Playing to Your Strengths

When it comes to basketball coaches, the name Vivek Ranadive likely does NOT come to mind. Why? He was the coach of his 12-year-old daughter's basketball team.

What makes this basketball story of interest is the fact Vivek never played basketball. Further, the girls on the team were, for the most part, unspectacular players. Yet Vivek and his girls went on to make their mark by dominating their opponents throughout the season.

There's a powerful leadership lesson here you don't want to miss.

Vivek's philosophy was simple. Most teams, after scoring a basket retreated to the other half of the floor, set up a defensive parameter, and allowed the other team to approach them unopposed, set up their offense, and attempt to penetrate the defense and score. Vivek simply asked WHY the other team gave up half the court without a challenge.

He decided his girls would play high-pressure, full-court defense, for the entire game. After all, Vivek contented, if the other team can't inbound the ball, or get it past the half-court line before the allotted time, his girls would get the ball back close to their own goal, making it easier to score.

It worked.

Vivek's girls dominated nearly every team they played with the entire season. Under pressure, the other team would make bad passes, be unable to advance the ball, and struggle to get to the back half of the court to set up their offense. His girls were not strong outside shooters; however, they could make layups and short jump shots inside the paint. By applying unrelenting pressure, they shut down the other team's offense, created a high number of turnovers near their own basket, making it easier for them to score.

The underdog girls from Redwood City, coached by Vivek, went all the way to the nationals.

So what can we learn from a basketball story?

Vivek realized early on his girls were, at best, average basketball players. There were other teams in their division with greater skill, more experience, and taller players. But his girls had heart, they were coachable, had great endurance, and they had a don't quit attitude. Vivek realized early on their best shot to victory was to play to their strengths and use this to neutralize the other team's advantage.

It worked.

All too often when I'm having a conversation with an entrepreneur, business owner, or the leader of an organization, they're spending a significant amount of time focused on improving the areas of weakness within an organization. Little time is spent on honing, improving, and leveraging the unique areas of strength within the organization where they could experience even more success.

Conventional wisdom says you fix what's broken, you focus on your areas of weakness so you can improve, and you keep doing what you're good at.

Conventional wisdom can be wrong.

By focusing on the 80% of things they are good at, these individuals and organizations neglect to focus on the 20% of things they are GREAT at. While improving on what you're okay or good at is admirable, and you will get some return on that investment, improving on what you're GREAT at will yield even GREATER results.

Do you want more good results, or do you want more great results?

If a professional golfer has a strong short game and he's very accurate with a putter, is he or she better served by trying to add an additional ten or twenty yards to each drive or by creating a game plan that puts them in a position where they can leverage their strength, their greatest skillset, to put the ball in the hole?

Think of it this way. If you're a four in a certain skill set and an eight in another. You work for six months on your weaker skillset and improve that by 20%. You've not even moved the needle much, as you're not quite yet a five in that area. Still average, mediocre, at best.

Yet you focus on improving in the 20% of your greatest giftedness and now you're almost a perfect TEN in that area. By focusing on continually honing and improving in your areas of greatest giftedness, you get even better at what you're best at doing.

This is how you become world-class, a Black Belt Master at your chosen art, craft, profession, or trade.

Which is the better use of your time? Spending 80% of our time focused on the 80% of things you're average, okay, or good at? Or are you better served spending 80% of your time focused on the 20% of the things you are gifted at, the things you do best?

Your greatest return as a Black Belt Leader comes from continually improving yourself in the areas of your giftedness, your greatest strength. 80% of your growth-focused activities should be focused on improving what you're best at. Use the remaining 20% to work on the other areas in your life that need improvement so you can grow there, too.

If you've got a team, then delegate the 80% of things you're not great at to others who are great in those areas. Hire, train, and promote those who can complement the 20% of your giftedness with their own. This is how high-performance, non-leader-dependent teams rise to world-class status, and stay there, as they have everyone on the team operating in the areas of their greatest giftedness all day, every day.

How much success do you want?

P.S. You can read Vivek's amazing story in Malcolm Gladwell's book, "David and Goliath."