The Angry Coach: Out of the Box

Issues

I’ve had some issues lately at work. And yeah, I know – for those of you who know me, it’s nothing new for me to be having “issues,” but this is something specific I’ve had to tackle in order to make things better. It’s also something directly derived from lessons I learned playing ball.

The primary issue is this: I’m supposedly in a “leadership” position at work, but any “juice” I have keeps being siphoned off by another person I work with, who’s slightly above me on the ladder. The way he does this is to keep everything compartmentalized, i.e., since he has the responsibility of answering to our “superiors,” he keeps everyone in their respective boxes because it makes his own life easier. Think of it like the offensive line of a football team. The offensive line coach has to report to the offensive coordinator, who has to report to the head coach. The o-line coach wants to move up the ladder, so in addition to doing whatever he can to help the team win, he’s going to watch his own ass by trying to simplify everything for the players he’s coaching.

In other words, he wants guys worrying about their own assignments and nothing else. The right guard knows he has to pull on certain plays, but he’s coached not to worry about what the left tackle has to do. This obviously isn’t a good idea, because he might need to know what to do if all hell breaks loose, but this is the way a lot of people coach. Know your role, and shut your mouth.

Of course, if the right guard has a brain, he’ll look at plays, and at film, and try to understand how a play is supposed to unfold. He’ll want to know where his help is, or if he’s supposed to be the help for left tackle if the left guard is blocking a nose tackle and the tight end is split to the right and the fullback is running iso…or whatever. It behooves him to know what the play is actually supposed to do, rather than to just line up saying to himself, “I’m pulling.”

The Left Tackle

A better example of this would be the left tackle. When you’re constantly lined up against Dwight Freeney or Julius Peppers or whoever, you need to know everything. If you’re not told everything, or everything isn’t laid out for you in your positional meeting, you need to go figure it out, because you’re naturally starting out at a disadvantage, and you need any edge you can get in order to even the playing field.

So, it’s frustrating when you’re put in a box like that – especially when you’re in that box because someone else is trying to make himself look good.

I read a great book about this exact condition recently. It’s called “Linchpin,” and it was written by a guy named Seth Godin. This isn’t a sports book, but Godin’s advice about making yourself indispensable is applicable to just about everything in life. What I started telling the kids when they had problems with their roles was to redefine their roles by showing leadership. If you don’t like the role that’s been assigned to you, do that role and create another role for yourself by being a leader. If your positional coach isn’t explaining things properly, or he’s got you confined to a box, figure it out for yourself.

Step Up

You don’t have to be the best player on a team to adopt a leadership role. You simply need to step up, snatch additional responsibilities, and make yourself someone they can’t keep off the field because you know more than everyone else.

That’s what I did at work. I didn’t mouth off and make an end run around the guy who was compartmentalizing me. I just started talking to other people to find out when his “secret meetings” were being held, and I sat in on them, keeping my mouth shut. This was a little weird at first, but after I did it enough times, it was expected that I’d be there. After a while, I started getting CC’d on all the emails announcing these previously secret meetings. I became an accepted member of this higher rung. I wasn’t invited, and nobody in there can really put their finger on how I got involved, but now it’s part of my job and I actually get to speak up and make decisions. In fact, at this point, if I’m NOT in one of these meetings, they think something is wrong.

Try this if you’re having problems at work or on a team. Instead of getting pissed off and railing against all the injustices being done to you, find something else to learn to do and just get better.