Do You Own The Field?

We are in the throes of the N.F.L. playoff season. Exciting times if you're a fan of football, which I am.

I was speaking to a group of CEOs when it hit me. We were deep into a process of identifying with clarity, their unique value propositions for each service line. And then I had this realization.

In college, I had the opportunity to play college football at a highly competitive level. I remembered that my best performances, my best days on the field, were when I did two things before the game.

First, I vowed to myself to have fun. Yes, there would be struggles. It was not going to be easy. But I took the view that I was just going to have fun and enjoy the good, the bad and the ugly, in the moment.

Second, I decided to own the field. Not the entire field of 100 yards x 52 yards, just that part of the field that I was responsible for. As the center, my field included about 3 square yards in any direction. Of primary importance - protect the quarterback and open the way for the running backs.

Now there are many other responsibilities that a center must master, but I found simplifying it all down to these two made all the difference. I'd like to say that for every game and every play, I was successful in both. Aspirational? Yes. In reality, such was not always the case.

What does 'Own the field' mean?

Jim Collins in Good to Great shared with us the 'Hedgehog Concept'. The Hedgehog Concept is made up of three concentric circles: (1) What are you deeply passionate about?, (2) What drives your economic engine? and (3) What can you be best in the world at?

I love these circles! Here's why.

First, have you seen the holiday movie Elf with Will Ferrell? There's a scene where Buddy the Elf is walking through New York City when he comes upon a diner that proclaimed that it had "The World's Best Coffee".

In a recent workshop, one of the CEO's in attendance exclaimed, "We can't say we are the best in the world!" Why not, I asked?

It's aspirational. It's a vision for the future. It's what gets your team excited to reach higher.

Second, bring some passion into your business. What do you believe? What matters most to you and your employees?

In the case of the diner, be passionate about having the World's Best Coffee and understand why that's important. What is it about preparing and serving your customers a great coffee experience served in excellence that gets you excited?

Third, a quote: "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." Find the one metric or set of metrics that let you know whether your company is on track with One and Two above.

Back to 'Own the field'.

What makes your company unique? What is your unique value proposition? What does your company do better than anyone else? Own it. Double-down on it. Drive all your actions towards continuously improving on what that is.

You see, your customers will be attracted to your company for the very reason that you are in business. Because they - knowingly or unknowingly - believe what you believe.

Own your vision for the future. Own enrolling everyone else in that vision. You see, others will gladly work in your company because they believe what you believe.

'Owning the field' is confidence, clarity and purpose not for your own personal success, but for success of everyone in your company.

Until next time!