THE LAW OF THE BENCH

You may have heard the expression, "It's not over until the fat lady sings," or Yogi Berra's famous comment, "It ain't over 'til it's over." Would you believe that sometimes it is over before it's over? You can learn to identify such times if you know the Law of the Bench. Let me give you an example. One Saturday in September of 2000, I went to a football game with some friends: Kevin Small, the president of INJOY; Chris Goede, who used to play professional ball; and Steve Miller, my wonderful son-in-law. We were looking forward to an exciting game between the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Florida State Seminoles, even though FSU was a very strong favorite. There's a pretty good rivalry between all Georgia and Florida college teams, so the teams can get pretty pumped up. And on that day, we weren't disappointed. The teams were battling, and the score was close. Tech was playing its heart out. The Law of the Bench is true in any field, not just sports. You may be able to do some wonderful things with just a handful of top people, but if you want your team to do well over the long haul, you've got to build your bench. A great team with no bench eventually collapses. In sports, it's easy to identify which people are the starters and which make up the bench. But how do you identify them in other fields? I want to suggest the following definitions: Starters are frontline people who directly add value to the organization or who directly influence its course. The Bench is made up of the people who add value to the organization indirectly or who support the starters who do.

Everyone recognizes the importance of a team's starters. They are the ones who are most often in the spotlight. As a result, they get most of the credit. And while both groups are important, if one group is liable to be neglected or overlooked, it's usually the people on the bench. In fact, the people most likely to discount or discredit the contribution of the

bench may be the starters. Some key players enjoy reminding the substitutes that they are "riding the pine." But any starter who minimizes the contribution of the bench is self-centered, underestimates what it takes for a team to be a success, and doesn't understand that great teams have great depth.

Every human being has value, and every player on a team adds value to the team in some way. Those truths alone should be enough to make team members care about the bench players. But there are also more specific reasons to honor and develop the players who may not be considered "starters." Here are several:

1. Today's Bench Players May Be Tomorrow's Stars

Rare are the people who begin their careers as stars. And those who do sometimes find that their success is like that of some child actors: After a brief flash in the pan, they are never able to recapture the attention they got early on. Most successful people go through an apprenticeship or period of seasoning. Look at quarterback Joe Montana, who was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2000. He spent two years on the bench as a backup before being named the San Francisco Forty-niners' starter. And as he was breaking records and leading his team to numerous Super Bowls, the person who sat on the bench as a backup to him was Steve Young, another great quarterback. Some talented team members are recognized early for their great potential and are groomed to succeed. Others labor in obscurity for years, learning, growing, and gaining experience. Then after a decade of hard work, they become "overnight successes." With the way people like to move from job to job today—and even from career to career—good leaders should always keep their eyes open for emerging talent. Never be in a hurry to pigeonhole someone on your team as a nonstarter. Given the right encouragement, training, and opportunities, nearly anyone who has the desire has the potential to emerge someday as an impact player.

2. The Success of a Supporting Player Can Multiply the Success of a Starter

When every team member fulfills the role that best suits his or her talents, gifts, and experience and excels in that role, then the team really hums. It's the achievement of the whole team that makes the starters flourish, and it's the achievement of the starters that makes the team flourish. The whole team really is greater than the sum of its parts. Or, as John Wooden put it, "The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team."

3. There Are More Bench Players Than Starters

If you look at the roster of any successful team, you will see that the starters are always outnumbered by the other players on the team. In professional basketball, twelve people are on the team but only five start. Major-league baseball teams start nine, but carry forty players. In pro football, twenty-two people start on offense and defense, but teams

are allowed to have fifty-three players. (College teams often have more than one hundred!) You find similar situations in every field. In the entertainment industry, the actors are often known, but the hundreds of crew members it takes to make a movie aren't. In ministry, everyone recognizes the people up front during a worship service, but it takes scores of people working behind the scenes to bring that service together. For any politician or corporate executive or big-name fashion designer that you know about, there are hundreds of people working quietly in the background to make their work possible. Nobody can neglect the majority of the team and hope to be successful.

4. A Bench Player Correctly Placed Will at Times Be More Valuable than a Starter

I think if you asked most people how they would classify administrative assistants as team members, they would tell you that they consider them to be bench players, since their primary role is support. I would agree with that—although in some cases administrative people do have direct influence on an organization. Take for example my assistant, Linda Eggers. Over the years, Linda has done just about everything at INJOY. She has been the company's bookkeeper. She used to run our conferences. She did marketing and product development. She is a very talented person. I think Linda is capable of doing just about anything. But she has chosen to take a supporting role as my assistant. And in that position, she makes a huge impact. Today my company has more than two hundred employees. I respect and value all of them. But if I lost everything tomorrow and could keep only five or six persons with whom to start over from scratch, Linda would be one of the persons I would fight to keep. Her value as a support person makes her a starter.

5. A Strong Bench Gives the Leader More Options

When a team has no bench, the only option its leader has is moving the starters around to maximize their effectiveness. If a starter can't perform, the team is out of luck. When a team has a weak bench, then the leader has a few options, but they are often not very good. But when a team has a great bench, the options are almost endless. That's why someone like Bobby Bowden, the coach at FSU, was able to wear down Georgia Tech. If one of his players got hurt, he had someone to replace him. If his opponent changed defenses, he had offensive players in reserve to overcome the challenge. No matter what kind of situation he faced, with a strong bench he had options that would give the team a chance to win.

6. The Bench Is Usually Called upon at Critical Times for the Team When an army is in trouble, what does it do? It calls up the reserves. That's the way it is in every area of life. The time you need the bench isn't when things are going well. It's when things aren't. When the starter gets hurt and the game is in jeopardy, a substitute steps in. That person's effectiveness often determines the team's success. If your team is experiencing a tough time, then you know the importance of having a good bench. But if you are experiencing a smooth period, then now is time to develop your backup players. Build the bench today for the crisis you will face tomorrow.