What Your Team Needs from You – Practice Your Hand Off

When a team is functioning well, it’s a blast. When it’s dysfunctional, well, it can be a blast, too … just a different kind of blast! Every well-performing team shares certain characteristics. These characteristics must be embraced and empowered by their leaders.

Number Four – Practice Your Hand Off

It just so happens that I’m writing this blog post while watching Peyton and Eli Manning host Monday Night Football. Living in Denver, I’ve been impressed with Peyton Manning off the field as much as when he led the Broncos to a Super Bowl victory. What makes watching the Manning brothers so much fun is that both of them were top-notch quarterbacks. They not only love the game but they see things in a game that a normal person does not.

In between breaking down defensive coverages, one of the teams fumbles. The quarterback and running back were out of sync. They muffed the hand off. Peyton comes out of his chair. He can’t believe they muffed a hand off. It’s a hand off! You practice that every week since you’re eight years old!

But leaders muff hand offs all the time.

It’s called delegation and some leaders do it well and others … well, Peyton would be coming out of his chair if he worked for them. Good leaders know what to delegate, when to delegate it, and to whom the task should be given. Depending on the person and the task, a leader may step aside or actively assist. But that will change depending on the circumstances.

But what won’t change is the need to master the hand off.