Power Play: Winners always want the ball

Power Players like to be winners. They love to get the job done.

The thing about winning, though, is that you need to put yourself in the best position for success.

There’s the old sports adage: winners always want the ball. And Power Players can never run away when the ball comes their way.

You can always tell a failed Power Player: they run away when the ball is thrown in their direction.

If you really want to graduate to Power Player status, you’ve got to get in the game. And when that ball comes your way, you have to run with it and score the winning point.

These may be cheesy sport metaphors, but they make an incredibly important point about being front and centre when the game is being played and the ball comes your way.

The story

An intern I grew to love lived by this philosophy.

Every time there was writing to be done on a pitch document, she would volunteer her services and put herself in the line of fire, doing the job of someone with 10 years more experience.

She would take a first crack, hand it to me for corrections and rewrites, and then get them done. She would volunteer for all the jobs that put her in the spotlight, for better or worse. Gutsy stuff.

She is now running a division of a broadcast company in the United States and is the youngest person they’ve ever had in that position.

All because winners want the ball.