How do we become EFFECTIVE? Because being effective helps us shut down counter attacks, helps us score goals, and in turn helps us win games. We all want a player on our team who is effective. Effectiveness is not about what you do, but what you contribute to the team and therefore the result. So, if you want to get into a mindset of being effective, don’t ask what can I do? Ask “What can I contribute?” and in turn that will answer the first question of what you can do.
Being effective is not running around like a headless chicken thinking you are great because your stats tell you and everyone else how much ground you have covered. Being effective is making your contribution to the team by demanding the ball, getting stuck into challenges, making the CORRECT runs and figuring out what needs to be done to help contribute to victory.
So, when we are thinking about how we can be effective in the office or boardroom, we must look about what we can best contribute to the team. So ask, what are the things that I and only I can do to help push the team forward and drive us to success? An executive who sets his sights on contribution raises the bar and standards of everyone else he works with. Just like Roy Keane and Michael Jordan, they both drove the standards of their teammates higher because, as leaders, they demanded it themselves, which had a double contribution: the effectiveness of their individual performance on the team and also raising the effectiveness of everybody around them.
Being effective can also mean changing your role within the company and team based on the situations around you, the opposition you are facing, and the new teammates brought in.
The Premier League NBC host Robbie Mustoe enjoyed close to 10 years as an attacking midfielder for Middlesbrough. Loved by the fans and the club. Once the team was promoted to the Premier League, they brought in a couple of magical Brazilian superstars, Juninho and Emerson. Guess what: both attacking midfielders. Robbie faced an impossible feat to try and win his spot in that position over the samba boys. However, Robbie was smart enough to pivot. To look at his feedback loop and reflect. His best contribution to the team would now be as a defensive midfielder, not just any defensive midfielder but he held his sights on being the best in the league, which would allow the two Brazilians to get forward as much as they liked because Robbie had them covered with a human wall behind them. He changed his approach to training; his deliberate practice and focus everyday was now in a defensive mindset, which he was able to practice day in and day out meticulously because, in training, he was playing against some of the most gifted players in the league. Again, their contribution wasn’t just what they brought to the team in an attacking sense, but they were now contributing to the defensive players by putting them through the ringers in training.
Robbie figured out what he needed to do to be as effective as possible and make his greatest contribution to the team.
