{"id":1422,"date":"2013-06-15T15:38:23","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T15:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tellyourstoryinc.com\/?p=1422"},"modified":"2016-07-22T17:50:32","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T17:50:32","slug":"sometimes-you-need-a-get-to-the-ball-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/sometimes-you-need-a-get-to-the-ball-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes You Need a \u201cGet to the Ball\u201d Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s important at some point in your career to realize what you can and cannot do as a professional. Once you realize your strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, limitations and opportunities, you will have a much happier career.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Take my soccer coaching career as an example. Now I\u2019m not a soccer guy. Far from it. But I do love seeing my boys (8 and 5 years old) in competition and running out there. One day, I get asked to help out the main coach at practice. I was hooked.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My soccer coaching skills consist of a little stretching, some fun, humor and a lot of energy focused on one thing \u2013 \u201cget to the ball!\u201d For pre-K to second grade, it has worked out well. I have a great winning percentage, happy boys and appreciative parents who give me gift cards at the season-ending pizza party.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Professional<\/a>

The Red Lightening posted a winning record with the “get to the ball” mentality.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In marketing, sometimes you also have to deploy a \u201cget to the ball\u201d strategy to make things happen. Part of our purpose as a nimble and flexible agency is to make things happen and often times we do that with the \u201cget to the ball\u201d mentality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u2019s my point?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Actually, I have two points. Understand who you are as a professional. I came to terms with what I do best and don\u2019t do as well a while ago and am happier for it. In soccer, I am hanging up my whistle after this season because these kids need more than I could offer. If they want to get better, \u201cget to the ball\u201d coaching isn\u2019t going to help them. But hopefully \u201cget to the ball\u201d is instilled in them as a foundation for future learning of all kinds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My second point is that in business, the \u201cget to the ball\u201d mentality needs to be employed more often. We often use the words \u201cstrategy\u201d and \u201cROI\u201d and \u201canalysis\u201d \u2013 which is fine \u2013 but often times are used as a crutch to not do anything. You can \u201cget to the ball\u201d and be thoughtful and planful at the same time. In this day and age, make it happen and learn on the fly. Do it with purpose and with an end goal in mind. There is a time and place for planning and strategic thinking, but don\u2019t let that stop you from trying to \u201cget to the ball\u201d to make it happen for you and your organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s important at some point in your career to realize what you can and cannot do as a professional. Once you realize your strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, limitations and opportunities, you will have a much happier career.   Take my soccer coaching career as an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,142,123,122],"tags":[285,286],"class_list":["post-1422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-interesting-things","category-career-thoughts","category-tell-your-story-news","tag-careers","tag-get-to-the-ball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5412,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions\/5412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pairdesignchicago.com\/tellyourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}