bcG blog

Patiently Urgent

Every season, the second week of practice, we do an exercise with our team that we call Two Strengths, One Weakness. It’s a lead into solidifying and clarifying roles, one of the most important aspects of any successful team. 

Each player is tasked with sharing two strengths and one weakness for every member of the team, including the coaches. A significant level of trust is needed in order for this exercise to have maximum impact (I’ve found sixteen year old basketball players to be significantly better at this than their older counterparts). We take one team member at a time and share everyone’s strengths for that player followed by everyone’s weakness. As others are sharing, the teammate we are focused on takes notes then shares what he heard others say followed by his own strengths and weaknesses from his perspective. 

There’s a lot going on there that is foundational to our team.

As a coach who has gone through the exercise each year for more than a decade, I’ve noticed a commonality for the feedback I receive. In my best years - best here does not necessarily equate to wins, rather maximizing our group - my strengths have always pointed to pushing and challenging the edges of what is accepted. My weakness, from the player’s perspective, is usually reported as impatience. I do recognize how fine that line is.

At my best, I think I’m both urgent and patient.

Why Should We Care?
Excellence requires this balance. 

Patience leads to happiness and satisfaction, appreciation and acceptance. It combats the need for immediate results and leads to the fulfillment we long for in life that far surpasses the fleeting feeling of materialistic, comparison-based success. We are often fooled into believing that contentment is derived from achievement and accolades, when it is actually the result of patience in the process.

It’s this consistent, deliberate work that enlightens us to the edges of our potential and where urgency comes into play. While urgency has a negative connotation, it calls for action. And, action is required for progress. We don’t float up stream. And, if we don’t paddle, all we’re doing is floating.

Urgency encourages me to embrace change much quicker than the pleasure of contentment. Leaders need to keep this reality on the front of their minds and intentionally welcome adversity while operating with a bias for action. It's an opportunity for those who choose to view our struggles in that light.

Confidence is a factor too, but confidence in what? Confidence in our ability to keep going, to be ok regardless of the outcome, to adjust our process as needed based on the results. A balance of patience and urgency bolsters confidence rather than eroding it. Now, if our confidence is tied directly to the applause of a comparison-based society, then I suppose we will neither be patient or urgent enough.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Finding the balance between maintaining confidence while never being satisfied is the line we need to walk as leaders - challenge & support, champion & expose. Here are a few ideas on doing both:

• Confidence: Embrace the Monotony of Work
  
  • There are no shortcuts - stop looking. Anything of any substance or value is going to take time - keep swinging. The work doesn’t need to be fancy or clever, it just needs to be productive. Be good with living a quiet, faithful life - there is honor and  excellence in that.
    

• Confidence: See Adversity as an Opportunity
  
  • Of course, it’s easier to say than to do. It’s also true and it’s also a choice. The people that seem to have an unflappable confidence aren’t void of failure, they just handle it better. They don’t see finality in failure, they see opportunity and rebirth. There’s a big difference.
    

• Discontentment: Accept the Outcome, Never the Process
  
  • All processes must be constantly examined. Maybe the examination reveals that the process is excellent, maybe not. But, it needs to be examined. The outcome however, is always just accepted as the result of the process you chose. If you don’t like the outcome (or do like it), look at the process.
    

• Discontentment: Think What Is Possible, Not What Is Acceptable
  
  • A focus on what is acceptable drives mediocrity. Leaders trying to maximize themselves explore what is possible more than check-off what is acceptable. There is a healthy discontent with maintaining the status quo. 
    

It’s a fine line - celebrating current success while pushing forward in pursuit of growth, appreciating contentment with the result while constantly working to improve the process. But, it is the line leaders of excellence are willing to walk.

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!