Playing the “Breakthrough Game”

Whether in your personal or professional life, you have a time in your life, quite possibly several, where you accomplished something that either looked impossible at the start, or you knew it would be a significant hill to climb. Maybe it was the barriers, the nay-sayers, the tough conditions, the fact that it had never been done before, or that it was tried several times before but no one ever succeeded, except you.

Get one of those times in mind. Go back to the moment and think of how it felt, what you had to overcome to accomplish the outcome. Seriously, pause for a moment and get one in mind……

That is playing a “Breakthrough Game,” and there are so many aspects to brilliant execution within the game. Here are just a few that I am sure (at least some) were at play:

• You had to let go of what you “knew” because that knowledge wasn’t going to serve you to move forward.
• At times, especially in the beginning, you probably put in 20 units of effort, getting back at best, 1 or 2 results for your efforts.
• In fact, you never let the lack of results fool you into thinking that your vision wasn’t worth going for.
• You took continuous action anyway, knowing that the very next one might break everything wide open.
• You stayed solidly anchored to a future vision, an outcome, something you had a burning desire to achieve, and you were immovable about that commitment, through good times and bad.
• If you wobbled, it wasn’t for long because you had great people around you – coaches, mentors, peers to keep you honest and true to what you said.
• You were always hungry to discover your limits because you knew, as a leader, the more you opened yourself up, the more it would remove the “lid” for others.
• You knew that very rarely, breakthroughs happen as a result of individual effort, and you were quick to involve others and engage them early and often.
• You were very willing to say risky things in the spirit of producing the outcome, willing to hold people to account when they weren’t coming through.

And while certainly not an exhaustive list of qualities in playing a Breakthrough Game, these are some of the big ones for any leader to contend with. We’ll keep sharing more and we look forward to hearing yours, too.

What have you found to be important in playing a breakthrough game?