I have been playing ice hockey for more than 30 years. Ever since I was a kid. It’s a great way to make friends, learn to play, work together and of course, keep fit. All sports are great for kids but there is something a team sport can teach you that an individual sport cant. One of the most important lessons I learned in life through hockey came from my junior coach Ule Renlund; “When you see your teammate struggling to do his job, make sure you are doing yours”.
This seemed a bit counter-intuitive at first. My gut reaction would be to go and help; do the job for him if he was unable to perform at the level required. But he did make sense. Here’s an example: I, as a forward, see my defender not doing a very good job at the moment and he is struggling. I rush to help him out and now what?
We have a forward who is trying but can’t do the defenders job. We end up struggling in the same task while nobody is doing what I was supposed to do in the first place. Even worse, it might cause a chain reaction of players running around trying to cover for someone else. Chaos!
Recently I have had the good fortune of being involved in few film projects. I really enjoy being around all those hard working and creative people. The work at the set looks very unorganized with people running back and forth. Someone yelling instructions to seemingly nobody in special kind of language that sounded more like code words to me.
For the untrained eye, it is pure chaos but the truth is, everybody has his or her own role, responsibilities and own chain of command. Naturally the bigger the set the more “layers” of people there are and the smaller the influence of individual people is. The higher ups make the broader decisions. As Best Boy, you know what your task is. You know your boss is the Gaffer who in turn reports to Director of Photography who seeks consult and leaves the final decision to the Director. And when everything falls into place, the result can either be exciting, beautiful, poetic or educational. Or all of them and more.
The same principles should be applied to the business world. Make sure you are doing your own job. We all have, or at least should have, a defined task to do in any small or large business. This task comes with role and responsibility that others in the workplace expect us to fulfill.
Similarly as in ice hockey, if you just run around helping others, who’s taking your place? We all have our own skill sets and competences. Even if a software engineer sees that a marketer is not doing a top-notch job, the marketer is still probably doing a better job than the engineer would. However, it doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be collaboration. Any project needs input from many different people with different tasks and skills. Just like a cameraman who can’t make a movie alone, the brilliant engineer can’t make a successful service all by himself.
Your role as a manager should be more akin to one of a coach. Setting the direction, supporting the team, making sure that everybody is doing what needs to be done in order for the project to succeed. You are not a manager because you can do each individual task well. If you find yourself doing someone else’s job you are actually not doing yours.
Just like in hockey and making movies, doing a task should be left to the individual who is tasked and skilled to do it. If the task doesn’t get done with the desired quality, the manager should be the one making sure there is enough support, people and resources available to get the it completed in a satisfactory and timely manner.
When we combine our skills and effort in the workplace instead of trying to spread ourselves thin in all possible directions, the result can be just like in the movies: exciting, beautiful, poetic or educational.
Originally from Finland, Miikka Skaffari is a photographer who fell in love with photography in 1993 while studying Audio Visual Communications in Finland. His goal was to start working with video and film, but once he got into a dark room and saw the magical transformation of a white piece of paper into a black and white photograph, he was sold.
His strongest suit in photography is in editorial, travel and lifestyle photography but he also enjoys shooting live music and products. He has a software engineering degree and background which partly explains his interest in the technical aspects of photography. He currently lives in San Francisco, but is available for photo assignments on short notice and is able to travel anywhere to take pictures you need or want.
