Lead and Repeat

With the Olympic Winter Games in full swing, it’s got me reflecting on the commitment and dedication it takes an athlete to compete at the highest level. These Olympians are awesome, and the amount of practice and time they invest to excel at their chosen sport is mind-blowing. As I watched them compete this week, I see that it’s not just practice that makes them perfect, but also their dedication to repetition that equals success.

Whether it is tracing the same figure in the ice day after day or the countless times each morning they work on mounting the bobsled, these athletes understand the power in repetition - doing the same thing over and over again in order to achieve the best possible outcome.

I, too, believe in the power of repetition. Not that I am a world-class athlete by any stretch of the imagination, but I have discovered that repetition is a critical component to my success when it comes to managing my team. And it turns out I am not alone. In fact, a 2011 study by Professors Tsedal Neely of Harvard and Paul Leonardi of Northwestern found that “managers who are deliberately redundant move their projects forward faster and more smoothly.”

While I know that I sometimes drive my team crazy emphasizing the same point over and over, I believe this is a critical technique to keeping us focused, mission-driven and on target to deliver the best possible outcomes. The simple reality is that some things need to be repeated in order to be fully realized and understood. Here, I am thinking specifically of an organization’s vision and values - both the culture and what you set out to accomplish, solve and deliver. By repeating these over and over to your team, they will begin to internalize them and then start to repeat them to others. At that point, you will all be speaking the same language and using the same playbook.

It is worth noting, however, that saying the same thing over and over can get a bit exhausting and sometimes, annoying to those around you. So, you need to make sure you change it up a bit from time to time. Don’t miss an opportunity to deliver your key messages in different formats - through an email, a team meeting or leading a call - and get creative in the delivery. Different team members will register key messages on different frequencies and in different ways, so changing things up is a helpful methodology to reach the entire team.

The bottom line is this: don’t be afraid to emphasize the same message over and over to your team. Be intentional and own it. It will help to crystalize your team’s collective focus and help you all achieve Olympic-like success. You might not all be able to land “the quad” but it will help you go for (and deliver) the gold.