If your organization were to be a football club, what number would you be playing?
Are you a striker who is constantly knocking on clients’ doors and central to cash inflow into the organization? Or you come from the flanks, throwing winning passes at the striker, and sometimes scoring those important business goals, closing deals alongside the point-man?
Maybe you’re even the attacking midfielder who also plays a similar role as the guys in the flank but now coming from the center and operating directly behind the COO.
Or you’re a playmaker also in the midfield, either attacking or defending, but also connecting key passes to the strikers, and sometimes scoring those goals too, even though your key job is not to score goals but to create chances and support the strikers.
You might also be some utility players in the midfield, creating openings all through the pitch, curating ideas and strategies for the striker to score. You take passes from the back in form of research, trends, and situational analysis, looked for a winger that is open, or even the strikers themselves, then volleyed the ball into their control. You didn’t stop there, immediately you release the ball; you run deep into the opponents’ net and collaborate with the wingers and strikers to score.
If that is you, you’re a co-creator, a collaborator, a co-founder.
Either at the back or front, you interface with operational components, bringing passes from the back and connecting to the front; or sometimes returning those passes to the back when the business front is formidable and the frontline seems impenetrable; you may call it feedback or back channel information flow. Whatever.
Even sometimes when the competition throws darts and threatens, you run back to support the defence line and eventually get the team out of danger zone. You bring stability into operations.
You could also be a defender, central or from the flank, helping to protect the bottom line and making sure there is enough float in the system.
Or you’re the goalkeeper that makes sure only the right people get into the system. You see to it that the team keeps their eyes on the goal.
You might even be the coach; the CEO who inspires the team to win or the cheerleading crowd.
I play in the midfield, a utility player supplying winning passes to the frontline, always coming back to take passes, changing directions, and throwing passes upfront, connecting the defense to the attack, and helping the team to take possession and win.
As the workplace becomes more collaborative and co-creation takes the center stage, more people are expected to play at the midfield because of the need to either stretch back or leap ahead to score a communal goal, some profit. The days of a No 9 point-man left alone at the opponent’s net are getting obsolete. In Real Madrid, Barcelona, and other top-flight football clubs, everybody scores! So in business.
So, what number do you play in your organization?
I play 8. You?
#EKO!
