bcg blog

What Details Matter?

Story Catalyst
Is how you do anything really how you do everything?

The message from the text of a former player is clear: this is NOT what we do. It’s 9pm on a random Thursday night in April and I receive a video from one of our former players who happened to be in the gym working out. The video scans our locker room showing various items laying on the floor - a cardinal sin in our program. 

The video was followed with a series of messages:

• You would’ve had us doing 100 burpees for each thing left
  
• And, we wouldn’t have been allowed to wear Centerville gear for a week
  
• Cleaned up the floors in there; couldn’t leave it lookin’ like that
  
• Not trying to get the youngins in trouble, but we win championships around here
  

The message came from one of our “guys” - a ten year member of our program, who worked his way to the top, who earned his influence and impact with the way he showed up every day, who made one of the biggest shots in the history of our school, and … is a state champion. The coolest part: he’s been out of high school for three years and he still cares.

Our locker room is a sacred space - he knows this. Not only for the experience and relationships forged inside those four walls, but for what the room itself represents. He knows that room was given to him by the guys before him. It’s not something he, or anyone on the current team, earned. The guys that came before him played and carried themselves in such a way that someone wanted to donate money to build the locker room for them. They’re reaping the rewards for work they didn’t do.

That calls for gratitude … for being thankful. And, how do you show you’re thankful for something? That’s right - you take care of it. You handle things like a prized possession you own, not a cheap commodity you rent. You pick up trash, whether it’s yours or not. You keep your area clean out of respect for your teammates and the guys that came before you. 

A simple, yet profound, observation is the connection between the attention to details on the court and the attention to details in the locker room. Sloppy locker rooms almost always translate to sloppy focus and play on the court. Our ‘guy’ knows this well. He believes it fully. So much so, that he wants those coming after him to gain the same appreciation.

The correlation between details and results occurs so often, coincidence can be ruled out. A more appropriate question would be - is anything a detail?

Insight Trifecta
Below are three questions that dive deeper into the topic at hand. My responses are included. I hope they will generate some thought and prompt you to take the time to explore your responses to each as well.

• How do you balance focusing on details versus seeing the big picture?
  
  • You first need to decide that details matter and serve as the building blocks to the big picture you are aspiring to. The first doesn’t guarantee the second, but an absence of the first completely eliminates any chance for the latter. Once this mindset is established, then it’s a matter of prioritization. The key for any leader is identifying the 20% of the details that lead to 80% of the results. The best are very good at this. The average get off in the weeds and are usually focused on the wrong 20%. They fail to keep the main thing the main thing. 
    

        
I will add, from a conceptual framework, focusing on details and seeing the big picture are both critical. They must be merged rather than approached individually. The best I’ve been around have made a focus on details an integral part of the big picture … and the big picture a daily touch point.

• Where is the line between helpful precision and counterproductive perfectionism?
  
  • Perfectionism is debilitating. It causes people to play it too safe in an effort to avoid failure. Everyone knows we succeed by failing. Everyone. For me, the key to this distinction is operating with a ‘Scientist Mindset’. This means approaching virtually everything as an experiment. This removes the finality that perfectionism desires. When conducting an experiment a scientist would make every effort to achieve the desired result. However, following the experiment the scientist will explore the results with determined curiosity in order to make the next experiment better. If I’m focused on perfection, frustration and anger will likely drown out my wonder.
    

        Do the best you can in the moment. When you can do better … do that.

• In what ways does your detail orientation build or diminish trust with your team?
  
  • Competence is sometimes an under appreciated form of trust building. We can show up everyday, keep our word, share vulnerability, laugh together, cry together, suffer together - but if we don’t know what we’re doing the people we are leading are not going to trust us. I might be a great friend, but I’m a lousy leader. Our attention to detail as a leader is one of the first indicators that we are capable to lead. Most followers are going to be slower to commit and be vulnerable than they are to acknowledge competence. A lack of detail is an immediate red flag for team members. At that point, trust is all but impossible to restore.
    

An investment in the details, and their connection to the big picture, is viewed by people as an investment in them. Without them a leader is viewed as incapable of helping them reach their goals. 

Question to Carry
A final question for you to consider over the next week:
How does my attention to detail shape both what my team focuses on and what they might be overlooking?

Detailed people tend to be detailed. Lazy people tend to be lazy. I wouldn’t say it’s a guarantee, but it’s not far from it. What we do matters - even the things that we don’t think do.

Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!