Put Your Team in the Right Positions, and then get the Heck Out of the Way and Lead!

Imagine if everyone huddled and said, “Throw me the ball! I’m open!”  No! It’s great that people want the ball, but people have to play their positions.  After all, not everyone can have the ball.

If everyone is wide open, it’s because they’re not supposed to be open.  They should be someplace else.  They play—and the team—is likely to fail if people do not do the jobs they were assigned.

Learn this by playing quarterback as a change agent.  Huddle with the team, and they will know that you understand what it takes.  But leaders can’t stay at quarterback or they will lose the big picture and fail to deliver on their conditions of satisfaction and the mutual conditions of satisfaction they have developed with the company they work for.

Get people in the right positions and then step away and out of the day-to-day mess of the huddle.  Stay in touch, but let your leaders lead and get out of their way.