Before every single game, a sports coach will sit down with his or her players.
They talk about the game. They discuss the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. They analyze the major challenges that the team or athlete will have to overcome on the road to success. A good coach will also remind individual players of their team role during the game and address what they personally need to do to rise to the occasion.
The best sports coaches in the world excel at this. The results speak for themselves: solid teams that meet or beat the goals that have been set, games won (or well played), and winning seasons.
So what's the key? They have a playbook.
Jack Daly, noted author, speaker and entrepreneur, notes that most businesses lack a coherent playbook. In fact, in his coaching, he noticed that out of every 100 companies, only two have some sort of playbook in place for their teams. And of those two companies, one of the playbooks is “garbage” and the other has one that is not much better.
“Most sports teams are run better than companies in this room,” says Jack.
Daly, speaking specifically about building a playbook for a company’s sales team, explained that the real key to a winning season is in developing coherent systems and processes. Without those, no company can play to its fullest potential.
Having these strategies in place is not only crucial helping all team members grow and give top performance, but to recruiting other top players going forward.
Daly gave the example of respected Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, “Coach K.” Because of the nature of college ball, he loses top players on a regular basis; they graduate and/or get drafted into the pros. He noted that Coach K’s strategy for staying at the top of the league comes down to having a clearly defined playbook and strategies not only for the current team, but also for bringing in future players.
His takeaway? You need a playbook for every level of your organization, whether it be sales or recruiting.
Without one, you have no chance at over coming major challenges from or beating the competition when they march onto your court.
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