Are You Really Protecting Your Ground?

Photo by Cédric Dhaenens on Unsplash

It’s often referred to as the “defensive” strategy.

The sports team that emphasizes defense over offense i.e protecting their goal and stopping the other team from scoring.

Or the business that is focused on adding enough features to be able to ward off the competition.

Or the individual contributor who spends his time understanding and developing (i.e. copying) the skills of his nearest competitors.

The idea is to defend your territory and ensure you’re able to stay on par with the competition - or at the very least, keep them from scoring. 

It’s a viable strategy - in the short term.

There are many situations and time periods where you need to work hard to stay at the table, to work hard to ensure you keep up with what the other side is throwing at you. I’ve got no problem with that.

But when the defensive strategy becomes your modus operandi? That, to me, is a problem.

Because your focus, then, is not on growth. It’s on maintenance. You’re not looking to lead, you’re looking to hold your ground. You’re trying hard to not fall behind.

That’s not what greatness is made of. 

The best people, teams and companies focus on owning their ground. They decide to seek out - actually, create - what will make them great. They focus on offense: that is, what do they need to do to take control, to exceed performance levels, to delight the customer, to create breakthrough change.

There’s a positivity to that approach that galvanizes emotions, pulls people together and drives then forward. There’s no ‘war of attrition’, or the feeling that we’re simply running to stand still.

Offensive, ambitious strategies excite us, unite us and drive us (and the world we are serving) forward. 

Really, it’s why we do what we do. Or, at least, it should be.