Articles

How Deep is Your Ocean?

I was raised on Ohio State Football. My dad was a “water boy” for the team before he graduated and signed up for active duty in WWII. I grew up hearing his stories, and listening to Ohio State games on the radio. My mom and sister left the house because talking was an unacceptable option during those precious Fall Saturday afternoons.

I stayed home and listened to every down, and learned every grid iron hero from Rex Kern to Archie Griffen. I also learned Woody Hayes mantra: we’re going to run, you have to stop us. For those of you outside of Ohio, football was simple to Woody. Score more points than the competition, score them on the ground.

Fast forward three decades. Still a football fan, I was listening to sports radio one recent Sunday morning. One so-called expert was bemoaning the glory days of three yards and a cloud of dust. Coaches, he contended, are making the game too complicated.

So I began to think about the game. Years ago Dick Vermeil left the game when his 20 hour days became his norm. Jimmy Johnston came and went, while Bill Parcells recently hyperventilated under a raincoat he was too superstitious to remove. As a Cleveland Brown’s fan, I remember Bill Belicheck and his lack of humor. When did a game become a grind?

Coaches watch game tape and strategize ad nauseum. How much game tape can a coach watch? Former NBA coach Lenny Wilkens said he only watched a game tape twice. Any more times than that and he said he would grow to hate his players!

How many game day strategies can you create to move one ball down the same sized field? Hour upon hour upon hour spent talking about moving that ball three yards and a cloud of dust.

Ohio State is currently #1 in the country as I write this article. Their strategy is pretty simple. We’ll do a few things well, you figure out how to stop us.

Now apply these two diverse strategies to your business. Do you make it simple?
Do you do a few things well? Is your ocean deep?

Or do you spend too much time strategizing and figuratively watching game tape, rehashing losses and disappointments until you hate your team players and maybe yourself?

Teams that win, in any arena, do a few things really, really well. They go deep in a few areas.

Recently I talked with the new president at Kent State University. In the position since July, Dr. Lester A. Lefton is still in the listening mode. He has been listening to students, faculty, alumni, his barber, and anyone else who has an opinion. Then will come the difficult decisions. He says you can’t be successful in the 21st century if you are an inch thick and a mile wide.

In other words, in my words, they will have to go deep.

Acadamia and football may look very different from the outside. Each have something in common with your business. You have to go deep in a few areas to stand out. Sure you have to do everything well. But in what areas can you go deep?

A first year quarterback made a fatal error. He spent the few precious moments he had before releasing the ball, looking at his own receivers and where they were running. He should have known where they would be. He needed to be looking at the other team’s players and where they were going to be when he went deep down the field.

Do you take your eye off the ball when you go deep?

Whether or not you are a football fan, you can learn business lessons from Saturdays and Sundays in the Fall.

You can learn:
Go Deep.
Keep it simple.
Make it a game not a grind.

How deep is your ocean?

Leslie G. Ungar, president of Electric Impulse Communications, Inc., is a communication expert. She specializes in supercharging communication and leadership performance through coaching, speaking, and strategizing. Her first car was the colors of her favorite NFL team. You can sign up for her monthly newsletter at www.ElectricImpulse.com.