Preparation, Consistency, and Hustle

My daughter Brynli (12 years old) is the starting setter on her club volleyball team. A few months ago, her team was in an all-day tournament which they dominated and played their way easily into the championship game.

Despite having won every single match of the day easily in 2 sets, the championship match was another matter. After a sluggish start, team GSL fell quickly behind in the first set. In volleyball at this level, they play 2 sets to 25 and a tie-breaker 3rd set to 15. The winner of 2 sets wins the match.

Brynli is fiercely competitive and hates to lose. Driven by this competitive spirit, she often performs incredibly well under pressure. Down 18- 12 in the first set, she rotated into the server spot and then proceeded to serve 6 straight points including a few aces (the opponent couldn’t make a play on the ball).

With the score now tied at 18, the opposing coach called an “ice the server” timeout. To the opponent’s dismay though, Brynli came out of that timeout and scored 5 more! They finally got a side out, but the damage had been done with her Club GSL team now leading 23-19!

After helping her team get the lead, she was not about to let them lose and proceeded to make a key play on the ball to regain the serve.

After the dive play, it was set point which they easily scored and moved onto the second set. With their earlier tournament mojo back, team GSL went onto easily win the second set 25-6 securing the championship!

How did Brynli and her team set the stage for championship success? Just like any team, they practice together twice a week and work individually on specific skills to improve their consistency and in-game performance.

Last season while struggling with serving consistency, she asked me to take her to the gym on many weeknights to work on her skills. My constant counsel to her was that consistency would keep her on the floor, but during many of these daddy-daughter workouts she was anything but consistent.

As a dad/coach, I was often reminded of a need to carefully balance kind encouragement with toughness to help her improve. In the early going, as discouragement and emotions ran high and tears occasionally flowed, that careful balance was crucial to her staying the course. Ultimately, consistent practice gave way to consistent performance, and she became one of the best servers on her team.

As her coaches saw improvement, they gave her more playing time and high praise for not just the primary obvious skills of serving, passing, setting, but also for the harder to measure soft skills of court vision, hustle, and competitive spirit.

On that tournament day in March, the team had zero serving errors in the championship match. That is key because in volleyball, each service error results in a point for the opposing team.

I’ve shared Brynli’s story, not only because I was part of it, but on that day each player’s individual preparation and consistency set the stage for team success even in the midst of a shaky start.

How does this relate to business? The principles of preparation, consistency and hustle can make everyone better at what they do.

It’s been said that the more we prepare, the more we will be prepared for that which we are not prepared. I believe that wholeheartedly. Preparation to me looks like proactive curiosity. Learn what it takes to be successful in our individual work and as a strong team contributor, then look for ways to level up your performance. There are plenty of resources available to do this for any job. Supervisors and co-workers can mentor, train, and point the way to abundant resources for ongoing learning and preparation.

Consistent performance leads to consistent and predictable results. A consistent performer is dependable and trusted. They make the company better, and lead to happy customers.

Hustle at work doesn’t mean we are always running from one thing to the next. If given the choice of a job done quickly versus a job done correctly, I will always choose correctly. Hustle becomes easier and may even be a byproduct of constant preparation and consistent performance. The more we work at something, the better we tend to get.

Author Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers popularized the “10,000 hour rule” which claims that becoming an expert at anything comes from 10,000 hours of practice.

As we approach our daily work, may we continually prepare in every way possible to be successful. That often means learning what an internal or external customer wants or needs and thus being ready to address it. It means constant curiosity so we can be better equipped to help solve a problem, and being ever mindful of how we interact with co-workers, or any number of things.

As we constantly prepare for success, may we also give a consistently solid effort and never stop hustling!