RealitySells

The High Trust Game of Football by Bill Guertin

Authenticity in business earns you a high degree of Trust.  What happens when that trust breaks down?  All it takes is an instant, and it can change the game completely.  ------------

Did you see it?

On NFL’s Monday Night Football (12/3/07), the Baltimore Ravens were ahead by four points, and had the undefeated New England Patriots on the ropes.  The stingy Ravens defense had kept Tom Brady and his high powered offense in check for most of the night.  On a fourth-and-1 play with less than two minutes to go, linebacker Ray Lewis and the Ravens front line stopped Brady on a quarterback keeper, and it seemed as though the upset was indeed going to happen.

Not so fast.

The Ravens coach, taking a page out of several NFL team playbooks this season, called a last-minute timeout to try and throw the Patriots off balance.  It has become a controversial practice this year, usually used just before a field goal attempt to mess up the rhythm of the kicker.  Because the timeout was called less than a second before the play actually happened, there was no way to stop it, so the Patriots nor the Ravens players knew that the play they had just run wouldn’t count. 

On the field, the Ravens were jubilant, throwing their fists in the air and celebrating, thinking that they had stopped the Patriots and victory was theirs.  Then they learned that their coach had attempted to pull a fast one.  You could see the frustration, disappointment, and dejection on their faces.  Many of them took off their helmets and stared off into the crowd in disbelief.  All that work to get to that point, and now the Patriots had a chance again.  If you saw the game, you could almost predict what would happen next.  You could see it in their faces.  The Ravens felt betrayed by their coach. 

The newly-revived Patriots came back, did the play over, and made the first down.  They then scored a touchdown with less than a minute to go, and won the game by 3 points. 

The bottom line is this: Calling a timeout in a sneaky way is not an Authentic way to play the game of football.  The Ravens’ defense did their job in stopping the runner, but their coach let them down by not trusting that they could get it done without a trick. 

How do your customers feel about you?  Are you Authentic enough to have built a high degree of trust with them?  In our economy today, customers want to know that you are trust-worthy.  If you betray that trust in any way, they will stare off into the crowd, disappointed by someone in whom they put their confidence.  And then they will tell others about you, and find another solution to what they need that does not include you.  You have the freedom to choose how you will come across to your customers.  Will you be upfront with them, or will you call a sneaky timeout that betrays their trust?