[2022-03-06] Bench strength
As part of my digital clean-up, I recently came across a post in my first blog, Café Jen, that included a section on developing bench strength. In sports, bench strength is defined as "the quality and number of players available to substitute during a game." In business, bench strength is defined as "the competence and number of employees ready to fill vacant leadership and other positions."
In my Café Jen post, I referenced a passage in Seth Godin's book Poke the Box about a contest where parents and children are asked to work together to paint a window mural. The easiest way to win, says Godin, is for the parents to do all the work.
But that would be like teams that play only their best players, says Godin. As a strategy for winning, it works in the short term, but it’s counterproductive in the long run. The same is true in the workplace. "One reason organizations get stuck is that they stick with their 'A' players so long that they lose their bench," writes Godin. He explains the danger of relying disproportionately on one's best employees: "In a world that’s changing, a team with no bench strength and a rigid outlook on the game will always end up losing."
In my experience, not only do the "B" players lose their edge from the lack of challenge, but they’re also more likely to become disengaged and to go elsewhere to get a shot at playing the game. If managers are not giving their less experienced team members a chance to work on the tough assignments, how will these employees gain the experience they need to excel?
I saw this dynamic play out often in the workplace. And notwithstanding my conscious effort as a leader to give all employees opportunities to work on the big files, I was guilty of engaging in this practice myself, especially when under pressure to deliver in a short time frame.
Moreover, it's not just bosses who sometimes fail to develop their bench strength. From time to time, parents succumb to the thinking that it's easier to do a chore themselves than to teach a child to do it and accept less-than-perfect results initially. As a mom, I did this at times and probably still do to some extent.
I found it easiest to avoid the temptation to depend too much on my strongest players when I was a soccer coach. Fortunately, my coaching experience was exclusively in the recreational stream, which made it easier to uphold the principle that all players should get equal field time.
As I age, I find myself thinking more and more about the importance of teaching my children to take care of themselves. I applaud their efforts to manage their finances, to make decisions on how to invest their money, and to make choices pertaining to their education and careers.
Perhaps the definition of bench strength could be expanded to take into account parents and children. In families, bench strength could be defined as the competence of kids to take on tasks performed primarily by parents, such as cooking, cleaning, shopping, laundry, pet care and tech support.
When I'm inclined to do something myself rather than pass the task on to one of my kids, I'll remind myself to consider "bench strength."
