Halftime is Key to Getting the "Win" by the End of the Year
As many of you already know, I am a huge basketball fan and this is my favorite time of year for sports-the NBA Finals. Congratulations once again to the Golden State Warriors who found themselves competing for their 4th Championship Title.
Those of you who follow the Warriors and have watched many of their NBA games know that it is not unusual for them to be down by 15, 20, or even 30 points going into the halftime of their basketball games.
And many of you have also seen, how they come out of halftime and CONSISTENTLY in the 3rd quarters of their games, either comeback or blow their opponents out of the water to finish with a WIN!
It is a pretty spectacular site to see.
That leads me to my main question, “What does Coach Kerr say to his players when they go into halftime?”
What is it about the halftime that the Warriors are able to come back out looking like a completely different team?
And what adjustments to their game plan or even their mindset leads them to success?
A SIMPLE BASKETBALL-INSPIRED BUSINESS PLAYBOOK
I have outlined 5 steps below with what I’ve learned can get you out of the halftime rut and back into the entrepreneurial game.
1) Assess Your Situation
Ask yourself:
What am I doing well?
What are some things that are really working? For example, are the networking groups you are a part of giving you some good leads or connections?
Are you doing really well with being consistent with your social media posts? Are you really good about your follow-up and/or execution of certain tasks?
If there is something that you are doing consistently and have gotten a really good return from that consistent activity, then keep on doing it. Take it even a step further and analyze “WHY” you like doing it.
What are the areas I need to work on?
What are the things you should be doing, but aren’t? For example, you know you need to be checking in on clients or your employees on a regular basis. How have you built that into your process?
Maybe you need to improve your efficiencies or get better at doing things faster and if so, what do you want that to look like?
Why am I in the situation that I am in?
If you are knocking it out of the park and exceeding all your expectations, why is that? What is it that you are doing that is allowing yourself to excel? Or on the flip side, what do you think keeps on getting in your way?
Just like in basketball, assessing your situation is important to your halftime regime so that you can ensure that you go back into the game with some clarity on what to do and what NOT to do.
2.) Run the Analytics
Even in basketball, they have stat sheets, video tape or footage that the coaches will review and look back on. So for yourself and your business, what does your data tell you?
For example, How have you been with managing your expenses? Are the programs, products, services etc. that you are spending on helping your bottom line? Where are the errors in your process or people coming from?
Are you getting an ROI on some of your investments or marketing expenditures?
Take a look at the data you have whether that be inventory, cost to create or make something vs. price customer pays, or even simple payroll expenses vs. hours and operational costs. Whatever the data is, run some analysis around it to see if it continues to make sense for your business. Data is so important and if you utilize that information to help support what you are doing, it can be pretty powerful and impactful with how you run your business.
3.) Determine who is Controlling the Game
There’s a lot to be said with the tempo and speed of the game of basketball. The Warriors in particular like to play at a very fast pace whereas other teams may be better playing at a slower type of pace.
In business, who is controlling your game?
Are you simply going with the flow and letting outside factors affect what is happening within your business? For example - Scorching hot temperatures can negatively impact the flow of your business, like if you owned a martial arts studio or some-kind of brick and mortar business. Maybe since it’s so hot, you may not have that many folks come in and attend classes or patronize your business. Therefore, you are allowing the customers/clients/students whomever you may be serving, to dictate and control your business.
Take back control of your business, by ensuring there is a clear strategy and communication around hours, for example, of your martial arts studio. Maybe starting classes a little later to avoid the heat, or providing incentives that everyone who makes it to class today gets a free popsicle or a complimentary branded t-shirt (as incentive).
Or maybe its even taking back control of your business when it comes to time and money. As business owners, we always say, “there isn’t enough time” or “I haven’t had a chance to…”. Let’s take back control of our time and make the things we know are important to our success, a priority.
Get creative with ways to get customers and clients to come to you vs.feeling like you have to “wait and see”. Being in control will allow you to determine the outcome that you want.
4) Take a Pulse Check with How you are Feeling and What is your Mindset
If for some reason, you are behind, why is it? Are you not executing on a prior game plan that you were given? Is there a lack of effort, desire, or will to win?
Where is your mindset? Are you distracted by other things? Is your concentration and focus elsewhere? Basketball players need to ask themselves these questions all the time, especially if it’s a pretty important game to WIN.
Which is why in business - you want to ask yourself, the same thing. How are you feeling? What has your effort been on a scale of 1 - 10? And if it’s not at a 10 and ½ plus, why not?
Being able to check yourself, especially figuring out where your mind and heart is at, is key to ensuring you finish off your year strong.
Lastly, once you’ve completed your self-assessment, looked at some analytics in the business, determined how to get back control of your clients/customers (or even time and money) and checked your emotional and mental fitness level, Then the last and final piece is:
5.) Create a Plan and Believe. Creating a plan is about sticking to 2 - 3 things and executing them extremely well. In basketball, it could be get back on defense, pick up the pace, make sure you box out etc.
In business, you want to have your TOP 2-3 HIGH impact activities that you are going to do, no matter what, to get you one step closer to your goal. For example, that can be, follow-up with existing or past clients, network with promotional partners that will provide you with referrals of your ideal clients, and launch that new program or process you’ve always wanted to launch.
Sometimes, the plan can also be to pivot and do something completely different, and outside of your comfort zone or status quo. But come up with a plan and be sure to implement it.
Once the plan’s in place, then it’s time to simply BELIEVE and have faith that it will work.
Kawhi Leonard of the Toronto Raptors, said it best, to his team in a huddle, “Stay present - all we have is right now”. We can’t change the past and can’t predict the future, but what we can focus on is NOW.
So believe in your plan and stay focused and at the end of the day, the results will speak for themselves.
Hope the above tips and “playbook” strategies, get you to your WIN for your business. I’d love to help you stay in the game. Connect with me via a complimentary strategy session to see how we can implement your own simple business playbook.