One of the “winningest” coaches in America is Larry Gelwix, the former head coach of the Highland High School rugby team. In his 35-year head coaching tenure at Highland, his teams won 419 games and lost only 10 games. One of the key questions he challenged his players to ask was, “What’s important now?” He didn’t want his players to get distracted by what the other team was doing. He wanted them to focus on their own game.
John Wooden is widely considered the greatest college basketball coach of all time, a title supported by his record 12 national championship victories. He too was a believer in keeping his team focused on the fundamentals and perfecting the game plan. He was so committed to this idea that he never scouted the opposing teams’ players. He felt that you only had so much time to prepare and any time spent worrying about the opponent was wasted time.
I’m not advocating ignoring your opponent altogether, although that seemed to work pretty well for Coach Wooden. Just make sure that your opponent is not your main focus. Time spent focusing on the fundamentals will go a lot farther than time spent focusing on your opponent to help you get back up after you get hit. It’s like boxing great “Iron” Mike Tyson famously said when asked about his opponent’s plan to win the fight: “Everybody’s got a plan ‘til they get hit.”
Too much focus on the competition can leave you feeling either overconfident or intimidated, neither of which bodes well in business or in sports. I suspect this is why these very successful coaches insisted that their teams focus on what they could control (their own preparation and performance) without worrying so much about what they couldn’t control (what the competition was going to do).
If we focus our energy on refining our fundamentals and setting and achieving short-term goals, the wins will take care of themselves. Ask yourself on a regular basis: what’s important now? If you find yourself focusing your attention on what competitors or other people at your company are doing, turn your attention back to your own game. Every small effort you make to improve your own skills and business strategies will pay big dividends when it really counts.
Have a great weekend,
Ro
So, so, so smart. Thanks, Ro.