Ruminations

Of Blinders and Belichick

Full disclaimer: I am a waning NFL fan and do not follow any particular team. I do not root for the New England Patriots.

Talent. Overworked, overwhelmed and often overlooked. Talent. Undertrained, underutilized and often under appreciated. Talent.

I've seen it in every company I have ever worked for or worked with. Good people who are not "working to their strengths". Here's a reminder to all of the managers who happen to read this: you hired them for a reason and it is your job to make them successful at their jobs. How quickly we forget what we saw in a candidate or new hire.

There may also be people on your staff — even management — who are utterly unqualified for their current jobs. These individuals ensure others will fail.

Management's job is to manage resources. Your staff are incredibly important and unique resources. They are remarkably flexible and resilient. Your staff can be retrained, repurposed and repositioned. In most cases, they want to succeed. Your staff wants to do their jobs, and do them well. And they want to do the jobs they were hired or trained to do. Yet talent is chomping at the bit while morale is dying on the vine.

In every company, most members of management have strong opinions about the abilities of each of their personnel. Some are accurate, some are biased and some sell their staff short. These assessments of skill — or the lack thereof — may be based on management's experience, office gossip, personalities or even sabotage. But often they are the result of job titles and/or labels.

I say this all the time, but it's important and it's true. Any time your business implements a new system you should review policies and procedures before defining your requirements. If you don't, you've missed an opportunity that you won't have again for many years. It's also a good time to review the roles that your staff play, and do so with an open mind.

Reassessing the talents of your staff — especially in relation to the new system — can uncover diamonds in the rough. Some of whom have been waiting for their chance to rise to the occasion and prove their worth. Measure their potential. Do it honestly and without preconceived notions or confirmation bias. You may be pleasantly surprised. This can also boost morale, which can suffer when those who are resistant to change sow seeds of doubt in the new system.

Bill Belichick — the head coach of the New England Patriots — has had a lot of success. Decades of success. Very few people are as good at what they do as Bill Belichick is at what he does. Of his many talents the two I greatly admire are:

• his ability to identify, improve and harness individual skills of a player that others have overlooked or under utilized.
• his ability to make in-game adjustments to unanticipated or changing situations.

I presume Belichick has a natural affinity for both of these skills. Though when watching him it becomes apparent that these are a byproduct of his mindset. That no player has reached their full potential yet, and that neither has he.

These two talents aren't just good for coaching football. They can be extremely useful when managing people and/or projects. Some individuals excel under certain conditions or when performing certain tasks. And moving targets are a way of life in project management.

Football is the ultimate team sport. It is an analog for many workplaces. Especially when a group or department works together on a project. Implementing a new system that affects most or all of your personel should be a team effort. It's the perfect opportunity to build the team's morale. There will be people who stand out, and some who may not fare well at all. The idea is not to leave anyone behind, especially if there are individuals who rise to the occasion.

So which is it? Did you hire your staff for a reason and you should let them do their jobs, or should you ignore your opinions of their abilities and remove the limits you've imposed upon them? As management you need to be able to do both.

When transitioning to a new business system we need to let staff blossom. Pay close attention during training — that's where curiosity and aptitude will appear. I'm not suggesting that you let your staff become free-range employees. Just give them some breathing room and let nature take care of the rest.

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