The Invisible Player

In every team there is an invisible player.

A person whose actions are having an effect on the group, but who you are unable to observe, provide feedback to, or objectively evaluate their effort.

You may hear about the invisible player from others, you may see the results of the invisible player’s efforts, but you never actually see them at work, nor can you ever be certain of the kind of impact the invisible player is having on the team.

When the invisible player is performing poorly, you cannot replace him or her.  The invisible player is the one person on your team that you can never get rid of.  However, wherever there is a problem, the invisible player is sure to be a part of it.

When I hold leadership trainings, we try to raise awareness of the invisible player through a simple exercise.  I ask the participants to stand in a circle and to raise their hands when they are able to see everyone in the circle’s eyes.  After a short time, most people will have their hands in the air, and I’ll challenge them to make sure they can see EVERY team member’s eyes.

Eventually, someone will say, “Well, I can’t see my eyes,” and I respond, “You have just found the invisible player.

Through this simple exercise, we bring to our awareness that we are the only player in the team that we cannot really observe.  If we could, we may be surprised.

I recently had the opportunity to be video taped while presenting a creativity in leadership program.  At the end of the program, I was excited to see the results of the tape.  It had been a great program, and I thought I had done a wonderful job.  For the first five minutes of viewing the tape I kept saying, “Do I look like that?”  “I don’t sound like that do I?”  “I thought they were laughing at my joke.”  The next day I went out and bought a new pair of pants.

The program was in fact a tremendous success AND I was unaware of how I was impacting the group.  The gap between how my facial and physical gestures appear in my mind’s eye, and how they appeared on the tape was much larger than I expected.

I had a chance to see the invisible player on my team, and I learned a lot.

Once we raise our level of awareness to realize that our own actions and reactions are transparent to ourselves AND have a major impact on the results that we get, we can begin to learn how to develop the invisible player into the team member or leader that the situation is calling for.

Here are a few ways to develop your invisible leader:

1. Remember that everyone else can see your invisible player.

While my own actions are transparent to myself, others see them very clearly.  As such, the feedback you receive from others is crucial for better understanding how the invisible player is impacting the team.  It is necessary to accept all feedback from those around you without trying to defend or explain the rational behind the behaviors that triggered the feedback.  Others are in a better position than you to observe your invisible player, and they are the ones who have a clear opinion about how that invisible player is impacting the project or the team.

If you find that you are not receiving much feedback from those around you, it might be that your invisible player has sent out signals that feedback is not welcome.  Start with those that are closest to you, and find out what strengths and weaknesses they perceive in you.  Be open and willing to hear what they have to say.  They are helping you to understand your invisible player, not to criticize you personally.

2. Increase your capacity to accept responsibility for the results in your life.

Fred Kauffman put it well when he said, “Whenever I have a problem, I seem to be around.”

As you look back on the events of the day or week, it is clear that the only thread that ties everything together is your involvement.  Whether it be by sitting through another unproductive meeting, or by making some difficult decisions about where you spend your time and resources (and where you don’t) you have been the single unifying presence in everything that you experience.  By accepting the responsibility for the results in life, you can gain insights into how your invisible player is impacting your environment, and make conscious changes in your way of being with those around you.

3.  Realize that all of the people you work with are playing with an invisible player too.

The person that just made you angry or upset may have been unaware of their impact on the situation.  The person who yawns during your presentation my not know how that effects you or the team.

As we start to realize that no one really understands how they are impacting the people and processes around them, we can become more patient, forgiving and supportive of the humans that are behind the invisible people that we see.

While we can never be rid of the invisible player in our lives, we can become more aware and understanding of how our way of being and responses to the challenges of leading can have an integral impact on the results around us.  It is in fact through total acceptance of how we impact our results, both intentionally and unintentionally, that we find new depth and power as leaders.  We are then able to add that invisible player to our team, and become one player MORE powerful.

~Jimbo Clark, 2009~

To meet the author Jimbo Clarke click here.

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