How do professional athletes get feedback?
They have the commitment of a high-performing coach to give them feedback when it matters - on the spot.
A high performing team takes a leader that has an ‘always-on’ approach to feedback, no matter what the message is!
I’m BACK!
So, I fell off my writing wagon over the past few weeks, not because there wasn’t anything to write about, far from it, there’s been too much going on and I haven’t prioritised creating space for my own reflection.
So, no, this isn’t a 6+ week of reflections but more of an update on what’s been going on. For the new subscribers, “hello and welcome”, especially those who have come through Penny’s cohort!
To get back on track, despite having a mountain of content and insight to share, I thought I’d keep it simple by playing back an anecdote that is really landing at the moment.
Feedback from the bench.
As a Canadian, it’s hard to grow up and not get involved with (ice) Hockey in some way or another. You either play it or watch it. I did more watching than playing despite getting my first pair of skates at the age of 3.
For those of you that are not familiar with how the game is played, it’s an extremely fast paced sport. Requiring immense physical and mental performance from the athletes and all involved.
Players are typically only on the ice for 60-90 second intervals, and are on a constant rotation.
This means they are coming on and off the bench, which gives the coach a chance to give them feedback.
Here’s why that matters and how it relates to your leadership.
My brother, Andrew Davis, is the equipment manager for Canada’s women National Hockey team. He ensures the players have what they need before they need them, so that they can focus on the game at hand. He is on the bench during the game, keeping a watchful eye on what’s going on.
Listen to how players receive feedback “from the bench”
So, tell me in comments, how might you be more like the coach on the bench when it comes to giving feedback to your teams?
Watch this if you’d like to get a behind the scenes look into life as an equipment managers, here’s Andrew to describe it.
Over the past few months I’ve been to Austin, East Sussex, Edinburgh, and San Francisco with intervals in London (home). I’ve been designing and leading offsite focusing on:
Working with an agency on how to re-org their business around a new strategy. Everyone is being influenced by AI but how might it shift how you organize and what kind of talent you need to bring in to support it.
Helping a team to “rally” around embedding a commercial first mindset and attitude. With a tougher market, teams are having to think “client” first and put in more rigour around the ROI of internal activities.
Inspiring leaders in a legacy org to re-think how they approach performance management to being ‘always-on’ and leaning into hard conversations, instead of waiting for those moments a few times a year.
Supporting a successful games studio leadership team align on how to prepare for the growth that will come after their next raise, ensuring they are aligned on ways of working, priorities and managing the balance of quality and speed.
Spent an inspiring 48 hours with C100 - a network of Canada’s tech super powers. I did a quick summary of insights here (more to come).
Preparing to launch a leadership program for an AI robotics scale-up to ensure alignment on how they lead through growth and to ensure it’s consistent with the culture they need to shape for scale.
Working with a CTO on how to set boundaries on how to influence others Cx to ensure better quality > get too involved and end up taking responsibility for other people’s jobs!
Ensuring the org design project we did helping an executive team get more out of their management team stays on track by running a retro that highlighted the behaviours that were getting in their own way of progress.
And on my spare time, setting up the conditions for OverTime Leader to scale it’s offering by bringing on new operating partners.
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So, it’s not an excuse that I haven’t been writing but if anyone has tips on how they keep their blogging consistent through big growth phases, I’m all ears!
Also, if you think we might be able to collaborate on a project, reach out - I’m always looking to connect, share advice and learn from my community.
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You got this.