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Stepping To The Plate

Pitchers and catchers reported weeks ago, and the baseball season will have started by the time you see this. Which reminds me that, in my career, I have coached sports teams, supervised manufacturing, lead projects, and managed a company? The positions had one common characteristic: the team’s objective was bigger than any individual could accomplish. At the start, my assignment in each position was outside my comfort zone. It would have been easier and less risky to decline the positions and continue doing what I was doing. However, when I ‘stepped up to the plate,’ I was excited about the opportunity even as I struggled to tame my fear-of-failure dragon.

We usually are afraid of starting anything new. Feeling fear is normal. Recognizing fear is courageous. And stepping through fear separates leaders from followers, winners from losers. One way to move through fear is collaboration. When you are called to lead change, the people you lead will look to you as an expert in the field, whether you are or not. They also expect you to tap into their capabilities and meld them into an effective team. That’s where collaboration starts.

Of course, the group’s collective abilities rather than your own will determine success or failure. Thinking and acting like a coach you will define the objective, demonstrate techniques for the task at hand, and establish team values. New teams usually don’t start off great. Rather they improve their performance by collaborating to bring out the best in each player. The primary source of competitive advantage in today’s relationship economy is a team’s ability to sense-and-respond faster than its competition. Teams that make collaboration a habit have a fundamental advantage in sensing and responding to the opportunities inherent in change.