Accelerating the Power Handoff

The 2024 Paris Olympics were a spectacular event.  Track and field events have always interested me, especially the 4x400 meter relays. Track and Field is primarily a collection of individual sports. The 4x400 meter relays, though, are one of the few team events. The US excelled this year, winning gold in both the men’s and women’s 4x400 meter relays, with the men setting a new Olympic record.

Winning the 4x400 meter relay depends on 2 things: fast runners and a flawless handoff. Both are equally important. Fast runners are the starting place. Without a flawless handoff, though, the fastest runners in the world can’t win. I watched the videos of the 4x400 meter relays numerous times after the Olympics. I was particular focus on the handoffs. When the handoff takes place the runner with the baton is running at top speed. When the handoff occurs, the second runner is already in motion. Two bodies moving at breakneck speed,  and they need to hand off a 11.8-inch by 1.5-inch thick baton. They practice the handoff over and over and over to get it right. If the runners botch the handoff and the baton falls to the ground, the fastest runners in the world will not be able to make up the time and win. All eyes must be on the baton.

The same principle is true in building your team. You can recruit the best talent available but if you botch The Power Handoff, you never see what these individuals and teams are capable of achieving. Growth is not about how hard people try. It is not about their intentional. Growth is about building the behaviors of growth in your team so that The Power Handoff is flawless. It begins with skills and techniques, but what transforms actions into excellence is daily repetition of the growth process applied over time. Doing, reflecting, adjusting, and doing again is what builds the behaviors of growth in your team.

Getting everyone on your team to Stage 4 - Power Confidence is what makes The Power Handoff flawless.

Here are 3 techniques that can help you accelerate The Power Handoff with every member of your team.

Engrain the Process to Produce the Performance

Everything that someone does in their role is part of a process. Most roles have 3-5 core processes that are the key to success in the role. For example: sales have 5 core processes: prospecting, qualifying, presenting, closing, servicing. The first step in helping anyone grow in their role is to identify, clarify, and refine the core processes for the role.

The Power Handoff is a process also, just like any other process. Before you begin helping others master the processes of their role, make sure that you invest time to master the processes of role growth and engaged leadership. Your team is always looking at what you do. They take their cue from you.

React to Mistakes with Curiosity Rather than Judgement

When people begin growing in their role, they achieve a new level of confidence. Following an intentional path to grow in their role is new for many people, so the more they grow, the more engaged and confident they become. That level of confidence, though, can create complacency when they hit a certain level. It happens at some point to everyone. People go on autopilot and begin to plateau, rather than continuing to grow in their role. With the best of intentions, they take their eye off the ball. That’s when mistakes happen – mistakes they thought they had eliminated.

How you respond when mistakes happen will significantly impact The Power Handoff. If you respond in a judgmental way, people become defensive and hesitant. They stop thinking about getting better and start thinking defensively – how to avoid the judgement again. They also mentally shift from discovery and growth to obedience and following the rules.

The Power Handoff secret when mistakes happen is to focus on discovery rather than judgement. Everyone is disappointed when mistakes happen, not just you. Instead of just focusing on “what happened,” shift to discovery to understand the details of what happened and why it happened. If you remember the Lightening Bob Ludkie story in Chapter 7, primarily ask open ended questions. The questioning sequence will move from a series of “what happened” questions to a series of “why questions” and then “how questions.”  The intent is to treat success and failure as a learning experience for everyone. When people are comfortable exploring mistakes honestly and objectively, they are more likely to learn new insights and retain them to eliminate mistakes in the future. The reality is that the world is moving too fast for you to keep power in your hands. The only way to maximize success and growth is to build the process, the insight, and the behaviors of growth in everyone on your team. Curiosity and discovery are at the core of growth. Also, growth is not just for the high impact players. It is for everyone on your team. 

Change One Behavior at A Time – The Domino Effect & The ROA Principle

Growth happens the fastest when you focus on one behavior at a time. Changing multiple things at the same time can be overwhelming, resulting in poor execution and limited growth.  The most effective strategy is to change one behavior at a time. 

Incremental growth creates exponential results.

The key is knowing what to change first. Applying the Domino Effect and The ROA Principle can help you quickly identify the most important behavior to focus on first.

The Domino Effect

The Domino Effect refers to the chain reaction that occurs when one event sets off a series of similar or related events impacting everything. Have you ever stacked a set of dominos on their end in a row just close enough so that when you push the first domino over it will hit the second domino that will hit the third domino, and the process continue until all the dominos fall over? That is The Domino Effect. One move creates a ripple affect creating other moves.

To apply The Domino Effect, answer this question, “What is the most important behavior for the person to improve that will have a ripple effect on other behaviors?  While there will be numerous behaviors the person can improve, pick the one you believe is the most important behavior that will have positive impact on other behaviors.

The ROA Principle

We introduced ROA (Rhythm Of Action) in the previous chapter. The ROA Principle helps you identify what about the behavior needs to change. ROA is an acronym for Rhythm of Action. The ROA Principle says that:

The results that you achieve are directly or indirectly related to the rhythm of action (ROA) that you create.

The ROA is composed of 4 elements:

• What you do
• How you do it
• When you do it
• Who you do it with

Below is a series of questions that can help you build a strategy to help your team member dramatically improve the key behavior and their overall performance.

Is the issue what they are doing? If the person needs to change what they are doing, it means that they are doing the wrong thing. I know that is a bit simplistic, but this is where improvement always begins. The person is either doing the right thing or they are not doing the right thing. If they are not doing the right thing, you can coach them all day and their performance will not improve. 

Is the issue how they are doing it? This question implies that they are doing the right thing, but they need to change something about how they are doing it for maximum impact.

Is the issue when they are doing it? This question implies that they are doing the right thing in the right way, but they are doing it at the wrong time. For example: If you have a sales team and they make most of their calls when prospects are out of the office, they must change when they make calls to improve sales.

Is the issue who they are doing it with? This question implies that they are doing the right things in the right way at the right times, but they are doing them with the wrong people. For example: If you lead an operations team that meets regularly to discuss performance issues but does not include people from other departments that directly impact their performance, you need to change “who” is in their meetings.” Your team may be great, but if the supplies they receive from others do not match the quality or quantity that they need, your team will struggle to meet expectations.

The Era of Given Power

We call the era we live in today the era of Given Power for a reason. The speed of change makes it virtually impossible for you to keep power in your hands and be successful. Sure, you keep some of the power, but the more you give power to your team and develop them to use that power to drive growth, the more successful they will be and you will be. The path to transfer power and build the behaviors of growth has been in plain sight for years, but most leaders have been so caught up in “doing tasks” that they have missed the secret to growth that was right in front of them.

Developing the Behaviors of Growth in Their Team

The Power Handoff is the quickest path to build the workforce you need to thrive in a rapidly changing world.