Hit me with your best shot....

Right up front, I don’t know a lot about tennis but even I understand that Roger Federer can be considered the GOAT of male tennis.?But when he first started, he was not immediately the dominant force that he was for most of his career.?He did not win a quarterfinal match in his first 16 Grand Slam appearances.?In his biography, some of his peers remarked that he had mastery over all of his shots (serve, backhand, forehand, drop shot, etc.), but struggled with decision making on which shot to use in a particular situation.?The same is true in other sports – the soccer player who always shoots when they should pass; the basketball player who drives to the basket rather than taking the three, the baseball player who always swings at a slider.?Even if you have exceptional individual skills, you will not be successful if you do not make excellent decisions of WHEN to use those individual skills.

The same is true in business. You may have developed excellent skills & capabilities in managing budgets, motivating teams, simplifying processes, mentoring employees, etc. but if you decide to apply the wrong skills to a specific context/situation, you will struggle to be an effective leader.?Couple of examples from my career:

• I sent what I thought was a beautifully articulate apology email to a partner I was working with rather than picking up the phone and having an adult conversation.?The aggrieved partner then proceeded to escalate and expand the issue and picked apart my apology word-for-word.?Use the right communication vehicle for the specific audience, not the one you are more comfortable with.
• I tried to motivate a leader who was struggling in their newly expanded role with some ‘tough love’ – challenging him that he needed to step up into the role and explaining the consequences of potential failure.?This backfired as the leader was overly stressed from a combination of work challenges and personal challenges that I had not taken the time to understand, and this caused a further downward spiral in their performance.?Understand where an employee is from an emotional and mental standpoint to frame the feedback and guidance in the optimal way.?
• I had prepared a very detailed PowerPoint presentation to justify the benefits and ROI of a technology capability I was hoping to get approval for.?I then proceeded to spend 45 minutes of an hour-long meeting going slide by slide when the decision maker had already read the slides and really wanted me to explain the patient impact of this technology through stories.?Most times, ‘less is more’ when it comes to presentations – don’t use it as an opportunity to showcase everything you know about a topic but be as targeted as possible to the audience.
• I felt the need to make an early Go/No Go decision on a specific project which required me to make the decision based primarily on my gut and other people’s opinions.?I should have waited for a more holistic perspective, including much more robust data inputs.?Understand when action is actually needed, not when you or some other stakeholder wants action…..and deliberately gather inputs that contradict your initial perspective.?

I could go on, but you get the point.?As we continue to develop as leaders, it is not sufficient to just build out our skills – we also need to build out our decision making on WHEN to utilize the skills within our arsenals.?How do you build out your decision-making skills??Couple of thoughts:

• Pause & Breathe – Even taking a few minutes to think before you act is critical.?We all make better decisions if we pause to better understand the situation and assess the various options available to us.?Your decision may well have long-term consequences, so take a little more time!
• Get Advice – Get feedback and advice from individuals you trust, particularly those who think differently than you.?We always tend to revert to our more comfortable ways of operating, and getting advice from others will push you out of that comfort zone to approach the situation in different ways.?
• Reflect and be Honest – Sometimes things work out well….and sometimes we approach a situation in the wrong way.?You don’t need to conduct a public ‘mea culpa’ but you have to be honest with yourself around how you handled a specific situation and what you SHOULD have done.?Don't dwell on this, but if you continue to justify your approach to yourself, you will not be able to think differently next time.
• Build your Skills – We should never stop developing our skills, but specifically the skills we are least comfortable with.?Do you hate presenting in front of large crowds??Do you hate analyzing detailed financial documents??Do you hate confronting people about poor performance??Lean into the skills you dislike to build your abilities and confidence

I hope that as you build out both your skills and in which situations you choose to apply them, you will get to dominate your court and become the GOAT in whatever vocation you are called to!