When it matters, play to your strengths

Earlier this month something bizarre took place at an American sports arena, a coach’s directive to his team that has been widely derided as one of the worst calls ever made. The American Football League’s Seattle Seahawks elected to throw instead of run with just one yard separating them from the Super Bowl. Armed with arguably the best runner in the country, they could have seized that last yard in three attempts – or instead opt for an insane path, passing the ball immediately into the goal zone despite the risk of it being intercepted. Inexplicably, they opted for crazy, and the New England Patriots won the game. 

This is a cautionary tale in any of life’s endeavours, not just sports. The Seahawks’ true strength lies in their bold, come-what-may running. That’s what got them to within a metre of American football glory. Then, unbelievably, they stopped doing what they do best and chose a skill at which they are no more than mediocre.

Everyone was dumbfounded – spectators, opponents, commentators and even those who follow American football intermittently. Seahawks fans around the world were left utterly speechless. Certainly time was running out in the game, but the team had plenty of options to stop the clock. The Patriots, whose coaching staff and players were had by that point but accepted defeat, could not believe their eyes or their luck. Seattle, one US newspaper said, “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory”.

We tend to forget who we are when push comes to shove, when it matters most. But, make no mistake, this is different from throwing caution to the wind, a strategy often adopted when genuine desperation sets in and all else will most likely fail. The Seahawks did not trust the single strength that had brought them so far when faced with the chance to use it one more time. It’s that simple.

Businesses and professionals often encounter moments like Seattle had – perhaps not moments of truth, but occasions when they can choose to be themselves or try to be something else. In corporate boardrooms the term “strengths and weaknesses” is often projected onto big screens, more often than not when the road is not too bumpy and no real crisis is looming.

People make bad calls when confronted with a crisis. Real strengths are forgotten or ignored. Too much importance is given to the potential outcome. The Seattle Seahawks’ coach obviously wanted to catch the Patriots off-guard and win the Super Bowl in flashy, exhilarating style. It evidently didn’t occur to him that, even if the strategy had worked and his team won, he would have been mocking his players’ chief merit. As it was, the Seahawks “died” a shameful death.

“If my team had made three runs and failed to win, I could have lived with that,” a Seahawks fan tweeted afterward. Countless others agreed. If Seattle had died valiantly on the Super Bowl battlefield, then so be it. What made the defeat so painful was the fact that the team had the talent to pull off victory, but didn’t use it. It’s a big lesson for everyone to learn, because the pain in real life is often far greater than on the football field.