Why You Need to Maintain an Offensive Mindset, in Business as Well as Lacrosse

I'm so passionate about maintainingan offensive mindsetthat it's my number one rule for my own business; and Idevote an entire chapter of my new bookStadium Statusto the strategy behind it. That strategy involves what I call TheLaw of Sevens.

This means that your audience members needat least seven different ways to connect the dots between your brand and what you do. They also need a minimum seven impressions or offers before they are moved to make a purchase decision or commit tothe value proposition you offer. In sum, the Law of Sevens is about always being on offense.

My philosophy as a coach (and now asan executive coach) is that the best defense is a good offense. It's the ultimate differentiator because most teams and people spend way too much of their time on defense. Why would you want to be on the offensive all the time? Five reasons:

Being on offense is proactive;being on defense is reactive.You're on your toes on offense, but on your heels on defense.You dictate the pace of the game, whatever game that might be.You create momentum.You're attacking not defending.

Back in the day, as a college lacrosse player, I was an attackman, which meant strictly playing offense,as my position didn't cross midfield into the defensive zone. When I first started playing lacrosse in high school, I chose the position;it didn't choose me.

It was my preference (and not because you only had to run half the length of the field), because it was a proactive position. You attacked the goal;you didn't sit back and wait for things to happen "to you" or "against you."

When I went from player to coach, I took this philosophy to the extreme. I wanted our defensive players and even our goalie to approach their roles, too, with an offensive mindset. So, our defensemen and goalies practiced shooting drills every day with the offensiveplayers. If a defenseman crossed midfield with the ball, I wanted him to put pressure on the other team, attack the goal and see what opportunities he could create.

I charted time of possession, because we wanted to dominate the time anyone hadpossession in every game. Later in my career, I even timedhow long it took us to clear the ball and get it on offense --the faster the better.

The mindset I tried to drive into my players was that the ball can only be one of three places: on the ground, in our sticks or buried in the back of our opponents'goal. Which meant that we didn't sit back on defense;we attacked. I wanted my defensemen to assume an offensive mindset. We didn't sit back and react;we took the game to them.

Trapping, double-teaming, applying constant pressure on and off ball:We dictated the tempo, and the opposition had only one choice:keep up or give up.

What's important here is that offense didn't remain justa lacrosse position for me;itbecame the lens through which I view the world. I try to live my life on offense rather than on defense. 58003

How can you make sure you're on offense all the time?

By choosing it. You can choose how you want to approach any given situation: by being proactive or reactive.I coach my clients to be offensive. I'll ask them: 58003 It's the difference between playing to win versus playing not to lose.

Teams and companies that take a defensive posture under pressure tend to play not to lose. Afascinating study by McGraw-Hill Research's Laboratory of Advertising performance,analyzing600 companies, 1980 to 1985, found that in that time period, companies that were aggressive recession advertisers enjoyed sales increases of 256 percentover those that didn't keep up their advertising.

Similarly: 58003

The reasoning is simple: Companies that got reactive (defensive) instead of proactive (offensive) suffered self-inflicted wounds. That'swhy I believe in offense.

I left coaching and started my business in 2008, during the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression. The speaking industry alone contracted by 50 percent, 2008 to 2009. 我做了什么？ I made sure I stayed on offense and applied the Law of Sevens.

That meant that I maintained a media presence, brokering a deal to have a radio show in Boston. I realizedit would be less expensive and more valuable to have my own show than to advertise in other platforms: I essentially had a 60-minute commercial on Sundays for four straight years.

这里的教训？ Offense wins, regardless of conditions. When times are tough, you need to remind prospects about the value of doing business with you. If your competition stays on the offensive, and you don't, you'll lose. If your competition gets defensive and doesn't advertise, you can gain revenue and market share by staying on offense. 再次。.. Either you control the process or it's going to control you.

Do you have at least seven ways for customers to connect the dots to you? If not, it's time to generate some offense.