My soon to be eleven-year-old son was off to school early this week for chess club when a thought occurred to me, chess and basketball are a lot alike. I should explain that my son plays basketball, which is why the two seemly separate thoughts collided.
As I considered this more, I also realized that our career paths also follow parallel paths with chess and basketball.
My top three reasons why career planning is like chess and basketball.
1.) Anticipation – I find myself sitting in many basketball games lately, for both my oldest and youngest son, thinking to myself or perhaps even saying out loud, “Anticipate”.
This usually is quickly followed by, “you gotta see that coming” or “you have to know where the ball is going to go”. Similarly, if you have ever played chess before, how do you decide on where to move the pieces?
Do you just blindly move the rook to another spot on the board? Of course not. You are making that next move anticipating what your opponent will do next. If you are really good you may even be looking two, three or four moves ahead. Basketball is the same way.
You position yourself based on what is happening around you and anticipating where the ball is going to go, again thinking one, two, three steps ahead.
Planning for your career should be no different. Do you go to work each day hoping that someone will come up to you and say, “You know, you’ve been here a long time so we would like to promote you”.
We all know it doesn’t work that way. You personally have to look out into the future and anticipate where you would like to go. We have to provide ourselves with the answer to the age-old question, what do I want to be when I grow up?
Once you’ve visualized this place, you need to anticipate what skills and training you need to develop or obtain in order to get there. Anticipating the skills required is one thing, you also need to obtain them.
How quickly gain or improve a particular skill is based on how well you prepare.
2.) Preparation – This should go without saying but you can anticipate all day long for something to happen but if you do not have the skill set to use when that day arrives, you will end up scratching your head wondering what happened.
You can’t be good at anything without preparation. With chess or basketball, that means practicing or playing to gain experience. You can even pay someone to be your coach.
Eventually, with proper preparation you can begin to make your opponent move where you want them to go instead of reacting. You can do this because you have anticipated this in advance and prepared for the situation.
When was the last time you actually thought about your career and where it is going? If you have anticipated where you want to go in your career, what are you doing to prepare to get there?
Do you have the necessary skills today or do you need to obtain additional training or experience? Remember training does not need to be a class or course. Don’t know what it takes to get to where you would like to be? Start by taking the time to ask your boss, co-workers or better yet the person who currently occupies the role you want next, what you can do to prepare.
Advice from others and suggestions from those currently in the role are critical to proper preparation.
If you are a manager reading this, you know what projects are happening in your area as well as other areas. Get your folks involved in something outside of their particular area of expertise.
Not only will this give them valuable knowledge and experience but you might also see their engagement level go up. Get actively engaged in their development. Without guidance and/or suggestions from you, you will be doing a disservice to your employees as they will not be able to prepare as well as they otherwise could.
If you are a true servant leader, your employee's development should be one of your top priorities.
It is important to remember that like chess and basketball, in your career you have opponents as well. Some do not work at your company yet, others may be sitting right next to you.
You can get “a leg up” on your competition by being more prepared than they are when the time comes for that next role. Benjamin Franklin perhaps said it best this way, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” What are you preparing for?
3.) Execution – Like anything else you can have the best game plan in the world based on anticipation of what is required but if you fail to execute none of it matters.
In basketball, if you are anticipating that your man is going to pass the ball to his right but you fail to move into that passing lane, the ball will get by you, no steal for you. In chess if you anticipate a particular move from your opponent and fail to counter with a move of your own, checkmate.
You must execute a plan for your career in the same manner. Once you have put together a great plan to develop the skills necessary to be ready when that time comes, you must act.
By converting your plan into action, you are turning your dream into a goal. Anticipate where you want to go, prepare a plan to help you get there and execute the plan. Without execution, you enter an endless circle of anticipating and planning that takes you nowhere.
The circle only flattens out into a straight line with execution.
What are your thoughts? Do you see the parallel lines between chess, basketball, and your career? Spend time thinking about what could be and what you need to do differently to reach your career aspirations. If you need training go get it. If you need an “experience” go ask for it.
However, you proceed just remember that if you do not execute on your plan do not be surprised when you are passed over.
