Sorry 49er fans, your football team is terrible, but the good news is that you can think back to better times, way back to 1994 when the team won their last Super Bowl. Now, that was a great team. How did a very good team in 1993 get to greatness in 1994? I would argue that it happened because of the signing of one player – Deion Sanders – who made them great not through his own play, but by improving the play of every other player out there.
How does this make sense? Deion was a defensive back, so how does his presence improve the performance of the offense or special team? The answer is simple: players will give more – that elusive 5% which is the difference between victory and defeat – if they know that their efforts will matter.
If I know that Deion is going to shut down that receiver, I’m going to bust my butt on offense because I know we have a real shot of winning this game. This “virtuous cycle” feeds on itself, as every player puts in his extra 5%. Victory is assured.
But it can work the other way, as well. If I’m playing on a team and I know our defense is weak, why would I bust my butt on offense to make that extra play? We’ll lose anyway when the defense gives up the big one. Whether athletes admit or not, this happens all the time. You hold back, you don’t give it everything. There is a word for it – “tanking” – but more often it happens imperceptibly. That extra play isn’t made, the fumble isn’t recovered, and the game is lost. This “doom loop” continues and then the coach is fired.
It should be no surprise that the exact same sequence plays out in start-up companies everyday.
For companies in the “doom loop,” everything is a priority and there aren’t nearly enough resources to get it all done. Engineers don’t bother to go the extra mile because they know that others will drop the ball. Employees make their own trade-offs on what should get done, leading to a lack of alignment across the organization. Tons of e-mails fly back and forth on new priorities but by 6pm, the parking lot is empty. The management team wonders why nobody cares and adopts a “command and control” style – micro-managing deliverables, mandatory work hours, etc. Resumes are polished and the top employees leave.
So how do you avoid this ande get to the “virtuous cycle”? It goes back to my earlier post on The One Thing. Focus on the few things that really matter, set realistic goals, rally the team around those goals, giving them the resources to execute and then holding them accountable for results. The results will follow quickly.
Engineers will stay late to write that extra line of code because they know that the product requirements are well-researched, that marketing has a plan to reach the desired users, and that the sales team is trained to close the deal. Sales people will make that extra phone call, because they know that the product is good, the company is behind it, and the likelihood of the sale is high. Employees will stay late, work hard, and support each other. Employees will feel stress, as the expectations are high, but they won’t be frazzled or feel “out of control”; rather, they’ll feel a calm confidence of knowing that they are part of something special.
-Raj
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