Sports are not a true analog with business, despite many sources pointing to the opposite. Sports require a winner and loser(s). The rules are defined before the game begins and should be understood by all that play. The length of the contest is predefined by time or actions taken. Business is the opposite in many ways: excluding laws there are few rules, creating a new winner doesn’t always require a loser, there isn’t a measure for the length of duration and so on.
That being said, there are some very interesting tidbits that transcend sports and are true in business just the same. This post isn’t meant to be a comprehensive listing of all those points! I have one specific area of focus that I find particular both enlightening and useful for leaders. It starts with thinking about the best of the best in sports.
When you get into the world of elite athletes (and anyone who plays a pro sport is elite in their field of choice), it is interesting to understand what separates the very very best from the merely really good – specifically when the biggest games and moments arise. Yes there are the physical and skill level differences. Absolutely differences arise from coaching and teammates (where applicable). Differences in nearly every characteristic exist as no two players are the same. You can see those differences in every game.
That being said, in the biggest of moments the truly great (or very very best players I mention above) tend to be more successful than the merely really good players. Of course all the factors I mentioned prior are part of that. Having more skill is better than having less…and the more stress you feel, the more pronounced that difference can become.
Interestingly though, that isn’t the observation I take from watching wayyyyyyyyyy too many sporting events. My takeaway: in most cases, the very best players in the world separate themselves from others because they do two things – they minimize their errors and they make sure they make those errors in the right “spots”. Interestingly, the best in the world are exactly that not because the maximize something (skill, talent, etc.) but because they minimize something (errors/risk). That runs in direct conflict with “Go big or go home!” or “Always land the first blow!”.
Let’s look at a few examples: Tom Brady, Greg Maddux, and Tiger Woods.
Tom Brady is likely one of the 5 most famous athletes of the 21st century. He’s known for his lengthy NFL career and the unprecedented winning that it produced, even in one of the most team-centric sports on earth. Tom didn’t win games on his own. He doesn’t have singularly special physical skills. While he is incredibly football smart, there are many equal players. But yet Tom wins. And wins. And wins. Regardless of the teammates, the city, the situation, etc. What you notice about him and his teams in big games and/or close games: he is very smart about the risks he takes. Early in a game, you don’t see many big chances risked in how the game is played. And even when the situation is dire, Tom minimizes the risks he takes. As a lifelong Falcons fan, I witnessed this clear as day in Super Bowl 51. Facing a tremendous deficit and a game that was seemingly slipping away, Brady didn’t turn into Superman. For about 20 minutes of game time, he consistently took the least risky option on every play…without fail. He didn’t start going crazy making wild plays…he made the simple plays over and over with minimal errors. When he did make an error, he minimized the risk and impact of the error (for example, throw a pass into the ground where no one can catch it instead of up high where the better team – the Falcons! – could catch it). It wasn’t a comeback built on bravado and amazing plays…it was a clinic in making the right choice – both to create positive low risk plays and avoid high risk negative ones. While that one game didn’t cement him as an all time great (that was done well before Super Bowl 51), to me it showed exactly what separates him from other really really good players at his position in his sport. That same narrative plays out many many Sundays in the fall and winter every year.
Greg Maddux was one of the best pitchers in the last 50 years of baseball. He didn’t have dominating physical skills. He didn’t know some secret to baseball that the rest of the world wasn’t privy too. He did have the ability to pitch with great precision (meaning he could throw the ball darn near exactly where he wanted it to go). He paired that with a mindset that he was not going to beat himself, but make you beat him. This manifested in a few ways. For his career, he had fewer Walks per nine innings that any pitcher in comparable history (meaning, he made hitters get themselves on base and didn’t do it for them). As a result, he could pitch to more batters before he physically tired by keeping the number of pitches lower helping his team even more. Additionally, in his career, no other pitcher who consistently pitched gave up fewer home runs per inning pitched (meaning when you did hit it, it stayed in the park and someone had to help you score). All three of those things came down to one key factor: In critical moments every game, he pitched precisely, methodically (based on the situation in the game), and when he did make a mistake with a pitch, it was located such that the hitter could only do marginal damage (meaning hit it only so hard and not hit a home run). Minimizing his risk and the impact of his errors truly made him a generational talent.
Unlike the prior two examples, Tiger Woods was a physical freak for his sport. He could hit it farther, higher, and with more spin than his contemporaries. Unlike the other two however, the physical advantages aren’t as beneficial as they are in other sports. In golf, the longest driver doesn’t always win. The prettiest shots aren’t always rewarded. In fact, golf is the ultimate sport when it comes to minimizing error because no one but you determines your outcome (unlike team sports baseball and football mentioned above), so if you can minimize your errors and have similar talent (or in Tiger’s case – more talent), you will do exceptionally well. Week in and week out, that seems consistently true. Tiger’s penchant for avoiding catastrophic errors consistently showed up in the biggest tournaments. We remember him hitting huge drives and making long putts…but what many people forget is that his scoring average on Sunday (the last day of the 4 day event) was higher than the three prior rounds nearly every year of his prime. His next “worst” day was Thursday, the first day of a tournament. He wasn’t scared on Thursday and he certainly didn’t get worse on Sundays…he actually thrived then. The difference was that he knew when to take measured risks (in the middle of tournaments when he knew how he stacked up to his competition) and when to let others make big mistakes (early and late in tournaments when the pressure was the highest). Both on the macro level (the day and situation of the tournament) and micro level (where to aim in case a shot didn’t go exactly where he’d hoped on the course itself and yet leave the best situation possible to recover) decisions took a supremely talented player and made him a generational household name and all time great. We all remember the highlights, but the consistent management of risk and minimization of error are what set Tiger apart from his peers.
So as a leader, these three examples show a consistent trend that you can emulate regardless of whether or not you are exceedingly talented or a solid performer.
- Understand the situation you are in and the impact of the risk in your decision – don’t lose the game when you can continue to hang in and play and give yourself a chance to win (Brady)
- Instead of always shooting for the moon as a leader, make sure to soundly minimize your number of errors and/or potential for errors – let others take the “go big or go home” bets when the odds are not in their favor while you keep plugging along and getting wins (Maddux)
- When errors happen (and they always do), find ways to ensure you “miss in the right spot” at the right time and leave yourself in a position to recover without further damage – don’t always chase the low probability but yet amazing shot that could turn into a real negative (Tiger)
If you can start to approach your job as a leader with these things in mind, you’ll find your level of success will begin to rise, as the unforced errors will happen less frequently and will less impact for you and your team.
View from the Middle 