Before You Pick Up a Dropped Ball, Consider These 5 Possibilities

Someone dropped the ball. Again.

At least that’s how it looks to you.

But is that really the case?

It might be, but your initial read may not be completely accurate. And your first reaction may not be the best approach.

Mike Payne, owner of Hill Manufacturing & Fabrication in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and host of the # Buy the Numbers podcast and I talked about this recently during our conversation on his show.

He described people on his team who will pick up every ball that’s dropped. He appreciates them, but he also sees the potential for burnout.

We also talked about how well-intentioned, highly motivated employees may be keeping a ball in the air that doesn’t need to be there.

I’ve been thinking about our discussion a lot since then and I came up with five ways a leader might interpret (or misinterpret) a situation that initially seems like a dropped ball situation.

1. The ball may be moving.

You may see little or no progress when, in reality, someone is working on it in a way you don’t see.

They’re gathering information. Talking with someone who understands the problem. Thinking through an approach before they commit the team to it.

You don’t see the activity you expected, so you assume nothing is happening.

But your perception of progress may not be fully informed.

As I wrote in “Does Leadership Count as Real Work?”, I tend to associate real work with immediate, tangible results.

The Working Genius model challenges that assumption. Asking good questions through Wonder and evaluating an approach through Discernment are work too.

Even when there’s nothing new to show you yet.

2. The ball may have been placed there intentionally.

Someone may have decided that, with everything else the team needs to accomplish, this project needs to wait.

They didn’t forget it.

They made an intentional decision.

And it may have been a good one.

Before you insist that they pick it up, find out why they put it down.

You may discover that they understand the priorities better than you realized. Or that you haven’t communicated those priorities as clearly as you thought.

Either way, there’s something to learn.

3. Picking it up yourself may not be best for the business.

I get it. Seeing something unfinished can drive you crazy.

You know how to fix it. You could have it taken care of before anyone else finishes discussing it.

But what happens to the work you should be doing while you’re taking care of this?

And what happens to the person who owns it?

You may interrupt their thinking or take away an opportunity for them to make a decision and follow through.

As I told Mike, someone may pick up the ball and run in the wrong direction. That’s not what your business needs. It’s activity, but it’s not progress toward your desired goals.

In some cases, the right person, given just a little more time, might bring you a much better answer than the quick idea someone else suggested.

That extra hour, or even another day, of mental processing may be highly valuable in the long run.

Sometimes your best act of leadership is to leave the ball lying on the floor.

Even when you really want to pick it up.

4. Calling your most reliable person may make things worse.

You know your guy or gal who will take care of it immediately.

They’re loyal. They respond when you ask for help. They’ll find a way to get it done.

But, as I’ve written before about overloading our most reliable people, their willingness to help doesn’t mean they have room for more work.

If you have a team member with the Working Genius pairing of Enablement and Tenacity, you need to be particularly careful.

Helping and finishing can be fulfilling work for them. That doesn’t mean they have unlimited capacity.

Before you call, ask yourself:

Does this need their attention now? What will they have to stop doing? Am I responding to a business need or to my own frustration?

5. Praising your firefighter may encourage the wrong work.

We appreciate the person who sees a problem and jumps in.

But did they check with the person responsible before they took over?

They may have restarted something that was intentionally paused. Or duplicated work already underway.

And the rescue may have pulled them away from work that would contribute far more to the business.

If we praise every visible rescue, what are we teaching our team about the work we value?

That takes us back to what we consider “real work.”

So what should you do?

Stay curious. Ask good questions with positive intent.

“What’s happening with this?”

“What led you to put this on hold?”

“What am I missing?”

Last week on LinkedIn, I shared something a former pastor used to tell me.

“Greg, you don’t have all the information.”

He was right.

Get more information before you command someone to fix the problem. Communicate in both directions. Explain your concern and listen to what they know.

Then take action at the right pace.

“Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

Or, as a former coworker used to tell me:

“Hurry but don’t rush.”

Agree on who owns the next step, when it needs to happen, and when someone should intervene.

You may need to pick up the ball immediately.

But first, I encourage you to find out whether that “dropped ball” was really dropped.

Helping you lead with kindness and confidence,

Greg

P.S. Unsure when to step in and when to let your team work through a problem? I invite you to schedule a Complimentary Clarity Coaching Session. I’d be glad to help you think through what’s happening and identify your next step.