by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
I want to help you break the bottleneck of your success.
Now, before I tell you the answer to what I believe is blocking your success, what do you think the main bottleneck to your program’s greater successes?
The answers I hear most often is that you need to recruit better players, we don’t have the resources, our location/facilities/locker rooms/insert whatever else might be not great at your school, I need to hire more help, and the like.
Nope. While all those might be considerations, the main constraint to the future growth or improvement of your program or recruiting is YOU.
Yes, you are your program’s greatest bottleneck period. Bottom line. The end.
I remember reading an interview done by Darren Hardy, author of the Compound Effect. He was talking to the CEO of a multibillion dollar home building company in Mexico. His company was building 200 homes a day. He had 16,500 employees and 6000 vendors and had been averaging 2,000% growth over the last seven years straight. This is how he put it when he was asked about his prospects for the future.
He said “the only constraint of the company’s growth and potential is the owners ambition. I am the constraint. The market opportunity is there. It’s up to me to set the pace, clear the obstacles, get the resources and create the conversations to grow the company faster. Even with 16,500 employees out there, as the leader he knew that his company’s main constraint for growth was him.
Another great interview Darren Hardy did was with Joel Olsteen. Olsteen was asked the key to his successful leadership of such a large, fast growing and thriving organization as it is today. He explained that when he first took over for his father, he made a great mistake on that he was involved with everything. He was officiating weddings and baptisms, funerals. He was adjusting the lights that shined on the stage. He was editing the brochures and approving the bumpers that were shown on either side of his television broadcast.
What he discovered is that the entire organization stagnated. It could only grow as much as could fit on Joel’s calendar. He was taxed and stressed out. His entire organization was taxed and stressed out as well as it became stagnant. That is when Joel realized that he was the bottleneck. He was his organization’s main constraint. That’s when he removed himself from all those tasks and responsibilities and only focused on the one thing that he contributes the most to his organization’s success, the one that has the greatest impact on its overall ability to achieve its mission. For Joel, that was the 22 minute sermon that he delivers on Sunday morning that is now being viewed by 40 plus million people every week. If that sermon is great, if it’s helpful, if it’s funny, if it’s engaging, it fuels the entire enterprise’s success.
So the lesson for you here as a college coach.
- Realize you are your program’s main constraint. This is the case 100% of the time no matter your sport, division, or depending on how many assistant coaches you have. If you are the leader, you are and always will be the main bottleneck until you . . .
- Find your one thing what is the most important function that you could deliver for the program? You are the Rainmaker. My guess is whatever you do to make it rain is your one most valuable contribution to your program. I know you can’t eliminate everything that has to get done. I’m saying that I want you to focus more of your time, more of your attention, more of your heart and soul without distraction on that one thing that you do by . . .
- Removing yourself from the bottleneck of your program. Meaning you are the log jam, clear yourself out, get out of being involved with most things that you were involved with. If you have assistants to help you, then let them do their thing, so that you can do your thing.
So let me simplify your three point action plan here. Number one, look in the mirror to find your weakest link. Number two, figure out and write down what your one thing is. And then number three, stop doing 90% of whatever else you’re doing.
Now, go do your one thing and go make it rain.
If you want to be better focused and organized with both your day-to-day activities and long-term goals, Mandy Green can help. She has helped hundreds of coaches through her Busy Coach business. You can email Mandy at mandy@busy.coach with questions about how she can help you.