But I’m a Natural Fullback, Coach…
My son’s first soccer coach – a man who inspired me to go into coaching for nine years while my children were growing up – once told me the secret to team building is to determine each player’s strengths and weaknesses and then put them in positions where they can play to their strengths and where their weaknesses won’t hurt them.
I thought that was wonderfully insightful and have tried to follow it, not only in volunteer efforts like coaching, but in business as well.
This economy, though, has forced many professionals to play out of position, so to speak.
Layoffs, hiring freezes, bankruptcy filings --- all have meant doubling and tripling, if not more, of duties for those still working. The strains are palpable in corporate America. I was reminded of that by a Wall Street Journal story today about Cisco Systems which talked about how managers there have so many committee assignments they have been cutting back on time with customers to handle their new internal company assignments.
That story didn’t address marketers per se, but I think the pattern would hold in marketing as it does across other corporate functions.
Are you playing out of position in this economy? How have you coped? What have you learned? Have you found you have a natural talent for your new duties and has the situation gotten you to re-evaluate who you are professionally? Or are you chafing and waiting for the good old days to return? And to any HR or life coaches out there, what coping skills can you recommend?
I’d love to get a discussion going on the topic since I doubt the world is going to change on this score anytime soon. Post your thoughts here.
