One of the most exciting moments in sports is the fast break. The play starts when a team gets the ball back from a rebound, steal or blocked shot. One of the fastest players on the team (often a smaller, nimble point guard) dribbles down the court as quickly as possible with teammates trailing along. The ball handler may go in for a lay-up, or pass the ball to one of the other players coming up behind. Sometimes the pass is made behind the back and it seems like the guard must have eyes in the back of his or her head! This play is only successful when everyone on offense is keenly aware of what is going on all over the court. It is not enough for the players to know what they themselves are supposed to do. They need to be aware of where the ball is, where the defenders are, where their teammates are, and be ready to get the ball or set up blocks or screens. And they have to be ready to change from one action to another in a fraction of a second. We use the term Court Awareness as shorthand for this knowledge and preparedness.
In our business one of the places we notice court awareness break down is in calendar management. Our calendars are managed by operations staff, not by the financial advisors who meet with the clients. Generally speaking, an advisor’s week is considered “full” with 12 client meetings. However, that can change. If Bob has vacation one week, we probably shouldn’t load up his Monday with meetings, because he will need to answer e-mails, prepare for his meetings, etc. And if Susan has full calendar, but a new valuable prospect wants to meet, she will be happy to be a little extra busy. On the other hand, if it is baseball season, the rest of the team needs to know that she will be leaving right at 5 on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday because she coaches her son’s little league team.
I personally fail at court awareness by coming up with projects and new ideas to drop on my operational staff without considering what they are already doing. Often, they are busy doing extra work that I previously assigned to them but forgot about! I might say, “Caitlin, we should call every client within 5 years of starting to take Social Security to let them know about the change in spousal benefits.” And when I get a look of terror back I wonder, “What’s the matter with Caitlin?” That’s because two days ago I gave her a huge project that will take another week to get done. Once I handed it off, I didn’t think about how it would impact operations’ ability to do their regular work and the new project.
There are at least two elements to court awareness. The first is operational tempo. This means understanding what other people are doing, and how much work they have on their plates. Sometimes front-line workers or individual contributors are unaware of the people around them, but the worst violators are skip-level managers. By skip-level I mean the person who reports to the person who reports to me. If Caitlin reports to me, and Jody reports to Caitlin, I may be tempted to go to Jody and ask for something. It is almost impossible for Jody to say “no” to me, and whatever her boss’s boss tells her to do becomes top priority. The problem with that is I have no idea what else she is working on. And I don’t know who else has dropped extra work on her. And I don’t know how my request will affect other people who are relying on Jody to get work to them. My seemingly simple request can blow up a whole afternoon for several people, because I don’t understand the operational tempo of the team.
The second piece of court awareness is knowing the emotional disposition of colleagues. How is Stan feeling today? Is his work going well? How about family life? What about sports teams? Is his dog sick? I’m not suggesting group therapy at work, or tip toeing around each other. But taking the temperature of your teammates is a critical piece of being effective. One way to do this is to say “hi” to everyone when you start your day. You can gain a lot of information about someone just in the way they greet you. If necessary, you can circle back and ask how they’re doing. Sometimes simply knowing that you care can help someone get back on track.
Teams work best when everyone is aware of the operational tempo and emotional situation of their colleagues.