Trist Others So You Can Focus On You
Before you can help lift others up, you have to make sure you are taking care of your own business first. Unfortunately, I learned that the hard way in a recent doubles tennis match where I got whooped pretty bad. While I was the stronger tennis player compared to my partner, I was so focused on what he was or wasn’t doing my game suffered. So while he may have been weaker, I actually hurt our team by not playing at the level I am capable of playing because I was too focused on compensating for my partner. This caused me to lose focus, and make too many errors. So I am to blame for the loss, because I was worrying more about supporting my partner than taking care of my own business.
My improper mental state started before the match. I knew I was playing with a weaker partner, so I went into the match think I was going to need to take over more points to win. So I hit higher risk shots, tried covering more court, and was focused on my partner’s mistakes and what I would need to overcome them. What a horrible mind set, and while my intent was to lift up my partner, I actually was a bad partner because I didn’t trust them which I will not do again.
In football, it is imperative that you trust your teammates. If you are playing cornerback and running a zone defense, and the receiver comes through your zone and runs to the middle of the field, you must let that receiver go and trust that the linebacker will pick them up. If you don’t and follow the receiver you will leave a gaping hole in your zone for the other team to exploit. This is why Bill Belichick’s mantra is “Do your job." Unfortunately, I learned that lesson the hard way.
In retrospect I should have trusted my partner to handle their side of the court, and that would allow me to keep my focus on what I am doing and taking care of my own business. Minimally that should have occurred from the beginning of the match, and then as the match went on I could make adjustments as necessary. Not in this case, I was untrusting from the beginning, and it taught me a lesson I won’t soon forget.
The more I thought about this, the more it resonated with me in business. I know that I am a very strong business person and born to lead people to greatness. However, I need to give people the benefit of the doubt and trust that they will get their job done. If time passes and they do not, then I can make an adjustment to supplement the issue. So moving forward I will trust in my teammate and focus on being the best I can be. I believe it will make me a better team and teammate.