Six Seconds to Win
You can’t give 100% effort 100% of the time.
College football games are won by giving maximum focus and effort six seconds at a time.
I watched James Franklin, head coach of Penn State football, say the average play in football takes 6 seconds. You give your best for six seconds. (Written from memory. Not an exact quote.)
Slow and steady is a losing strategy. Everyone knows the tortoise wouldn’t really win.
You can’t give 100% all day long. Realistically, you might be able to sustain 70% or 80% effort for an entire day.
Success includes short sprints in a long race.
Management lessons from football:
#1. Coaches don’t play.
Successful managers watch how work is done. Success isn’t simply getting things done.
- Whose performance is ticking up? Why?
- Whose performance is slipping? Why?
- When are players at their best?
- Review the performance of team members.
- What was happening during peak performance?
- How might you duplicate peak-performance-environments?
It’s common for business managers to coach and play in the game. Don’t get lost in work. Schedule time to work on the way work gets done.
#2. Coaches make and work a plan.
Coach Franklin said last year Penn State started slow. They spent the offseason focusing on being a fast starting team. They turned a weakness into a strength.
Penn State has outscored opponents 104-0 in first quarter play this year.
Successful managers don’t simply react. What’s your articulated plan for success?
#3. Coaches constantly adapt.
In a changing world you adapt or die.
- Halftime is a pre-scheduled time to adapt.Schedule adapt-meetings designed to challenge or disrupt common practices and refocus on long-term goals.
- Call timeout. Don’t ignore poor performance. Declare it.
- Bring up disappointment.
- Don’t berate or belittle.
- Refocus on the big picture.
- Express confidence.
- Shift responsibilities.
- Provide training.
- Put new players in the game. Find the winning combination.
What management lessons do you see in football? Other sports?
How might managers employ a sprinting mindset, even while staying focused on the marathon.
Dan, “modern management” is about expecting 100% out of every person, 100% of the time, because if you have anything left to give at the end of the day, you’ve “cheated” your employer. Modern managers find the idea of programmed downtime for machine maintenance to be unacceptable “slacking”, so extend the idea to people too.
Thanks Mitch. Anyone who wants maximum results knows sprinting all day doesn’t work very long.
Dan, if this is so well-known, why do so many organisations run think that sprinted-speed marathons are such a good, effective idea? Why do we so often hear consultants and CEO’s calling out for people who will “give 110% all day, every day”?
I wonder if there aren’t at least two factors. One is short-sightedness. The other is a complete misunderstanding of what it takes to sustain top performance.
By the way, there is no such thing as 110%
Why do you think CEO’s and Consultants spout this nonsense?
Dan, I work in science. I’ve known there isn’t 110% since I was about 10 years old and it sets my teeth on edge!
I think it gets spouted by consultants etc because plenty of people actually believe it. I’m not much of a follower of mass sports, but over here in the UK, football (soccer) managers talking about teams giving 110, 150 or 200% is a cliche that has become part of everyday conversation. I think that this has eroded the line between cliche and actual belief. That, and the deeply held belief some people hold that somebody you employ should be prepared to die to further your business. It’s like the feudal system never went away.
Dan,
Having been a long distance runner my Coach reached me with “relax and push”, not a birthing class, once we runners achieved the messages intent we became a better team.
The message of “push your limits” at the right time will get you through the day.
Thank you to coach Sam Belle, my mentor.
Thanks Tim. The message of push your limits at the right time is powerful. We can’t run around constantly pushing our limits. “Relax and push” is a great mantra.
Dan,
I can honestly tell you when I get overwhelmed I practice that phrase and get things done, “relax and push”, can get one or many through those overwhelming moments.
Brilliant.
Dan – this is one of your best columns ever. Thank you.
Thank you Laura.
Dan fun post. I often advise people in a new project, a new career or a new job that the key is not how it starts out, nor how it is going in the middle. The most important thing is how the new activity ends. People remember how projects or football games end but not all the hard work to get there.
Brad
Thanks Brad. I’m currently reading “The Power of Moments” by Chip and Dan Heath. Research shows that you are right.
The two things people remember are the peak and the end. The peak moment of a day at the amusement part and then the end, for example.
If we manage endings well, we manage perception.
Love this truth!!
Dan, As usual, I enjoyed the article. However, a little too much Penn State for today. O-H-
Thanks Ken! 🙂 Hats off to you!
I read about Asian companies insisting on ‘micro breaks’ for their workers. Makes sense to me, a few minutes to centre, stretch, and regather energy . Humans aren’t really designed to go at 100 miles per hour for extended periods of time, something has to eventually break down if you perform at this rate for too long.
Thanks Robynne. “micro breaks” … love it. I’ve tried scheduling a 5 minute walk every hour. It works. But it has to be scheduled.
I remember a conversation I had regarding giving 110% wherein my boss rationalized the extra 10% as that time you work at home and don’t get paid for it. Yea, Right!
Thanks Jim! We have to acknowledge that more people are working after hours. These days 100% is answering email 16 hours a day.
I think 100% performance is working on top priorities or activities that really matter. The job of the Manager is to identify what areas to attack while leaving other items (low impact items) to his subordinates. And even world-class like Mo Farah don’t do sprinting all the time. He developed a race strategy that allows him to pull away from other runners in the final lap of the contest. Another great post, Dan.
Thanks Eric. Your approach is an important idea. It takes courage for managers to tell people what matters most. Covering all the bases feels safer, even if it’s less efficient.
Good morning Dan. Thank you for the post. Using sports to communicate leadership practices is a great way to connect with the audience. I do this often when speaking to groups. The one piece from your article today that jumps out at me is the need to ask “Why?” when diagnosing. It’s easy to ask “What?” But without understanding why things are not going as we planned, we wil often put a fix in place that does not deliver what we expect. I see this often in my workplace.
Thanks Jay. A healthy focus on problems is the beginning of finding solutions. What drives me crazy is circling the black hole.
I think we learn more from action than from sitting around talking. Talk to take action or don’t bother talking.
Great article which brought a few things to mind:
(1) “You can’t give 100% effort 100% of the time” = as much as people may want to, like to think they can / are, it means heading for certain burnout
(2) “Schedule time to work on the way work gets done” – loved this. I always find this useful during times when I think I ain’t getting anywhere, getting frustrated, therefore hand-write a list of what requires done and in the order required to be done, ticking (crossing out) each off as completed = seeing that you are getting somewhere, achieving. May seem basic and simple to some but can give very worthwhile results, inner sense of achievement as well as return some positive to what may have been a growing negative. Also, if I cannot work something out in my head, I often try and draw, write it out on paper.
(3) “What management lessons do you see in football? Other sports?” – initial response to this question was the sport of tennis and the art of serving. Bringing to mind employee’s serving manager’s then, how does a manager serve, contribute to employee’s, learn the art of serving employee’s as much as the employee’s serving them.
Great seeing you here, Thinker.
Your (2) is important. Writing is thinking. Just the act of writing things down provides insight. The act of crossing things of a list creates momentum. It feels great.
I wonder if anyone has written a leadership book based on ideas from sports?
Dan, don’t forget the scouts and coaches in the field box. They have the “forest” view which can help, those of us on the field, see past the trees.
Just as interval training (after warming up, a burst of intense, maximum effort followed by a cool down period and repeated)leads to improved fitness, your suggestions lead to improved long-term performance. Life (whether work, home, school, church, etc.) is a long journey and sometimes you sprint for a portion followed by a period of sauntering, enjoying the journey. In the end you will be in a better position than someone who tried to sprint the entire way.
I think the key is to have a great juggling act. I have several projects that I work on. I am committed to getting each and every one done; however, one must have good time management skills. I work better under pressure, however, no one can sustain that pressure for long periods of time. When we are working in a corporate environment that is not replacing those that leave the company it gets harder to accomplish. We are doing more with less.
Hi Dan, great article! I love the idea of having a “pre-scheduled time to adapt”. I think you wrote something recently that I have sitting on my desk “remember that the orchestra makes the music. The conductor doesn’t make a sound”.