DO YOU PLAY BETTER THAN YOUR ISSUES?

Skip Prosser, a leading US College basketball coach, has a simple selection philosophy about recruiting, and retaining, players on his team…

“Does he/she play better than their issues?”

We are all familiar with cases of famous athletes and their “dramas” be it partying, drugs, legal issues, and the like. Rarely does a week go by without seeing in the press some legal or moral drama regarding some famous athlete!?And sometimes we wonder, “Why does the team put up with their antics?” And the answer always comes rooted in Prosser’s philosophy. As long as they play better than their issues, they stay on the team. Coaches will put up with a great deal of distractions and antics from a great player. And what you see is, once these “problem players” decline even slightly in performance, they get let go----very fast. If one is going to have star level issues, then they better put up star level performance!

Life mimics sports. Certainly business mimics sports.

We are all players on a team. We all come with issues, nobody is perfect. I have my issues, my foibles, my faults. And so do you. And everyone else. If we want to know our value to an organization, it is a simple question at the end of the day: “Do we play better than our issues”?

Let’s bring it to life with an example.

I once had a young manager in my organization who took more sick days than anyone in the company. Now whether we like it or not, being sick is an “issue” of sorts—because when you are absent, you are not at work delivering value to the business and someone else has to cover for you. She also complained a great deal and consumed disproportionate time of myself and other leaders to manage her ego and her constant need for coddling. And interesting enough, her performance when she was working was average at best. She was sloppy, slow, and had low output. So, when the time came to target employees for a downsizing, guess who came first? She did. And I can still remember how shocked she was when I told her that her role was eliminated and she would get a separation package! She never took feedback. She never stepped back and assessed herself,?looked around at others and asked, “Do I play better than my issues?” Her big argument was, “I gave X years of my life to the company” implying she must have worked for free and now earned the right to be a poor performer! This is the worst argument one can take. When you work, and are paid, the scales are balanced at the end of each day. There are no “credits” in business. You have to earn your keep, every single day. You can’t live off the past, particularly in today’s competitive world.

Each of us has issues. Each of us has quirks. Some are more absent than others. Some are more “high maintenance” than others. Some create more workplace dramas than others. Some are better team players than others. Some are more emotional than others. Some make more silly mistakes than others. The list goes on and on. And none of these issues, in isolation, is a problem. Not at all. ?The question though is very simple, “Do you play better than your issues?” Take a hard look in the mirror. Put yourself truly in a position of empathizing with your management. If your answer is honestly, “yes”, well congratulations and you are in good shape. You are someone the coach values having on the team. If your answer is “no”, well then it is time to snap out of it and start delivering; and at the same time reducing your issues. Because your time on the team may not last too long.