Protecting a lead is the fastest way to lose one.
This isn’t just true in sports. Companies and enterprises that have a huge advantage often get complacent. Instead of innovating and executing, they sit on their laurels and squander the lead.
Leads make teams lazy, defensive, and unfocused. Teams are the most vulnerable when they are ahead in any competition. Great leaders know that and ask the team to act aggressively anytime they have an edge. Playing with offensive tactics while ahead, as opposed to operating with a defensive or protective mindset, helps the team fight off the many distractions leads create.
Of course, this is easier said than done. Leads are a blanket of false security that often lulls a team into lax execution. Once a team moves in slow motion and without the aggressive style that enabled the lead in the first place, any edge soon evaporates. The team is soon left shaking their heads, wondering how they squandered yet another lead. How did this happen? Who is responsible?
Losing a lead is a failure of leadership, not of the players or team members engaged in the contest. Leaders set the strategy and ask team members to execute. When team members squander a lead or give up an edge, it is the leader or coach who wasn’t ready for the challenge, not the team.
With a lead or significant advantage, leaders must ask the team to be more, not less, precise with executing. The strategy must require the team to compete aggressively, maintain high energy, and operate with an offensive mindset.
Leaders and coaches who are prepared for the lead challenge often ask the team to play a game within a game, whereby they measure successful execution using a different metric or indicator.
The key is to set a strategy that does not allow complacency or a protective posture. When leaders are ready for this challenge, team members respond by extending a lead, not squandering it. For great teams and leaders, a big advantage is a source of pride, confidence, and forward momentum. They never take a lead for granted. They keep the pressure on and act as if no advantage exists. Now that’s a winning strategy.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
