Career Clock Management According to Belichick...

Photo credit: Boston Globe

Last week, the blog...​Maslow & the 80000 Hour Career Journey...received some great attention…And why not? It's a relevant way to look at your career. Unfortunately, many times career clock management goes by unattended and unnoticed. We only notice it when we or someone we know is in the midst of some sort of career transition.

As noted, in that blog...we broke the 80000 hour career journey into quarters (10 year increments or 20000 hours)...

Q1 = just out of high school, college, vocational school and doing an "adult job"...
Q2 = settled - getting bored. Pivot? Calling?
Q3 = BEYOND settled - down-right antsy to do something else. Pivot? Calling?
Q4 = A MAJOR TRANSITION. Pivot? Settle into encore career? Calling?

What I'd like to do now is to have us approach our 80000 hour career journey as one of the most storied National Football League coaches - Bill Belichick - approaches a football game...and specifically his use of the game clock…

A note about game clock management...

Clock management is a component of strategy in American football. Like anything in life, there is tremendous amounts of nuance the closer you get to it…needless to say, the level of nuance in managing a professional football game clock is daunting…

When you consider there are ~ 1 billion late-game scenarios it would be interesting to learn from Belichick how many he knows...dare say, he doesn't know all of them! (Although some New England Patriot fans may differ.)

Below are THREE things Bill Belichik does to help him manage the clock:

1. Becomes a student of the game. 

To refine his instincts, Belichick watches 100's of professional football games specifically, the last two minutes of each half. With two objectives:

1. Anticipate his counterpart's decisions;
2. WHILE trying to understand their reasoning...

THIS PREPARATION ALLOWS BELICHICK TO RELY ON HIS REFINED GUT.

How are you a student of your profession? Some things to consider:

- Have an open mind.
- Evolve.
- Practice!
- Join an association in your industry.
- Read / review news data in your industry CONSTANTLY!
- Have a mentor.
- Go back to school.
- Get / maintain a certification.
- Manage you time wisely!

2. Be OK with ambiguity!

Belichick once said, "You have to be comfortable knowing that you can make all the right decisions at all the right times and still be wrong, or else you drive yourself nuts."

As a relates to managing our own careers, you can say that's an appropriate approach…what can insulate you will be to do number 1!

3. Doesn't panic in big moments. 

If ever you watch him coach there could be what appears to be chaos happening all around him… He maintains a continued stoic/un-frazzled demeanor on the sidelines...

One of the more prominent examples was during Super Bowl XLIX - After the teams were tied 14–14 at halftime, the Seahawks built a 10-point lead to end the third quarter. The Patriots, however, rallied to take a 28–24 lead with roughly two minutes left in the game. Seattle threatened to score in the final moments, driving the ball to New England's 1-yard line. There were 26 seconds left to play... With all eyes on Belichick including his own coaching staff…he decided not to call a timeout...in his own words, he was heard to say "I got this..."

His gut was telling him that there was something not completely right with the formation Seattle had and he was willing to go without calling a timeout and to play out the down…Seattle decided to pass the ball in a highly scrutinized call that resulted in Patriots undrafted rookie Malcolm Butler making a game-saving interception of Russell Wilson's throw.

Moral of the Story...

Sometimes in your own career, family, friends, associates will be looking to you to perform a certain way or to do a certain thing…

​One of the benefits of your evolution of your career will be to lean in on your gifts and not be too swayed by the feedback…be like Belichick and lean in on your gut.

Conclusion...

AT A MINIMUM...Do your job well. It could be enough to make the difference in life and your career...it will better allow you to manage you career clock under your terms!

My best to your quest!

Mark
​I believe each of us is a gift. I create trusted relationships where individuals, teams and leaders NAME, CLAIM and AIM their gifts to achieve optimum performance.

​Interested to Learn About Yourself or Your Team? Mark is a Certified CliftonStrengths Coach, Facet5 and TotalSDI Facilitator and happy to discuss your situation.

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