Every Win Is Worth So Much More: How To Deal With The Pressure Of A Shortened “Season”

More than 4-million people savored the chance Thursday to watch live sports as Major League Baseball’s opening night of a coronavirus-condensed season quickly became the most-watched baseball telecast in the last nine years. I delighted in reuniting my tv remote with ESPN—one of the millions who enjoyed finding something other than the American Cornhole Championships or the Drone Racing League broadcasts that had been featured in the absence of professional sports over the past 4-5 months. Nothing replaces the thrill of gameday.

The opening weekend continued with my good friend, David Ross, winning in his managerial debut as skipper of the Chicago Cubs. Then I thought about it—by winning that first game, the Cubs instantly had nearly a 3-game lead over the team they beat—the division opponent Milwaukee Brewers. With the season shifting from the standard 162 game schedule down to just 60 games, each game is 2.7-times more significant to a team’s success. Every homerun, every strikeout, is that much more meaningful than it has been in previous regular-season matchups.

That’s not too far off base for many of us in a business environment—an environment that has been forced to adopt tighter timelines to meet quotas or has forced each of us to do a little more, often with fewer resources. As a result, every phone call, every proposal sent out now is more important than ever. So it’s critical to be aware of how you respond when you’re constantly reminded that everything is worth more. Many of us stress or panic… But the Great ones find a way to win the high-pressure situations while the rest are freezing or making rash decisions. Ultimately, the winners will be the ones who have used the past 4-5 months to figure out a way to rise in the face of pressure and adapt to a truncated sales cycle.

For instance, if you’re going to continue working remotely, it’s critical for you to stay motivated and produce in a virtual environment. Mentally, you must make that adjustment. Think of all the baseball players right now who are performing in a different environment flooded with extra COVID testing, safety precautions, and delays of their typical pre-game routines. Then there’s the obvious void of live crowds and the energy brought when venues are filled to capacity.

The consensus from players around the league is that nothing replaces the energy brought by fans in the stands. It’s an energy that breeds excitement, impacts momentum, and absolutely influences a player’s nerves or precision. Some players are motivated to lock-in and perform better when fans are around them watching their every move. For those, it’s critical to make the mind shift and not allow the results to suffer because the environment doesn’t immediately reflect the high-pressure scenario where they may have typically thrived. The cardboard portraits of fans decorating the ballpark seats are of sentimental value, but they can’t replicate the live game experience. For me, I can’t replicate the feeling of keynote speaking in front of large audiences in auditoriums, but I have adapted to creating impactful virtual speaking experiences for various companies. But it required a mental shift. I had to imagine that the line I just used worked to draw a particular response from the listeners. I’ve done so by preparing and bringing an even more intense level of audience preparation – learning a few names of who will be on the other end – from the pre-coronavirus workdays to the present day.

For those who do perform at their best when other people are around, it’s an enormous challenge. Just know, the world will still see your hustle and effort. The end result can still be achieved. But the motivation must come from within rather than leaning on what’s now become an uncontrollable variable. I encourage you to be your own fuel.

I’m often reminded of the quote most widely attributed to tennis great Billie Jean King, “Pressure is a Privilege.” For Rossy, the Cubs, and the 29 other teams in Major League Baseball, the pressure has already been defined as a 60-game schedule with daily reminders issued by the win-loss records and the constant questions by the media documenting each pitch along the way. There will be some who complain about it—some who already have complained about it. But then there will be some who decide to dig in and fuel themselves for greater success. I urge you to be the latter.

We’ve all had our struggles over the past 4-5 months—some more than others. But it’s nice to turn on the TV and actually see wins, progress, success under pressure… and at the very least, something other than cornhole.