Finish Strong

We dive into the concept of maximizing your potential in those critical moments when the game is on the line. Eric shares an unconventional perspective on finishing strong, urging us to focus on the smaller details rather than solely relying on increased intensity. Drawing on examples from sports and business, we explore the practical steps to prepare ourselves mentally and make winning decisions when the pressure is high. So get ready to discover the secrets to finishing strong and unleashing your full potential. Let's dive in! 

Transcript

Dale (00:01.026)
All right, whether it is the last hour of the day, the last day of the week, the last week of the quarter or the last quarter of the year, we're talking about finishing strong to unleash your best in life and work. Welcome to the Game Changers podcast. I'm your host Dale Dixon. I help leaders be their best on stage and in front of the camera. I'm the chief innovation officer for a better business bureau.

Eric Bowles coaches, trains and inspires leaders to unleash their potential and the potential of those around them. And I spotted this on a social media post. And you really flip this idea of finishing strong on its head and take it in a place. Most people don't expect it to go Eric. So lay out the premise and then let's dive into the tactical

Eric Boles (02:58.442)
Yes, so the first thing that is, I think, just naturally, our natural response to finishing strong or getting close to the end of the game is to increase intensity level. It's just natural. I mean, you watch a game and you know the game's getting close to the end of it. We even watch the game differently, but the participants participate differently. Like, everything is heightened, every play, every move.

Whether it's football, whether it's baseball, basketball, any sport, anything that goes on, this is how we typically react. What I was saying though, and it's the difference between peak performers and average performers, like the ones who are really the difference makers, is when they finish strong, or when the pressure goes up, they actually do the opposite.

And what the opposite means is, do they finish strong? Yes, but strong is defined as they focus with greater intensity. The intensity is around how they focus and they pay attention to smaller details. And you do know when pressures apply, the tendency is to do the opposite, right? Like, I'm just gonna go, we're just gonna go make it happen. No, literally in the crunch time, it's the little things that make the biggest difference.

So what are those small things? Now this isn't just a football example here, Dale, but it still amazes me. Couple years ago, one of the ball players who plays for the St., excuse me, I said St. Louis, but from the Los Angeles Rams, Cooper Cup. Played with his dad, got to know Cooper. He's a tremendous young man, tremendous receiver. For those listening, just follow me. This isn't necessarily just a football story. It's the time in which he did it. The year they won the Super Bowl.

There was two big plays when they were playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to get to the Super Bowl. And one of the interesting moments in the game was, it was, I don't know if it was third long or fourth down, it was in the fourth quarter. Cooper runs a route and catches a first down. Everybody watches that and would be like, oh yeah, he ran an out route. It was great. But what got him open was at the top of the route.

Eric Boles (05:21.11)
He did a little head and shoulder fake to the inside, then it came back to the outside to make the catch. Now follow this here. People look at that and go, oh yeah, no big deal. No, it is a big deal. Because later on in games, the greater the moment, the bigger the play, very few receivers actually add the additional moves at the top of a route. Why? Because they're nervous. Because they're pressures on.

No one runs around at the right depth or no one does the small technical thing right. So it looks spectacular in the moment. It wasn't spectacular in his move. It was spectacular that he still took the time to do it at that moment of the game because typically everybody gets rushed. He slowed down. Everything about him was under control. Those who understand, that's what makes the difference.

It's when you feel the pressure ramp up and those who can slow the moment down. It's those who may be in sales right now who are right on the brink of getting this deal. But slow your roll, get the details right. At the very end, you get so excited that you may miss one of the little things that make the biggest difference. We do this all across the board, but I use that example because in the fourth quarter, which we're in right now from a business standpoint, but just overall, it doesn't matter what time of the year it is.

Just are we creating greater intensity, focusing on the details that make the biggest difference versus just the thought of, we're just gonna give more effort and try harder.

Dale (07:00.802)
I tend to think that as human beings, we don't necessarily think about those things early in the game and prepare ourselves mentally, I'm looking at myself through this process, but prepare myself mentally for making that choice focusing on the small thing when the pressure is on. And so when we get in those pressure situations,

Eric Boles (07:21.907)
Mmm.

Dale (07:30.146)
the fight flight freeze

kicks in for us. And we get tunnel vision. And we get nervous, as you said, the nerves come up. And then we forget about the little things. So I would say let's for purposes of the podcast, let's back up to early in the game. And what are some of the I'm guessing this is I have a feeling you're going to take us to practice. But what happens in practice, so that we create the right mental models?

Eric Boles (07:37.358)
Hehehehehehehe

Eric Boles (07:41.746)
Oh, that's good. Yep.

Eric Boles (07:48.034)
Hmm.

Dale (08:05.218)
that when the pressure is on, we can step back away from that pressure and make good decisions about focusing on the little things and not get caught up in the moment.

Eric Boles (08:17.106)
I love when you said focusing on the little things, not getting caught up in the moment, or another way of saying good decisions. I like to just call them what they are, they're winning decisions. That's what they are, they're winning decisions. There's winning decisions and losing decisions. But all of them are decisions. But the winning decisions, the reason they make such a difference in how we do it in a practical way is we put ourselves in those positions, those scenarios, ahead of time. We just do it ahead of time.

I mean, you know, I learned this early in my, before I ever was a keynote speaker, I spent far more time actually facilitating, doing training. And it was something I heard from a wonderful facilitator. She was fantastic, because there was something that she said I never forget. She says, the audience, the group, goes as fast as you do. If you get anxious, they get anxious.

If you're calm, they're calm. You can move quick, but as John Wooden said, you don't have to be in a hurry. And those who can still focus on the few things in the details, and you do that in practice, like as a speaker or presenter, what would I do? I used to do this all the time. I go in, I'm planning for an hour. All of a sudden, once I'm up, I realize, they come to me right before and say, you got 20 minutes.

Am I ready for that? Have I thought through that before the moment hits? You know, what's the, if I only can talk about two or three things, what are those two or three things that are important? Some of us are receiving so much information. Something's put on your desk, this is 60 pages and most people start reading from page one and go through 60. No, what's the summary of this thing? What matters in this thing? Then can we extract out of it things that matter most? I was talking today to

He's just a phenomenal. I'm a big fan of him, but he's a CEO for Arts Capital Reinsurance. His name is Mahmoon. Mahmoon is brilliant from a thought process. He's also pretty self-aware He's driven all those things are true, but he's also knows the difference between his strengths He has a lot of strengths, but he also is aware how a strength can become a weakness But one of the things that is I would consider superpower is to take a whole lot of information

Eric Boles (10:43.654)
and bring it down to the few things that matter most. But he practices, he thinks about it. He puts himself in those situations often, like in his mind as he's processing through it. But I'm not just talking about the moon. There's a whole group of people at Archery who think this way and function this way. But they have to do it at pace. So if you gotta make decisions at pace, if you gotta do things at pace, you better practice at pace. And there's so many.

And we got to be honest as leaders sometimes in the way that we go we got to ask does our practice habits match The winning habits we're trying to create and so that means man like, you know, there's a bunch of athletes I say who are great at Perfecting skills. They just can't apply them when the pressures apply why because they make practice too easy So little things like sit down and go. Okay, I'm sitting in front of it's at the end of the quarter yesterday There's only a week left

What's my conversation with each one of my clients if I have to get a particular clothes done? I promise this way, I have no clients who wants to buy at a desperation. So going to them sounding desperate or feeling desperate, who wants to buy that? Absolutely nobody. So what I need to do is find out what matters to them. What do they care about? These are all the things that I can begin spending time thinking and working on in terms of finishing strong versus just.

It's just giving a bunch of just wasted effort and just raising the intensity without real direction for that intensity.

Dale (12:17.378)
that idea that the audience will follow the presenter and if the presenter takes the stage nervous and anxious and looks like they're rushing the audience is going to follow that that plays through from a leadership perspective, you know, there's the saying of fish rots from the head first. And if the leader comes, I'm thinking about a sales leader, the end of the month, there's a quota to hit. And if they walk on to the sales floor, and it is

Eric Boles (12:32.555)
Oh.

Eric Boles (12:35.8)
Hahaha

Dale (12:47.554)
mass chaos. And we you know, yelling and shouting, we're coming to the end of the month, and we've got a quoted a hit, and you'd better hurry. All of a sudden, that's that sound of, of chaos and desperation will come through in the voice of the people on the frontline, the ones who are making those calls. So talk talk about the cascade factor.

Eric Boles (13:09.332)
Ugh.

Every time.

Dale (13:15.81)
of what happens when a leader doesn't practice this doesn't be intentional about focusing on making the winning decisions doing the right things.

Eric Boles (13:25.718)
Yeah, because, you know, it's all been said that, you know, you walk in the general's tent and he's crying and we're all in trouble, right? And so, so it's just important to recognize how contagious that is. But man, we have to pay attention to it. My father used to say this in terms of the role of leaders. He was a retired pastor and he says if it's cloudy in the pulpit.

it's raining in the congregation. And that just simply means whatever's being done by the leaders is multiplied. I mean, it has a compound effect all the way to the front line. So if we're disorganized just a little, if we're slightly confused at the front, there's a whole lot of confusion further out. And so what I try to remind leaders, and I talk about myself, is first of all,

I gotta be calm, cool, and collected. It doesn't mean my personality within tits and these stuff doesn't matter. It just means there needs to be a sense of order in my thinking. And when we tell people to have a sense of order in thinking, everything can't matter. It's just impossible. So if we're getting close to the end of the quarter, and if we have to really ramp up our ability to focus and execute our everything, and when I say the word focus, what are those high leverage activities? Not just.

I gotta play harder. No, man, you're playing too hard. You're overrunning your spots. You're not where you need to be. You need to slow down or you are speeding up but at the wrong spot. It's wasted energy. And so somebody has to slow down enough and really refocus, refocus. So I used to, I enjoy just for the sake of from a strategic standpoint, hearing people who have been, you know, who have to, whether it's, you know,

uh, different sporting events or even from a military, a military aspect where, where people would have to re gather in the middle of chaos. You hear these loud screams, you know, they're trying to get reset. Before we just take off again, just get reset. What's the purpose of a huddle? What's the purpose of a quick retreat? What's the purpose of to realign everybody? So then we can.

Eric Boles (15:44.366)
put all of our energy and focus on the spot that make the biggest difference. Leaders aren't doing that enough. And so we get to this fourth quarter and was like, hey guys, we gotta really turn it up. We gotta really close with higher sales. You know how vague that is? You know, that's like telling people we need to score more points, duh. Okay, like great call, right? No, the real question is, what specific area that if we put pressure on?

would make such a significant difference. Focus isn't just knowing what the right, is knowing from an 80-20 rule, or knowing what's the vital from what's trivial. But also focus is also once you know that, how do we bring to bear all of our energy on that very thing? A lot of people can do the first part. Very few people do the second part. Because everybody gets caught up in consequences of what might happen if it don't work. No, focus causes you to be in the moment.

So this is one part of focus is knowing the right thing to do. And then second part of focus is now not allowing our energy to be wasted anywhere else, because that's what's killing everybody.

Dale (16:52.738)
I'm gonna let let's let's dive in there. Being present in the moment. And I think that is getting to the heart of where I was trying to go with the idea of how do we step back away from the situation and not get so caught up in thinking about even thinking about the future. So what are Yeah, that's a big practice piece. If we're gonna, you know, practice to win.

practicing being in the moment so you don't get so caught up focused on the end of the game, even if the end of the game is a few minutes away. What happens right now in this second that we're operating

Eric Boles (17:36.686)
That what you just said is it. That's what execution is. Like the benefit of taking action, if we can fully lose ourself in action, in executing of the thing we've already decided upon. All typically when we start acting, it's a natural outcome. When I act, thought leaves the building. The problem is in the absence of thoughtful action or in the absence of focus.

my actions are spread everywhere or I start thinking so much because I'm so locked on to the consequence, whether it's positive or negative, irregardless it's not allowing me to be in the moment I'm in right now. Many people say, man, we got to be positive, we got to think positive. I am 100% of that. I'm all about that. That's what we do for vision. That's what we do with getting clarity. But once the game starts and once I'm only in this play.

I'm not, my job is to execute right here. My job is not to be in the place 10 feet down. I may use where I wanna be in a few plays in the thought process, but at the moment I have to execute the play, that's the only place I can be. And that's what gets lost sometimes. We're like, well, you gotta be forward thinking. Yes, in the planning stage. You might even need to be forward thinking in deciding what play to call.

But once we call the play and get on the field to execute that play, you better be in that play. Right? Fully. And then we use that little vision that cast to determine the next play. But this is how we, that is the best, that fine balance between, you know, hap, being able to focus, being able to execute, and then we get clear again. Then we focus, then we execute. Man, the big picture, of course we.

envision what the future can look like. We're going to end the year with celebration and we're going to end at a bang. But that will be a, that's going to be the total impact of us executing on all these individual plays.

Dale (19:48.482)
But that's also the beauty of a high functioning, high performing team. Because if you let's use football as the analogy, I think about the variety of specific coaches that are even up, you know, at a up in the stands or up in the box, looking down at the field.

to be thinking about strategy, I think about the coach or the CEO who's on the field who's watching and thinking ahead. And then the players who are on the field who are executing in the moment, they don't have to worry about two or three plays from now necessarily. Correct me if I'm wrong, you're the pro at this, I'm not. But they're they're doing what's what needs to be done in the moment. While other people on this high performing team are thinking out and looking to the future.

Eric Boles (20:35.87)
And this is why the, when we talk about focus and execution or finishing strong is so important, because we gotta walk in going, it's the ability to go both places. Like if I used, instead of using football, you just use the dance floor. Okay, I'm on the dance floor. We gotta perform on the dance floor. But occasionally I have to walk from the dance floor up to the balcony to have a better eyesight of what's happening all over the floor. Then I walk back down the dance floor.

and I dance again, then I come back up and get a look for the balcony. Well, the thing that's powerful about as teams is all of us can be on the dance floor and all of us can be in the balcony. So what allows us to work? Well, part of our execution is strategic communication. We're communicating back and forth. So my trust law, I'm on the dance floor, but I trust the people talking to me who's in the balcony. And those in the balcony.

are listening to what I'm telling them down here on the field because these two things, those are two different experiences. When you're sitting from the balcony, it gives you a picture. But when you're on the dance floor, it's a different feeling. So we have to be able to respect, admire, share back and forth feedback that's happening. So now we can continue to ensure we're focusing on the right thing. And what's so big about that is those who are on the balcony, they can see the dance.

but they can see a much broader picture as well. But those on the floor dancing, gotta dance well. So they can't spend all their time worried about what's way up in front. They need to be aware of it, but in the moment, if we execute right here effectively, that's what gets us to the next moment. So it's just beautiful, you know, when you talk about high-performing teams, that's what makes the high-performing teams great, is that not only are they on one accord,

But the kind of high performing team also allows us to also use, be having timelines covered where some of us are living a little bit ahead of the others. And some of us who are doing the executing here have the right perspective. And it's going back and forth. So, you know, somebody's thinking about the next series and somebody's thinking about this next play and somebody's thinking about two plays away and somebody's thinking about substitutions who's going to come in and what needs to be done. Somebody's thinking about our actual clients.

Eric Boles (22:59.218)
All this has to be being done. So when we talk about, you know, we gotta raise our level of intensity, but not to just be busy, intensively about doing the little things even more effectively that make the biggest difference.

Dale (23:15.042)
As I reflect back on the last 2320 minutes, 20 to 22 minutes of our conversation, I think to simplify this down into the one thing for listeners to take away, it is don't get caught up in the moment at the end of the game. Thinking about the big, stay focused on doing with excellence, what you know needs to be done. And the only way to get to that place where you don't get swept up in the moment.

Eric Boles (23:31.008)
Huh.

Dale (23:43.682)
is to be intentional about making it a practice for the entire game.

Eric Boles (23:48.654)
Oh, it is. And now I'm going to emphasize this. We're all human. It is a human experience that the intensity level goes up. We feel it when the clock is running down, when the countdown happens. When we're little kids playing around, we always go 10, nine, eight, seven. Why? Because you can feel all the energy and attention go up. This is what separates it, though. It's in those moments we have to.

Practice doing the very opposite of what of what naturally want to do Instead of going broad we come narrow instead of being Just yes, you know, we push harder. No, we push smarter everything becomes far more detailed and specific and why is that so important because that's Opposite of the majority of the world. Most people don't do that. Your competition doesn't do that. People get broad they get

They get, they make mistakes. They get, because they start thinking outcomes and stop thinking process. Those who can think process, getting closer to the end of something, oh my gosh, how big of a difference that makes. This is why you can, I'm so passionate about it. I'm not always doing a good job articulating and I wish I could, but you see it in so many sports. It's like my daughter's volleyball. It's like going to the top volleyball match.

Dale (25:02.21)
Hmm.

Eric Boles (25:15.882)
and the games getting close to the end and both teams, the best teams in the country are going back and forth, serving long. You're like, how are girls, these ladies, this great? This, I mean, some of the best players in the country struggling with keeping them in the serving. What just happened was the intensity went up. So the adrenaline rushing your body. So what does that mean? The attention to detail needs to go up, not down.

And we have the ability to do this in all areas. So we get encusted in instead of trying to push even harder on our clients to buy, we listen more to what they need. It's a subtle thing, but we just, it's almost contrarian, but it separates you from everybody else. Somebody's, it's like being in a room where everything's out of control, and then somebody speaks, but the person who speaks does it in a very...

systematic, calm, tone, and all of a sudden the whole room pays attention. Or in reverse, everybody's really down and everybody, and then one person says, no, this is a great opportunity. Let me tell you what I see. All of a sudden the whole room comes up. It's those who can, like, this is why I love using the word game changer so much because the game changer is the person who makes things happen when momentum's going the other direction.

And they usually do it in different ways. They just don't do it the same way every single time because doing the same way every time, everything's not a nail, you know what I'm saying? Right? And so sometimes it's like, there's sometimes when the tension goes up, I need to be quiet. Sometimes when it's different, I need to speak up. Sometimes I need to lean in towards that client. Sometimes I need to pull back. All those kinds of things. But if you can think in those moments and trust your process.

It's amazing. Not only does your confidence go up, but how it influences those around you to be able to be better of what I call in crunch time.

Dale (27:25.57)
That is the call to action this week. So thank you for that. We're gonna ask folks if you haven't subscribed to this podcast already, please do so in your favorite podcast listening app. While you're there if you'd rate and review the podcast, hopefully we have earned five stars from you and a sentence about what the content means to you how you're putting it into practice. If you would share this episode with someone who you think it would help that would be fantastic. And then you're always welcome to connect with

Eric or me you can find us online. Quick Google search will do it. I'm at Dale Dixon media.com Eric is at the game changers inc.com. We're also both on social media specifically LinkedIn if you want to find us there. So with that Eric you have yourself a fantastic week. Thank you for helping us finish strong in a game changing way.

Eric Boles (28:16.086)
Oh, thank you my friend, man. Thank you, thank you. And thank you to this wonderful audience we have.