Sitemate Blog Post – On Operating Like a Pro Sports Team
SITEMATE BLOG POSTS
On Operating Like a Pro Sports Team, Not a Family
By Hartley Pike, Co-Founder & CEO of Sitemate
Preface
With reference to phrases such as ‘Welcome to the sitemate family’ - this blog has two aims.
The first being to explain why we are not a family, and why the use of this descriptor may have unintended negative consequences over the medium to long term.
The second is to provide a much more powerful and accurate alternative to the above ‘family’ descriptor - that being professional sports teams, with some stories from the archives woven in where it made sense to do so.
This is done through the creation of series of mental models that can be used to help everyone with navigating team dynamics, as well as important judgement decisions, over the course of our journey together as a team.
I don’t remember when exactly, but I’m nearly certain even I’ve personally said things like ‘welcome to the sitemate family’, or ‘the sitemate fam’, over the years - so please rest assured, this is certainly not an attack on anyone who’s done it, whether it be recently, or at any time in the past.
This is now just a line in the sand, from this blog post onward - let’s start calling each other what we truly are - a team, and a pro team at that!
Why we’re not a family
Personally I find it a little awkward when big tech companies blast the word ‘family’ all over their social media posts relating to job opportunities, I assume in an attempt to attract people by indicating that the environment is loving and caring, only to then lay off hundreds of their so called ‘family’ the next week, and then again a few months later - layoff another couple hundred more.
I try not to judge any CEO who has had to do a layoff, as some of them may have truly suffered from events outside of their control, although I know there are many that have just been sloppy and ill disciplined.
But again, it’s not my place, or anyone’s place, to judge - something may happen in future that is outside of our control, and I may be faced with a similar decision.
The point is - you can’t hire, promote, fire and, you certainly can’t layoff your family -at least not without going to jail…?
You also can’t choose your family (although if you have figured out how, please let me know!), and you aren’t paid to hang out with your family.
Clearly it’s not relevant, so let’s stop calling each other family in our professional lives.
I have a number of concerns about using the family descriptor; it reduces the natural level of urgency, and hinders the ability to introduce healthy levels of tension, both of which are necessary if you want to be a part of a professional team that achieves things far beyond what those on the outside believe the team is capable of.
Families involve an exchange of emotion - love, pain, comfort, stress, support, annoyance, more pain, happiness, safety and more.
Yes, it is possible to exchange these emotions outside of your family as well, but the difference there is - most of the time you can choose whether you want to or not!
Professional sports teams involve an exchange of value - each person contributes value within the structure of a team, that team can then achieve great things, and each person who has or still is contributing value, then receives value back through the great things that the team achieves collectively.
Team sports
A professional sports team is defined as a group of athletes who participate in sporting competitions and are paid for their performance. These teams are typically part of larger leagues that group professional sports competitions.
As you will read, the use of the pro sports team analogy is specifically related to professional teams, particularly the teams with complex networks of staff required to support a group athletes in the pursuit of a joint goal.
The analogy is also leveraged to help construct mental models that we will all be able to apply to simplify seemingly complex situations, and potentially challenging discussions, about performance and contribution, in the context of the goals of a team.
This analogy is therefore completely unrelated to amateur sport, fans of sport, and also gambling related to sport.
In addition, as sport involves the expression of skill and hard work primarily through physical exertion and/or motor controls, it is important to clarify that as knowledge workers, this analogy draws links from the physicality of sport to the driving force that can be exerted through knowledge work. Therefore, the actual physical size, shape and stature of an individual are completely irrelevant in the context of this analogy.
Finally, solo professional sports such as golf and tennis, for example, are unrelated to this analogy, as the dynamics between the two groups of solo vs team sport is vastly different.
Components of the game
In this analogy, 'the game' is a multifaceted concept, encapsulating every interaction with prospects and customers as pivotal moments of performance and opportunity.
Just like in a professional sports league, these interactions are our competitive battleground, where our strategies like ‘no code’ and ‘multi-product’ are tested, our skills are showcased, precision and timing are critical, and even seemingly small events at an individual athlete level can have significant impacts on the outcome of the specific game being played, and in turn, the broader competition.
Our Go To Market (GTM) team are the athletes in this analogy, actively on the field playing with agility and focus. Each interaction is akin to a match in a season long competition, contributing to our position in the local market where the game is being played, and ultimately defining our rank in the global business ecosystem.
Every SDR call is a critical pass to another team member on the field, every AE demo is a shot on goal that could determine the outcome of the game, every AM account review meeting is a strong defensive play to protect our goal, and every CSM case is the glue holding together the defensive and offensive plays at either end of the field - every touch of the ball matters.
Our Operations teams work diligently behind the scenes to ensure our players are equipped with the necessary tools and equipment right when they need it; the best boots, blades, shin guards, light weight water repellent shorts and shirts, cutting edge strapping tape and more!
Our Revenue team ensure that our athletes are well prepared behind the scenes before they take the field; covering everything from ensuring they’re supplied with the right nutrients, that they’ve completed the required practice ahead of each game, and that the athletes and coaching staff have access to accurate and timely analytics and diagnostics to help guide decision making.
Our Product and Engineering teams work hard to create and architect a comprehensive set of plays, defensive techniques, attacking tactics and team configuration options that are available for the coaches and captains to use at their disposal, based on the local market that the game is being played in, and who the opposition is.
The role of coach is two tiered - the CEO is responsible for strategy and directional decisions within the context of the global business ecosystem.
The General Managers leading each regional GTM team are responsible for interpreting the global strategy and localising it for their specific competition.
Our Directors within our GTM teams are the team captains, on the field with the team doing work themselves, but also overseeing performance and supporting the team as required.
The competition is not just about winning individual interactions but about advancing our position in the league of our industry, enhancing our reputation, and building lasting relationships with clients. Each game, whether a routine sales call or a high-stakes negotiation, is a chance to demonstrate our team's prowess, resilience, and collaborative spirit.
Getting the team on the field
The seemingly straightforward act of 'Getting the Team on the Field' is, in reality, a complex and meticulously coordinated effort, mirroring the behind-the-scenes orchestration required to prepare a professional sports team for game day.
Every successful presentation, project launch, or market entry is the culmination of countless hours of preparation by a diverse group of dedicated individuals. It's not just about the visible players – the GTM team making the plays; it's about the entire organisation working in unison towards a common goal.
The Operations team is our backbone, ensuring logistics are flawlessly executed and resources are optimally allocated.
Player recruitment and compensation, overseen by our Revenue Ops, aligns talent acquisition with market dynamics and organizational strategy.
Meanwhile, the physiotherapists in our analogy represent the support and wellness initiatives provided by leadership, vital for maintaining the team's mental and physical health.
The synergy between strength and conditioning, embodied by GTM Ops, and the insights gleaned from data analysis and game footage, reflect our ongoing training and market research efforts.
The CEO, as the coach, sets the vision, culture, and strategic direction, guiding the team through challenges and towards success.
Home games
'Home Games' represent those tasks and challenges that occur within our established territory – the familiar grounds of our current accounts/customers.
I remember when Sarah and I sat down to discuss the need for account management processes - we’d had a couple of customers churn unexpectedly, where they’d been showing as green and healthy, but then suddenly, we lost the account.
In the context of this analogy, we both realised that we'd been playing the game virtually without a defensive line.
We had a reasonably strong mid field with our CS function making progress globally, and our AEs were settling into the new business flow, but we had dozens if not hundreds of customers that we weren’t completing account review meetings with.
Vice versa, we realised that we were also missing many expansion opportunities within existing accounts - opportunities to go from defense to attack quickly.
A few weeks later we had our first account manager role open, about six months later we had our first batch of account management infrastructure built out, and as of the timing of drafting this blog post - we’re now expanding our account management function globally across all regions.
Home games are where we are not just expected to perform, but to excel, much like a seasoned athlete on their home turf.
The advantage we have here is our deep understanding of the environment, the nuances of our clients' needs, and the established rapport we've nurtured over time.
It’s critical to remember that while these games may seem more comfortable, they demand our utmost diligence and dedication - complacency can be our greatest enemy in these situations.
A loss here, a missed opportunity or a faltering in our usual standards, can have significant consequences. It's in these home games where our foundational strengths are tested and our team's core values are showcased.
This is where we reinforce our reputation, fortify our relationships, and deliver exceptional performance in these familiar settings is what builds trust and reliability in the eyes of our clients.
Away games
In contrast to the familiarity and relative comfort of home games, 'Away Games' in this analogy symbolise new business sales and launching in new geographical markets.
We didn’t really make a decision to ‘expand globally’, as much as we were pulled into new regions due to our inbound marketing engine that had started firing, bringing in new leads every week.
Nevertheless, there were still some important decisions around timing, geographies and structure to be made - and I have some stories that emphasise how difficult away games are, particularly your first few.
By the start of 2019 we had started getting free trial sign ups globally, so I (along with getting agreement from Lance) thought that a good first version would be to try and find someone to handle SDR and AE stage, globally.
Yes, you read that right - covering 3 timezones, calling leads to book demos, and then doing the demos, in all of the regions, at the same time.
Needless to say, despite clearly outlining the plan during the interview process, the guy who joined lasted three weeks and then asked me for a coffee, where he quit due to being completely overwhelmed - a miserable failure in planning for the first role, and certainly not his fault.
So, we went back to the drawing board, did a bit more founder sales, and then came up with the next plan - we need at least one AE in each region!
And off we went mid 2019; we hired one AE in Sydney, one AE in Dublin, and one AE in Toronto.
This time it worked, a little better, lasting three months instead three weeks before we were back to square one… So what failed in this second attempt?
Turned out that even having one person in each region wasn’t enough for the lead flow that we had even at that early stage - we needed to clearly split the responsibility for processing our inbound leads vs handling opportunities and closing new business.
In addition to our processes being immature, we also struggled to successfully integrate lone GTM team members into the team when working in a fully remote environment - partially influencing my thinking on working arrangements for GTM vs product and engineering functions.
It was the end of 2019 at this point, and after two failed attempts - we were both pretty burned out.
I remember sitting down with Lance and saying; “I need you to be the SDR globally, I’ll be the AE, and we are just going to do it ourselves for a while, I’m not sure how long it will take.”
I am almost certain that ‘pre-Sitemate Lance’ would not have said yes to the above, but with the lead flow being right in front of us for so long - both of us had become increasingly frustrated at not reaching what was possible.
The timing of the prior failures turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise when two months into 2020, covid hit. And after a month or so of uncertainty, we were so lean in our GTM motion that it barely phased us.
The following two years, was probably the most gruelling, but rewarding, period in Sitemate’s GTM history to date - Lance become the global SDR, I became the global AE, and we agreed that we weren’t going to hire anyone until it was truly working.
Everyone expects a founder to work hard, but how hard Lance worked during this period… you wouldn’t see most founders work this hard on their own company.
Our weekly routine was 5AM-8AM working North American hours doing SDR calls and demos, 9AM-5PM doing SDR calls and demos for the Oceania region, and then after dinner - Europe between 7PM-10PM.
With some small exceptions as we pulled back from certain roles in each region - this continued for nearly three years.
Was it sustainable? Definitely not. Do I expect people to do it now? Definitely not.
Were we lucky to be able to do it? Yes, a combination of timing relative to both of us not having started families at that point in time, as well as covid lock-downs keeping everyone indoors a lot, definitely helped make it possible.
Away games are where our adaptability, resilience, and strategic prowess are put to the test - just as a sports team ventures into an opponent's stadium, we step into these situations often without the home-field advantage of established relationships or deep insights.
The dynamics are different, the environment less predictable, and the competition potentially more fierce.
Success in these scenarios not only boosts morale and confidence but also elevates our reputation in the broader market. It's important to approach these away games with a mindset geared towards learning and excellence - understanding that while they may be more difficult, they offer invaluable opportunities for us to expand our horizons.
Practice
If a professional sports team where to take the field each weekend, without running a single minute of practice, either individually, or as a team, you would think they had lost their minds.
Yet, in so many SaaS companies, this is exactly what happens - people make calls, do demos, without doing a single minute of practice before taking the field for the first time for their new role (new club).
Furthermore, just because a player has been at a club for a while, does this make them exempt from practice?
Of course not - plays are changing (new products being released), the field conditions are changing (buyer dynamics), and the competition is evolving (competitors changing).
Yet, again - this is frequent to see within SaaS, where experienced professionals stop honing their skills and fail to keep sharp. However, the best often do their own practice and preparation.
Practice is the rigorous, behind-the-scenes preparation that sharpens skills, refines strategies, and builds the kind of instinctual teamwork that makes seamless, on-field execution possible. These are not mere formalities; they are essential activities that prepare us for the real challenges we face in the market.
Just as an athlete wouldn't step onto the field without having rehearsed their plays, our team members engage in constant learning and rehearsal to ensure that when we're in the midst of a crucial project or a high-stakes negotiation, we're operating at our best.
This practice is what transforms theoretical knowledge into practical skill, and individual talent into collective strength. It’s here that mistakes are made, lessons are learned, and improvements are iterated upon in a safe and supportive environment.
Moreover, practice is where team synergy is cultivated. Understanding each other's strengths, weaknesses, and working styles allows us to function as a more cohesive unit. It's about more than just honing our individual skills; it's about learning how to leverage these skills in concert with others to achieve our common goals.
Fatigue and injuries
In the high-energy world of professional sports, fatigue is an inevitable consequence of sustained effort and intensity over a long period of time. This concept translates seamlessly into our professional setting, where mental and emotional fatigue can emerge from continuous high pressure situations, long work hours, and relentlessly pursuing excellence.
Just as physical fatigue in sports requires careful management and rest, mental fatigue in our workplace demands a similar approach to ensure the long-term health and performance of our team.
I believe that fatigue is often a symptom of broader issues in a professional context; workload imbalance within the team (one player overcompensating for another), insufficient resources (playing with a player down), structural issues (wrong team configuration on the field), role misalignment issues (playing in the wrong position), missing boundaries (trying to play attack and defense at the same time), and sometimes personal life factors can be consuming energy, which then detracts from the base level of energy required to work.
As leaders and managers, we should prioritise addressing the root cause(s) ahead of ‘bandaid’ solutions, and then in the interim, just as a coach would adjust training intensity or rotation policies to keep athletes fresh - we can call in additional support or drop unnecessary tasks for a period of time, until the root cause(s) is resolved.
In the context of our professional team, 'Injuries' are analogous to the personal and professional setbacks that inevitably arise in any career. Just as physical injuries are a reality for athletes, mental and emotional strain, burnout, and other challenges are common in the high-stress environment of our industry. Recognizing and addressing these 'injuries' is crucial for the health and longevity of our team.
When a team member is 'injured', whether it's due to personal issues, professional burnout, or other stressors, it's essential that we provide them with the support and time they need to recover.
Just as an athlete wouldn’t be expected to perform with a physical injury, we don’t expect our team members to push through their struggles without first recovering from their injury.
Personally, I’ve been burned out many times during the journey of building Sitemate - some instances much worse than others. Although, luckily I’ve now got a strong foundation that has prevented any bouts of burnout in the last 2-3 years.
Personally, I have found the below framework useful;
(1) Extract every single possible piece of work or task to do, then categorise and rank priority vertically.
(2) Identify and close ownership discrepancies.
(Where am I covering on the field for others that I shouldn’t be? or where do we have players missing?)
(3) Identify and shut off off unnecessary noise.
(Why am I trying to watch a game being played on another field, when I’m on the field trying to play one right here?)
I’m very passionate about the topic of burnout, and have thought about it deeply over a long period of time - I believe the above model can help anyone, and doesn’t just apply to me as CEO.
If you ever feel overwhelmed, or could do with some assistance dealing with noise and volume within our digital workspaces, please DM me 1:1 on Slack and I will help you. Do not hesitate, no matter your role, where you’re based, or if we’ve ever spoken before.
Recovering from injury is step one, without doing so - it’s equivalent to a coach sending an attacking player onto the field with a broken leg… if they can’t run, when a team member passes them a ball in a prime goal scoring opportunity, what is going to happen? The ball will roll right on by, the player will be disappointed, and the team will get frustrated.
Just like a physical injury, rehabilitation in a professional context depends on the type and severity of the injury - it could be reduced workload, flexible hours, or specialist support, whilst also returning the training ground for practice for potentially many weeks before returning onto the field on match day.
Film sessions
The U.S. ice hockey team that competed in the 1980 winter olympics was composed of primarily amateur players, and on February 22 of the same year, in Lake Placid New York, they found themselves scheduled to face the Soviet Union.
It was a medal round game, as part of the final round-robin group stage, and the Soviet Union had won 6 of the 7 previous gold medal games, and were overwhelming favourites to win again.
Leading up to the Olympics, coach Herb Brooks used film sessions extensively to analyse Soviet tactics and instill strategic gameplay in his team - frequently reviewing their own footage to look for opportunities for improvement, and also showing his team footage of the Soviet team, helping them understand and anticipate the playing style of their opponents.
I remember the first ever time we listened and watched back to footage at Sitemate - it was completely random and very much a spur of the moment type event. Jaycob was our solo SDR within the Sydney office, and Lance was on break for two weeks, leaving me to help out Jaycob with any support.
Jaycob had mentioned he’d had a couple of tough calls, so I offered to sit down with him and listen to calls get played back on a Friday after lunch when things were usually quieter. The session went well, we discussed a few things at length, and we left with some actionable takeaways for the next week.
Rob, who in the Enterprise AE role at the time, heard about it, and the next week he arrived at the session unannounced - more of the same followed, another great session and more takeaways, albeit with a little more banter second time around.
The following week, Lance got back from leave, I told him what we’d started, and the first ever recurring calendar invite was sent out. Although, what followed was not just the continuation of weekly call review sessions, but a trigger to start to build out our standard GTM frameworks, which are now used globally across sales development, new business, customer success and account management.
The way I would encourage people in our GTM team to think about the call review sessions is to imagine you’re members of a sports team, sitting in a room with a big screen up, watching and listening back at footage of the game. The whole team is engaged, obsessing on the details - everyone is jointly attacking the quality of our systems, frameworks, training, decks, demo content and overall energy, looking for even the most fractional opportunities for improvement.
For new starters, this ritual can be overwhelming at first compared to previous environments, especially as most of the current team are passionate about looking for these opportunities and maintaining our standards, which is exactly what you’d expect from professionals being paid for results.
However, the purpose of this section is to prime you for this, as much as it is possible to do so, in advance. You need to be aware that you are operating in a highly non-political environment; meaning no-one cares who’s call it is, no-one cares who’s demo recording it is, no-one is out to get you personally. The only thing that is happening is that there a group of people trying to find opportunities for improvement for everyone else to take into the next week.
My advice would be to bring your most difficult calls forward, the ones that make you feel the most uncomfortable listening or watching back, and let the team know you’ve done this. Do this for a few weeks and watch how quickly your skills, sharpness and confidence develop, and within a couple of months - you will be unrecognisable.
The game at Lake Placid was intense and fast-paced. The Soviets scored first, but the U.S. team quickly responded, and the game was tied at 2-2 by the end of the first period. The Soviets led 3-2 after the second period. Early in the final period, the U.S. team scored two more goals within a couple of minutes, taking a 4-3 lead. The Americans held on for the victory despite heavy pressure from the Soviet team, in what became known as The "Miracle on Ice".
The U.S. team then went on to win the gold medal by defeating Finland in their final game. The victory against the Soviets, however, is what captured the hearts and imaginations of people around the world - an inspiring story of how meticulous preparation, strategic insight, and sheer determination can lead to extraordinary outcomes, even against the most daunting odds.
Athlete remuneration
In the realm of professional sports, 'Athlete Remuneration' is a transparent and performance-driven system, reflecting the value each team member brings to the field.
Just as a top goal scorer in sports might be offered a lucrative contract for their exceptional performance, within our team, outstanding contributions are recognized and rewarded accordingly. This approach underscores the meritocratic nature of our environment: success and impact dictate compensation, not seniority or tenure.
The dynamics of athlete remuneration in sports offer a parallel to our own compensation strategies - it allows some team members to rise rapidly if their impact is disproportionate to say their age, or ‘experience on paper’, for example.
Vice versa - if a team member's performance starts to wane, just as in sports, it necessitates a review and adjustment of their role and remuneration.
This system encourages continuous personal development and peak performance, as just like sport - you can’t rest on your laurels of how well you performed last season.
However, this isn't just about financial rewards. It's about recognising the holistic contribution of each individual, including their skills, effort, the unique value they add, and the impact they have on the team in a broad sense.
By aligning remuneration with performance in-line with this analogy and mechanisms that are seen in professional sport, my goal is to draw your attention to what matters each day; impact.
In turn, taking away attention from things that don’t matter at Sitemate; politics like, for example - ‘becoming friends with the right people’.
Friendships and relationships, within the team
Some of the most memorable guidance I was given from a mentor early on in my own journey as learning ‘how to CEO’ was relating to what signals to look for that culture is heading in the right direction.
Besides a few analytical approaches, the most memorable was by far a comment that went something like “when people start hanging out outside of work unprompted, you know you’ve got it on the right track.”
This doesn’t mean every single person needs to be best friends with every other person that they work with, but it’s been encouraging to see small pockets and true lasting friendships form at Sitemate.
These connections are not forced but grow organically from shared experiences, challenges overcome, and successes celebrated together. They provide a support system, a network of peers who understand the unique pressures and triumphs of our work - making the grind of climbing the mountain more enjoyable and the achievements more fulfilling when done together.
However, it's crucial to maintain a balance. While these friendships enhance our work life, they must not overshadow our professional responsibilities or the broader team dynamics. They should uplift our performance, not distract from it.
In sports, as in business, relationships beyond friendship can be a double-edged sword.
On one hand, they can strengthen the bonds within the team, fostering a deeper understanding and empathy among members. On the other, they carry the risk of complicating team dynamics, especially if they impact decision-making scenarios, or create perceptions of favoritism.
When relationships beyond friendships come into play, complexity increases exponentially - from two people on completely separate teams with no direct reports being the least complex, for example.
To the most complex, stressful and uncomfortable - a direct reporting line where one or both people are senior in terms of their responsibility.
The key lies in managing these relationships with transparency, maturity, and a clear separation between personal and professional spheres, as much as possible.
Just like in a sports team, where players might develop close relationships but still maintain their focus on the game, in our team, we encourage individuals to be mindful of the broader impact of their relationships.
Maintaining professional integrity, respecting boundaries, and ensuring that performance and team cohesion remain the top priorities are essential.
Team success (promotion) and failure (relegation)
In the realm of professional sports, the concepts of 'promotion' and 'relegation' are potent symbols of a team's success and failure - these dynamics are mirrored in the business world, where our collective achievements and setbacks determine our organization's trajectory.
Promotion, in our context, is akin to achieving significant milestones, securing major deals, or making breakthroughs that propel us to higher levels of market recognition and success. It's a testament to our team's hard work, strategic planning, and execution, much like a sports team earning its way to a premier league.
On the other hand, failure or relegation in business can occur when we miss targets, lose key accounts, or face setbacks due to market conditions or internal challenges. These moments, though disheartening, are not the end but rather an opportunity for reflection, learning, and re-calibration.
I believe that success and failure are not solely defined by the most recent outcomes, just as in sports, where teams have histories and legacies that transcend seasons, Sitemate’s journey is marked by a series of ups and downs.
But usually, when you look back, we have many, many more ups, than we do downs.
The most challenging scenarios that I have personally encountered, and anticipated to encounter again, are in fact not to do with relegation or downside scenarios, but to do with promotion scenarios.
The challenge lies in the paradox of promoting sports teams - there is a reasonable chance that some of the players on the team responsible for driving the team to a new league, are in fact, not able to keep up when the team enters a new competition, hence now finding themselves in a vulnerable position
This is an inevitable fact, and my only comment or advice is - remain objective, proactively identify your own gaps, and just remember - no-one at all is immune from this dynamic, including me as CEO.
In fact, out of everyone, I am in many ways the most exposed to not being able to keep up with the growth of Sitemate, and am continuously working to change the way I serve the team as we reach new levels of scale.
Team captains
The captain may not necessarily be the top performer or the most experienced member, but they are a central figure in driving the team's spirit and unity - possessing a unique blend of leadership qualities that inspire and rally the team towards common goals.
The captain understands each team member's strengths and weaknesses and is adept at harnessing these diverse talents to optimize team performance.
Their role extends beyond mere task delegation or performance monitoring. A captain is a mentor, a motivator, and, at times, a mediator, embodying the team's values and ethos, setting an example in work ethic, attitude, and commitment.
Importantly, the captain's influence is pivotal in cultivating a sense of urgency and purpose. If they demonstrate passion and a proactive approach, it sets a tone that resonates throughout the team.
They are the glue that binds the team, ensuring cohesion and a shared vision, vital for achieving our collective objectives.
Your role
At a personal level, this section may leave you with most takeaways.
Every role in our team is designed to contribute to a common objective, much like individual players in a sports team have specific positions and responsibilities.
But, you already know that.
So really the question to ask yourself is - what kind of player do you want to be?
Do you want to be that player who rolls their eyes at practice and thinks they’re too good?
Or, do you want to be the player who is working on not only keeping their own skills sharp, but helping to improve practice and make it engaging experience for new and/or younger players?
Do you want to be that player who doesn’t listen to or respect the captain that the coach has decided is best to lead the team on the field right now, but then at the same time wants to be the captain of a team one day themself?
Or, do you want to be the player who is assisting the captain with the agreed game plan, pushing hard to do their best, and then relaying back insight when things may not be going to plan?
Sport as a leveller
A brief note on the leveling power of sport to close out this blog post.
One of the ways I think about competition in business, particularly software businesses, is similar to how an individual game of sport is played - at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much money or supporting infrastructure one team has vs another, they are still limited as to how many players they can put on the field, and they are constrained by the rules of the game.
This creates an opportunity every time a new game starts, and by being clever about which games you play, where you play them, and when you play, you can increase your chances of success.
As you start to win, you start to build momentum, and gradually, you then expand the number of games you are playing simultaneously.
This applies at both a company and personal level, no matter if it’s me vs another CEO, you vs another Director at another company targeting the same segment, or you vs another sales person - their company can really only have one person competing against you at an account level (the game), and every time this happens, it gives you a chance to win.
Keen to learn more or join the Sitemate team?
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