How to Build and Coach Your Fantasy Office Team
External Article | Accountability Insights
Fall is in the air, football is back, and over 50 million people will be enjoying the season by closely monitoring their fantasy football teams. The draft, who to start, who to cut, and who the sleepers are, dominate water cooler conversations and bragging rights in the office. Everyone seems to have some formula of how to pick a stud instead of a dud or how to build their lineup each and every week—and people invest a lot of time into it!
But imagine if the same time and effort was spent on building a fantasy office team! Yet instead of being the “coach” and putting together a team of players each week to win games and the proverbial fantasy football championship, we’re putting together teams of employees that can effectively tackle projects and tasks while delivering the right results. We’d all be workplace champions if we were doing this each and every day.
Coaching/Leading Through the Challenges
The coaches of fantasy football teams are faced with a number of challenges when setting up their weekly team lineups; bye weeks, injuries, suspensions, position on the waiver wire, trades, etc. When dealing with an initiative at your workplace, you may be up against challenges that aren’t so different; people are sick or on vacation, you’re missing a role-player who is on another project, someone just moved to another position and your company hasn’t yet filled that role, and so forth.
Similar to how a fantasy football coach would deal with their lineup amidst these challenges, as a leader, it’s up to you to understand what resources are available and who can be leveraged the right way to deliver the desired result.
How can one do this? From football to the boardroom here are 4 ways that can help you better understand how to build and coach your fantasy office team:
Playing Their Position and Playing to Strengths
Strong teams need everyone playing their position and playing to their strengths. Can you imagine if the New England Patriots asked Tom Brady to line-up at tight end? They most likely wouldn’t have any Super Bowl rings to show for their hard work the last few years! In organizations, it’s important that you assess your available talent and know people’s strength and then allow them to play to that strength.
No Excuses and Being Above the Line
Winning teams don’t focus on those things that they can’t control, they focus on those things they can control. They have a high-level of accountability to get things done regardless of the obstacles that stand in their way. NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer was known for creating structure and accountability at all levels of his team. In coaching everyone from staff to the players, he was getting each individual to hold themselves and one another accountable for the result—they were all jointly accountable. Great teams don’t make excuses. When you are with your team, be sure to create accountability with your team by clearly setting expectations, ensuring that each member is owning their role, and by getting everyone aligned on the final outcome—make sure that everyone can repeat what the ultimate goal is.
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Being Coachable and Wanting to Be Coached
Great athletes have an offseason where they watch game tape, work on their craft, and are coached to become better. In the world of business, great teams do the same. They are feedback fanatics constantly looking for coaching and feedback from their peers, bosses, clients, and anyone else who they can find. They are coachable because they understand that to become the best and stay the best, they need to get the perspective and insight of others. Demonstrate to your team that you encourage feedback by openly and candidly seeking it. Be sure to emphasize that feedback should be appreciative and constructive, not punitive and undermining.
Game Planning and Executing the Fundamentals
At the end of the day a winning team has to be able to execute on the fundamentals. In football, coaches and players tirelessly practice and game plan for their opponent. They go through the motions, drawing up plays on the board that work for specific scenarios and then conducting drills to make sure they know all the plays. If customer service is the name of the game, you need a team willing and able to do the fundamental blocking and tackling of delivering exceptional customer service if you want to grow. To do so, make sure you and your team are aligned on processes and expectations so that you can execute the game plan.
As you enjoy this football season and take on new projects and initiatives at work, be sure to take a step back and look at who’s going to be on your fantasy office team and what’s needed to get the job done to “win that game.” And like your favorite team coach, be sure that you are equipped to coach your team to success by overcoming unforeseen challenges throughout the “season!” After all, isn’t that why we all watch…to see what happens next!
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