Clutch Players Succeed Under Pressure: Anyone on the team can be the “Clutch”

   A clutch hitter is a baseball player with a knack for coming up with the “big” hit when it is needed the most.  More generally, a clutch player is someone who succeeds in pressure situations—one who does well when the game is on the line. 

  We don’t play baseball here, but you (any of you) can be the one that makes the big play in business.

  Being the team’s “clutch” is not just a triumphant sports moment: the home run that wins the game or the basket or stolen pass at the buzzer…. It’s the precisely executed series of plays in football, not the Hail Mary.”

   Clutch has a secondary meaning which is "to grab" or "to grip" and therefore it can also be referred to as that crucial time when every move is critical; when a strategy taken succeeds or fails.

   Often performance in important situations is attributed to some pre-existing ability or character trait that results in particular players coming through with clutch plays on-demand. However, a study of clutch plays in the late innings of baseball games found there wasn’t a clutch hitting ability—those who made clutch plays once were not statistically more likely to do so the next time.  In other words, any one of us is just as likely to be the clutch player on our teams. 

  However, clutch is not just luck.  There are some people who are so much better under pressure than other people. It is the ability to do what you can do under normal conditions but under extreme pressure.

The Traits of a Clutch Player

   You can increase your chances of being the team player who steps forward in a clutch situation with the “big play.”  Being a clutch player is a combination of five traits:

1.Focus:  It is the basis on which all clutch performances are built. Focus is an overarching way of being that allows you to hone in on the one thing that matters the most and block everything else out.

2.Adaptability: They key is while it is important to have a strategy, under pressure you have to work toward a goal regardless of how you do it: fighting the fight, not fighting the plan. 

3.Discipline:  Winning the battle of you against yourself

4.Presence:  Keeping one’s mind only on the task at hand, pushing everything else—even fear—aside.

5.Fear: Harnessing (not succumbing to) the fear of failure as a motivator to keep on track.

Overcoming the Obstacles to Being Clutch

   Over-thinking the situation and overconfidence are the two biggest potential hazards to becoming a clutch player.  Over-thinking is when the potential clutch player spends too much time thinking “this is the big game,” and forgets to focus on the challenge at hand right now.  Overconfidence is perhaps the larger obstacle; when you spend too much time thinking you are the clutch player and too little time actually making the play—or getting in the way of those with the real solution.

   Our business is a series of plays—and like baseball we win some and we lose some…hopefully with the tilt toward winning.  We didn’t get to where we are just because of one big sale or marketing play, one “perfect game” day of 100% on-time performance, or one most big score that set us up profitably for the rest of the year; we got to where we are by a series of plays—some big, some ordinary, but all important.  Performance is the sum of all of our actions over time.  But, when the situation is right—that big moment when success is needed now—someone, maybe even the least likely team member, will step forward with the big play.  Anyone can be clutch.