What Is The Point Of The Game?

In May I delivered an online presentation to a group in the United Kingdom.  In my preparation, I discovered a couple of terrific quotes related to leadership which I’ll share below.

One of the sections in my presentation emphasizes that public speaking and leadership are skills, and skills require regular exercise and practice.

During this section of the presentation, I relate public speaking to sports, and the manner in which athletes routinely practice very basic skills, their core skills.  I typically reference LeBron James as he is well known globally, and as a deservedly celebrated basketball player. LeBron James practices basic skills such as making free throws and dribbling the basketball.

I’m sure most of my audience in the U.K. were familiar with LeBron James, but I wanted to use a soccer (“football”) comparison.  I found some references to Harry Kane being the LeBron James of football, so I used him as a reference. 

Additionally, I wanted to refer to basic football skills, and found this excellent primer. I love it for it’s simplicity and for the teamwork quotes below.

https://soccerhandbook.com/coaching-training/basic-soccer-skills/

Quote 1 – The Point of the Game

 

“Winning isn’t everything, but, well, it is kind of the point of the game.”

 

If you’re leading a team, what is the point of your game?  You may have significant liberty in defining the point of the game, but most teams are usually a component of a larger team, and the point of the game will be defined by the more senior team, and shaped by organizational goals, markets, political pressures etc.

Team members need to understand the point of the game, and direct their energy to winning.  For LeBron James, after 48 minutes one game is done, and the next soon begins. For many teams, after twelve months the game is done, and the next begins. 

 

Quote 2 – Making Progress

 

“You will never be able to dribble faster than the football can be passed.”

 

I’m sure you’ve encountered leaders who decide to do most of the work themselves, or are overly rigid in how a task is performed. This is usually because the leader believes his way is the best way, and perhaps the only way. Maybe you’ve led in this way when you started your path as a leader.

By focusing on results, on completions, and not on how the task is completed, progress can be faster. This doesn’t preclude performance considerations but does require that time constraints, quality expectations, and other factors be well defined by the leaders assigning the goals.

Focusing on results instead of specific methods will also help team members develop, and will likely unveil innovative and improved methods. 

 

Conclusion

 

I love finding references from other disciplines that offer perspective on public speaking and leadership.  These two quotes are serendipitous finds as a result of searching for content on basic football skills, that supported my core content.