The Power of Playing our Positions

There she was in the upper left corner of the zoom gallery. It was her first time in a business meeting with a new team in a new state. Quiet would have been fine, maybe even expected. But as soon as we opened up the all-staff meeting for questions, as 30 others sat still, she sprang right up with a solid question about measuring success (never a simple topic in our PR world). Her genuine curiosity and enthusiasm – earnest for sure, yet not aggressive amid the new crowd – immediately made me feel added excitement about our new team player. She brought the energy and smarts that landed her the job in the first place. In that moment, I thought, “She’s doing exactly what the role demands and our team needs.” Put simply: she was playing her position.

Playing Your Position: For Dependability

That moment online sent my mind back 20 years to a random game of co-ed floor hockey at a summer camp in Wisconsin. It was generally the least competitive bunch of athletes for sure, but one young woman just always,?always?seemed to be in perfect position for any pass. I don’t remember the number of goals she tallied that day, but time and again my mind has gone back to that otherwise meaningless game for the power of one lesson: playing our positions. Anticipate open space. Be where your team needs you. Pass. Score.?

When we play our positions, we give confidence to those around us. We send a signal that we’ll be in the right spot at the right time, and our teammates can depend on us.

As teammates at work or in sport, when we play our positions, we give confidence to those around us. We send a signal that we’ll be in the right spot at the right time, and our teammates can depend on us. They can trust, if they are going to pass to where someone should be, someone will be. Do it enough times and?Magic Johnson-style no-look passes?become the norm: you’re just there to receive the assist. When the hall of famer reflected on the beauty of those passes, he called it “the greatest high.”?

That’s probably why that odd game of gym hockey in Wisconsin stuck with me. The beauty of pass-pass-score and seeing the instant reward of a team of individuals all clicking as one elevates the experience for everyone.??

Assists and Goals are Actually the Same Thing

In the NHL, a goal and an assist are each worth one point in the players’ stats. In any workplace team this makes sense. Show me a writer who didn’t benefit from a great editor on the assist, an architect who didn’t depend on a builder to bring their vision to reality. No finished product would exist without some degree of “passing.”?

Think of Wayne Gretzky. Best known for his out-of-reach all-time goal-scoring record of 894, you know the one thing Gretzky did even more than score? Pass. Yup,?The Great One?is great because he is also the league’s all-time?assist?leader, and by a long shot: 1,963 assists, 714 beyond the nearest competitor.

Like Magic Johnson’s ability to have “big eyes” and see the full court, Gretzky was famous for imagining a full play unfold before its own time. There is a talent for this anticipation in any sport, but in organizations one can also practice anticipation, and this is where playing our positions dovetails with what has become a popular business buzzword: empathy.

Play Your Portion: For Empathy

Much has been made about the power of empathetic leadership. Empathy does more than build trust and strengthen support within teams though. It builds deep knowledge of others. The more you can walk in someone else’s shoes – even your team leader’s – the more you know where to be when, to anticipate unmet needs, solve yet unseen challenges, knock down potential barriers. This is no substitute for a leader’s clear communication, but fully empathetic teammates can help each other fill in gaps on what is left unsaid.?

The more you can walk in someone else’s shoes – even your team leader’s – the more you know where to be when, to anticipate unmet needs, solve yet unseen challenges, knock down potential barriers.

In any team, this comes down to leading from where you sit. Regardless the role that means imagining yourself in the leadership role – and asking, “What would be most helpful to the team, right now?”??This thoughtfulness immediately puts you in the captain’s seat, helps you see the big picture and perform at an elevated level, which – now that I think about it – just may be why that new hire’s face was on the top left of my zoom screen the other day to start with.

Neil Simon, a former diplomat and journalist, is the communications director at Metro, the regional government in Portland, Ore. @neilhsimon?