Punt, Pass + Kick - March 6th, 2008

Yesterday I volunteered at the Parks Department in my community for the annual NFL Pepsi Punt, Pass + Kick competition for area students. I had heard of the event for years, but I had never seen one in action. When we arrived, they briefly explained what we would be doing during the event. I was curious about the competition, so I asked the director how the program worked.

He explained that students ages 8-15 were allowed to enter the competition and that each participant would punt, pass and kick the football for distance and accuracy. The winners in the local competition for each age division would advance to regional competition and eventually to the state level.

As the morning progressed and kids started showing up it was fun to watch each kid compete to win. Just from looking at a kid, it was impossible to predetermine how well they would do, so each time it was a mystery. Every once in a while, a kid would blast a punt or launch a pass or even knock a kick a record distance for the day.

As I stood there helping the students participate, I realized that not one kid—not one single kid—during the entire 3 hours I was there helping did well in all three areas of the competition. Some kids were exceptional passers or they managed an amazing punt or kick. A few students, very few, did well in 2 of the 3 competition components. But not one single kid excelled in the punt, the pass and the kick. So I asked the parks director “Does a winner advance for each area of the competition?”

The answer was, “No.” A participant’s score was based on the cumulative score from all 3 elements, so the underlying message was that to win you needed to be good in every area of the competition.

Fast forward this to real life where we often expect our staff or volunteers to excel at every aspect of the job we have assigned to them. We often count on them to be well rounded and demonstrate strengths in every aspect of the job, but just like the kids at the Punt, Pass + Kick competition, this is not a reality.

We live in a remedial world where we try to fix people’s weaknesses at the expense of failing to build on their strengths. People’s strengths are our greatest assets in any organization. As leaders, we need to figure out how to help people spend the majority of their time playing to their strengths. If someone is an amazing passer and can execute a precision throw, then we don’t need to belabor the fact that he is a terrible punter. We definitely don’t need to send him to a punter training seminar to help him “grow” as a punter.

The truth is we grow the most in our areas of greatest strength. Our job as leaders of both staff and volunteers isn’t to fix people’s weaknesses; the leader’s role is to get your team to step up in their areas of greatest strength. When you create a position for the right person as opposed to trying to find the right person for your position, then you will experience an engaged, motivated team member who produces amazing results in his or her area of strength.