity needs room to be done well! Sure, the idea may come in a moment. Fleshing that idea out to its fullest is better done like barbecue, low and slow. Low heat, plenty of time.

Next time you’re tempted to squeeze one more thing into your schedule, decide what’s important. What will get squeezed if you make that choice? Take time to decide what should wait and what should not. Treat your activities with a real consideration of what is valuable to you.

Running your schedule around meetings

One area I often attempt to squeeze things in is when I have a few extra minutes on the way to my next meeting with members of my team. Do you ever make this mistake? Instead of doing one more thing which will often make us late, what could we do with extra time if we get to the team meeting early? Here are a few options:

  • Connect relationally with people who are there before we have to jump into the business at hand.
  • Review the documents provided at the meeting to better acquaint ourselves with what is about to be covered.
  • Look over notes from previous meetings to identify any missed items or new insights that should be considered.
  • Look ahead to items later on the agenda to invest thought and prayer into how to do them more effectively.
  • If nothing else is available, we could take time to journal or read a personal development book.

What happens if we run in late because we decided to try to squeeze in one more thing before heading to this meeting?

  • Our team has to to wait on us OR to re-cover items that we missed if they decided to start on time.
  • We miss potentially important discussion.
  • Our mind is cluttered, rather than fresh.

Downloadable Resources

Think about what’s important to you. And then make sure you give appropriate room on your schedule for those things. How does your calendar reflect your values?

Here’s a tool I developed to help you evaluate your activities. Feel free to download and use if it helps you.

Related Posts

  1. Setting Priorities
  2. You Can’t Manage Time
  3. Put it in Park to Refill your Tank
meetings effectiveness

Maximizing the Effectiveness of Meetings

I spend much of my life in meetings. In fact when my role changed a few years back, my girls decided that my new title should be Meeting Pastor. Not sure how that works on a business card, but it certainly describes my activities! And when you spend that much of your life in any activity, you hope to make them as effective as possible.

meetings effectiveness

A few practical tips can give you healthy disciplines for meetings and maximize their effectiveness.

Here’s a few tips I have found to maximize the meetings I participate in, whether I’m leading them or not:

  • PURPOSE: When someone schedules a meeting, usually they have a purpose for coming together. Many don’t communicate that purpose. If someone asks you to attend a meeting but doesn’t make the meeting’s purpose clear, just ask. Knowing the purpose will help you be better prepared. It will also help you measure afterward whether the meeting was effective or not.
  • PARTICIPANTS: You should also understand your reason for being in the meeting. Here are some great reasons to be in a meeting: to give or receive information, to offer input to a decision or decisions, to build relationships among a team.)

Special note regarding recurring meetings (monthly, weekly, etc.): If a meeting is scheduled on a recurring basis because it seemed like a regular discussion was necessary at the time, that purpose can sometimes be forgotten a few months or years later. If there’s a leadership transition, a new leader may “inherit” a meeting rhythm and not even realize why specific meetings initially took place. Bottom line: If a recurring meeting doesn’t have a clear and understood purpose, it will often feel like a waste of time, and may actually be one. If you’re expected to be in a recurring meeting, ask (in a respectable way) the leader of the meeting to help you understand the purpose of the meeting. Also, if that doesn’t immediately give you an understanding of your purpose IN the meeting, ask that next.

  • Having an understood purpose for a meeting will help establish an AGENDA: the list of items for discussion that are to be covered in a meeting. Ideally, the agenda will be communicated in advance OR at the top of the meeting. That way everyone knows where we’re going in our time together. If you know that something that is important to you is item 5 on the agenda, you will be better able to participate in the discussion of items 1-4.
  • NOTES: I personally choose to take notes in meetings where I am participating. These help me for future reference if I want to know what was covered at the meeting several weeks ago. My memory is no longer sufficient to keep all details in my head. Good note-taking skills prevent this from being necessary.pen-writing-notes-studying-large
  • ACTION ITEMS: Most meetings that I participate in produce one or more action items that will need to be done by individuals in the meeting after its conclusion. Ideally these should be written down by individuals who will be responsible to increase the chance that they will be completed. Some facilitators allocate a few minutes at the end of each meeting to quickly review action items that have come up to make sure everyone is clear on who will be responsible for their completion and by when.

I developed a simple tool that I use in meetings whether I’m leading or not. It helps reinforce good meeting disciplines. Feel free to download and use or modify for your own benefit. Download here. Leave me a comment below if this is helpful to you.