Anticipating the Biscuit
Wayne Gretsky, the great hockey player, credited his success to this particular strategy: “I skate to where the puck will be, not where it has been.”
The NHL playoffs are now underway and while I mostly ignore the world of sports, ice hockey is one game I understand and enjoy watching because I used to play it.
What I like about hockey is the amazing ability of a player to send a small, hard, round cylinder soaring through a mass of opposing players at a high rate of speed to the exact place at the exact time that their teammate will be waiting for it. What I like even more, is the amazing ability of that teammate to anticipate where that puck will end up, often without even watching its flight, and to be there to receive it. All while maneuvering on skates at a breakneck pace in order to stay out of the clutches of the competition.
It’s an exceptional example of teamwork, skill, knowledge, instinct, trust and the ability to predict the future and visualize one’s place in it…
Sounds like what it takes to be the successful leader of a profitable company. Particularly the part about predicting the future and visualizing where you will be. Successful business leaders and successful hockey players both have their eyes on a goal… and they do everything they can to energize and motivate themselves and every member of their team to reach it and to win.
Being fixated on a goal and doing what it takes to get there in business as in hockey requires risk taking and being willing to accept that not everything goes according to the strategy in place. The route can be bruising and yes, a fight may break out from time to time. But as long as the goal and the vision to reach that goal stays clear, a new route can be planned, the puck can go to a teammate, new resources brought in to help.
My local hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers, are known for their fighting spirit. This year, they barely made it into the playoffs. And now they’ve made a rapid exit. But there’s always next year…With the right team in place, with all eyes of management, staff, and players fixated on that goal and anticipating what is to come, winning is in sight.