Imagine that your high-powered offense, which has rolled over opponent after opponent throughout the year, was on the field for only 8 minutes and 6 seconds in the first half of the Super Bowl. Also imagine that your MVP quarterback reinjures his ankle just before the end of that first half.
Prospects for victory should look thin, right?
This is what the Kansas City Chiefs were facing at halftime of Super Bowl LVII. However, they knew that they had done their work to identify ways to exploit the best defense in the NFL to score. And, not only score, but score in a ridiculously easy ways.
Kansas City's offensive coaching staff Respected what they could do against the daunting Philadephia Eagles defense to score 2 of the easiest touchdowns in Super Bowl history.
What was seen in those 2 touchdowns were 2 weeks in the making. Kansas City coaches knew they would be in some of the most stressful situations in the Super Bowl and took new looks at the Philly defense to identify ways they could put the offense in positions to succeed in novel ways.
They saw what the Philadephia secondary tended to do when there was pre-snap motion by an offense. They devised plays where they would use that reaction against Philadelphia to enable them to, literally, walk into the end zone with nobody within 10 yards of them.
The Kansas City offense practiced those plays before the game, choreographing all the steps needed to make everything easy for the players. The lack of stress held by the KC offense made the end result something of great beauty.
Responding to stress in the moment leads to breakdowns and lack of full success. Failure at this time is not usually the employee's fault (players). It is on leadership (coaches). Quality leaders take the time to look ahead at potentially stressful moments and prepare employees, processes and systems in advance so the team not only survives, it thrives.
Do you see yourself as a leader that can think quickly on your feet and tackle the challenges that face you? Look out into the distance. What you see are the leaders, teams and organizations that have far outpaced you because they did their work beforehand.