Christopher V. Flett

As a die hard fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, I found myself in a difficult position of cheering for the Canucks (as the last Canadian Hockey Team) in the playoffs. Their series pitted veterans (Canucks) versus fresh blood (Blackhawks) in the contest to make the final four.

Long story short, in Game 6, Vancouver blew up and like the games throughout this series, were out manned, out played, and out worked by a younger, hungrier team. Pissed off after watching the game, I decided to look at the lessons we can take, as business owners, from how the series played out. Here is what the Canucks can teach us:

1. You can’t lead from the back.

Vancouver in their questionable wisdom, decided to choose their goaltender, Luongo, as the team captain. Chicago had Toews, their 21-year old dynamic captain, who happens to play centre. During the plays, Luongo’s team was figuring out things without the benefit of their captain being right there with them. Chicago has their captain leading from the ice beside them. Choosing a goaltender as a captain is ego driven and ridiculous.

“With the departure of Naslund to free agency, Gillis announced on September 30, 2008, that Roberto Luongo had been named team captain, marking the first time since Bill Durnan of the Montreal Canadiens in 1947 that a goaltender has been named the captain of their NHL team.”

Lesson: In hockey, as in business, you need a captain who works along side their team. A leader removed from their team who sits back in the corner office and waits for people to ask for advice will have a wonky team who doesn’t win big.

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2. Just because someone was a star on one team doesn’t mean they will be a star on every team.
Mats Sundin, a star and the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, accomplished almost nothing as a Vancouver Canuck. There was a lot of hype about him coming to play in Vancouver, but he performed at his worst that I had seen since I first started watching him years ago. He scored the odd goal, but he could not lead like he had in Toronto and it was painful to watch him try. (Note: Mats entered the NHL when the Blackhawks’ captain was one year old.)

Lesson: Just because someone is good in one job doesn’t mean that those abilities will transfer with the next job, position, or location. I see this time and time again with sales people. They rock in one job and when selling a different product, service, or themselves, they perform at a sub-standard rate. Every day you have to work like it’s your first day at work. You don’t get to ride on your reputation. If you do, you are likely to disappoint yourself and others.

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3. Everyone can start, but not everyone can finish
The game of hockey is 60 minutes over three periods. The Canucks played well in the first periods, okay in the second periods, and completely lost it in the third periods. They blew more leads in this series than I have ever seen before. As soon as the third period would start and they would be leading, I’d be waiting to see how long it would take for them to give up their lead and have to fight to stay in the game.

Lesson: Every day, week, month is a money day, week, month. Don’t work hard in the first part of the month and once you have earned your nut, start to coast. It doesn’t take much to throw you off cash flow so you need to work each and every minute of your schedule. Can you take a break? Yes, when your market is breaking. Don’t take time off when there is money to be made. If you market wants to buy from you Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM, then that’s when you are on. If they want to buy from you every other night from 6PM to Midnight, then that’s when you are on. When the game is on, you are on.

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4. You only stop playing when the game is over.
When Vancouver would blow their leads, you could see in their faces the frustration, anger, and disappointment. More times then not, they gave up. They didn’t bring their best selves. Instead, they went on the defensive so they didn’t get beaten too bad. If you focus on failure, you get failure. Chicago on the other hand was spurred on when things were bad for them. The players got bigger, more driven, finished their checks, and got it done. When the time came to step up, they did.

Lesson: In business, the only thing you can count on is problems. You will get sideswiped when you least expect it. The question isn’t if it will happen; it is what you will do when it happens. Will you shrink, count your pennies, and heal up. Or, will you put on a smile, wipe off the dirt, pick yourself back up, and get it done. The measure of character is what you do and how you handle adversity. For the Canucks, as well as many business owners in this economy, the way they handled the situation determined their failure.

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5. In hockey as in business, you need to play the body, not the puck.
Chicago is a physical team. In hockey, a player on his ass is not likely to score a goal. When a player has the puck, he can be hit by another player legally. Chicago finished their checks, hit the hell out of the Canucks, and opened up scoring opportunities because of it. Vancouver slipped their checks (didn’t go full in), were man-handled, and in my opinion, physically dominated by a team they should have been able to war with. The Canucks didn’t focus on the fundamentals, knowing that by doing so, they would get the chance to score. Instead, they focused entirely on scoring and forgot the game they were playing.

Lesson: In business, you need to focus on building your business model, not the money. If you only focus on the money, you’ll never have a model that create money. You’ll keep on looking for the golden ring and get disappointed when you don’t get it. Focus on the model, not the money!

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6. Age means nothing. Experience means little. It is about the hunger to be the best.
The big lines for the Blackhawks are in their early 20’s. The Canucks have proven veterans on their team that have a lot of winning experience. The young guys played like the veterans should and the veterans played like you would expect the young guys to. The Blackhawks were disciplined, focused on fundamentals, and played in unison. The Canucks played like rookies, made fundamental mistakes, and didn’t play like the team they once were.

Lesson: Just because someone is older, done business longer, or has more experience doesn’t mean they are going to be the best performer. In my experience, the young business professionals are hungry for success and have the ability to ‘lap’ their older counterparts. The old guys (and gals) try to give advice to the younger ones, but they themselves can’t follow their own advice. In business, what you know is less important than what you can get done. I see the ‘veterans of business’ trying to give advice to younger professionals who are doing more, billing more, and building more than their senior counterparts.  Money and cash flow is the ultimate measurement for your effectiveness in business.

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7. Everyone wins or everyone loses.
The blame game is on high output right now. Players either contributed directly to losing the game for their team or they didn’t play up to their potential, hence didn’t produce for their team. There are a lot of Canucks who should be ashamed of their performance, or lack there of. The ‘team’ didn’t do what it was intending to do. The ‘team’ didn’t play as well as they could have. At the end of the team, the win or loss for any team in the NHL is based on the collective efforts, not the efforts of a handful of people.

Lesson: In business, everyone plays a role. The mail clerk enables the CEO to do her job. The janitor enables the sales team to hold meetings in clean boardrooms. Losing and winning is shared by everyone. When a company (or team) starts blaming one person over another, the ‘team’ part of the picture dissolves.

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