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Treat Every Day as Game Day
Unlike a conditioned athlete who warms up before an exercise or an athletic competition, most people rely on their energy level or metabolic rate to start and survive the day. That’s all well and good, but it’s not good enough.
The world in which we are living is moving at warp speed with more challenges and changes than ever before. To keep up with all that lies before us, we need conditioning and we need capacity.
Conditioning comes with maintaining a pace that allows us to accomplish the most, reprioritize the rest, and prepare for the unexpected. Capacity is the ability to reach back and down to draw on extra strength and resources to keep performing as long as it takes to get the job done.
Whenever I think of meeting that objective, I liken it to participating in some form of vigorous athletic competition in which strength and skill come into play. Preparation has been accomplished, a game plan is in place, and the adjustments to the plan are made on the run. As in battle, no plan survives first contact with the enemy; in the workplace, the same is true with the unexpected challenges and requirements that come along each day. Successful athletic teams rise to the occasion when the time clock starts and the score is kept. You need to do the same thing.
What’s the value of being ready for prime time every day? The boss will love it. Bosses are always looking for the prime movers of their organization, the go-to men and women who get the job done first time, every time, and never miss a beat. That capacity to take on the known and the unknown is a priceless capability.
I had a full plate in the fall of 2010 both preparing for my next National Security Studies Program and teaching two public relations courses at Syracuse University, when my phone rang. It was Colonel Patrick Frank, commander of the Third Brigade Combat Team (3BCT) at Fort Drum, New York, an army installation an hour north of Syracuse. He said, “I’m taking my brigade to Afghanistan for a year’s deployment next March, and I’m looking for a morale builder before we go, one that will work while we are in country.” Pat told me that he was hoping to build a partnership with either the football or the basketball team at Syracuse University, an initiative that could boost and hold the spirit of his soldiers. Could I help? Caring a lot about soldiers and being a loyal follower of Orange athletic teams, I agreed to try. Why not both football and basketball? I asked. Pat enthusiastically agreed that two was better than one.
I called both football coach Doug Marrone and basketball coach Jim Boeheim. Without hesitating, they both said yes, they would be happy to partner with the brigade. It was easier to start with basketball, whose season had just begun. The football team was nearing the end of its season.
Colonel Frank and I met with coach Boeheim in December. Coach couldn’t wait to get started. He offered to have 25 soldiers come for a basketball practice and dinner with the team on January 14, 2011. He also offered to provide 225 tickets to Fort Drum soldiers and families for a basketball game against Cincinnati in the Carrier Dome on January 15. A great start to the partnership.
By the time the 3,600 soldiers of the 3BTC deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, in March, a synergy had developed. During the tail end of the basketball season and into the next season for both football and basketball, soldiers in Afghanistan prepared “shout outs” for virtually every game. These “Go Orange” cheers were played on the big screens in the Carrier Dome and evoked standing ovations for our soldiers.
In March 2011 the partnership with the football team took shape. Members of the brigade’s rear detachment came to campus to observe a practice in April, and in June a group of SU football players visited Fort Drum for “a day in a life of a soldier,” which amounted to vigorous military-oriented training. The following October, 20 SU basketball players and six coaches visited Fort Drum for a similar day of training. In both cases, they experienced a teleconference with Colonel Frank in Afghanistan. Pat told the athletes what life was like in a combat zone and urged them on to successful seasons. Cool stuff for the kids.
The two relationships have matured and will continue into the future. The commonalities between soldiers and athletes are striking. In both cases, they thrive on competition, they practice leadership, they require teamwork, and they prepare for offense and defense.
Additionally, I arranged for a day of “Governance Training” at the Maxwell School at SU for senior leaders of the brigade before their deployment. They used best practices in dealing with Afghan government representatives. That training went so well that Colonel Frank asked for a tutorial for his staff in dealing with the media, and so I arranged for a day of “Media Training” at the Newhouse School at SU. They used that as well to tell their unit’s story while in Afghanistan.
I took great pride in the fact that Syracuse University was the only school in the country that had built partnerships between both their football and their basketball teams and the same military unit. These collaborations were so newsworthy that John King of CNN aired a piece on Veterans Day 2011 featuring the Army-Syracuse connection.
Just when you think you have a full plate, you find that you have to add to it. When it’s for a good cause like this one, you don’t blink. But even when the causes and requirements aren’t as scintillating, if it’s important, it is a necessary thing to do.
In this case, the battlefield and the ball field came together, as did the soldiers and the athletes. In the everyday workplace often it’s the busiest person who is asked to do the additional and toughest jobs. Those who do are burdened by it but can be blessed by it too, for they learn and grow faster than their peers.
Does the boss even see or notice these things? Absolutely! This is when your capacity and conditioning and ability to treat every day as a game day are valued and admired by the person who has put you in the game. Success will be your reward.