By Manuel “Bobby” Orig, Director, Apo Agua

Greater impact isn’t about working harder or longer.

The workplace is full of people who want to contribute in meaningful ways, yet not everyone knows how to make an impact.

We can put long hours and work hard, but if our effort is off target, we’ll end up with great work that is irrelevant.

The Impact Players studied by the author and her team didn’t necessarily work any harder or any longer than their peers.

Drawing on insights from leaders at top companies, they identified the five practices that differentiate Impact Players from the rest and made them stand out:

• DO THE JOB THAT’S NEEDED: While others do their job, Impact Players do the job that’s needed.
• STEP UP, STEP BACK: While others wait for direction, Impact Players step up and lead.
• FINISH STRONGER: While others escalate problems, Impact Players move things across the finish line.
• ASK AND ADJUST: While others attempt to minimize change, Impact Players learn and adapt to change.
• MAKE WORK LIGHT: While others add to the load, Impact Players make heavy demands feel lighter.

These are the practices by which you can increase your influence, leadership, and impact at work.

Praise for the book:

“Impact players is a gold mine! It is filled with powerful insights and actionable recommendations on how to move beyond being a competent employee to being a truly impactful player.”
–TEENA SEELIG
Professor and Executive Director, Knight-Henessy Scholars
Standford University

About the author:

Liz Wiseman is a researcher and executive advisor who teaches leadership around the world. She has conducted significant research in the field of leadership and collective intelligence and writes for Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and a variety of other business and leadership journals. She is a frequent guest lecturer at Brigham Young University and Stanford University and is a former executive at Oracle Corporation, where she worked as the Vice President of Oracle University and as the global leader for Human Resource Development.

INTRODUCTION

While all people bring capability and intelligence to their jobs, some seem to play their hand better than others. They develop a reputation as the impact players within an organization. Managers know who these top players are, and they understand their worth. Leaders come to depend on them and give them a steady stream of high-profile assignments and new opportunities. Their peers know who they are as well. Everyone seems to understand the value they contribute and can see the positive influence of their work, and these people seem to move through their careers with impact and purpose.

The author has been privileged to work with many of these superstars in her years as a corporate executive and witnessed their positive influence on teams and across the entire organization. She had also seen how the impact of their work creates a more meaningful and fulfilling work experience for them. Yet she also noticed smart, talented people playing below their potential.

Most people have seen this dynamic—two similarly capable individuals, both with talent and drive but whose work is having a markedly different level of impact—but not everyone understands what causes this difference.

Corporate leaders sense the differences but often can’t articulate them.  They usually know who  the superstars are and want more of them, but they struggle to explain what actually makes them different. Typically managers can articulate the more pronounced differences between their top and low performers; however, when it comes to their most influential, impactful players, the top of the top, there seems to be an ineffable quality about them.  There is a certain quality that cannot be described or named easily in how they approach their jobs and an art form to the way they contribute.

Meanwhile, professionals are hungry to make an impact. Sure, most people want a good job, but they also want to make a meaningful contribution; they want their work to matter and to make a difference in the world. They want to be engaged and to be respected for their contribution.

For the last decade, the author has looked to leaders as both the source of and solution to the problem. She is well aware of how a leader’s behavior can either increase or diminish someone’s ability to contribute. Leaders certainly bear the responsibility for creating an inclusive environment and providing the right direction and coaching, but the way the contributor works matters as well.

As the workplace has become less hierarchical and more complex, numerous researchers have articulated new models of leadership. There are thousands of books about how to excel as a leader, but how does one become a top contributor? There is a host of unanswered questions:

• What make someone influential inside an organization?
  
• What are the mindsets and practices that differentiate the most influential players from others on a team?
  
• How do contributors influence their leaders, and build organizational support for their ideas and initiatives without having positional authority?
  
• Are these skills learnable?
  

To find answers, we need to understand what causes individuals to wield influence and create value, particularly through the eyes of their stakeholders.

When the author wanted to study the best leaders, she didn’t ask managers about their personal leadership philosophies; she asked the people who worked for them. They knew, which leaders drew out their best work and what those leaders were doing differently. Likewise, to uncover the playbook of the most influential professionals, we need to start by hearing from the incumbent leaders—the managers who see the behavior and stakeholders who benefit from the outcomes. We need to understand the subtle distinctions in contribution and uncover the invisible value systems to understand how small differences in behavior can generate an outsized impact.

Through the minds of both managers and aspiring leaders, the author have come to understand what differentiates the most impactful players from everyone else and how small, seemingly insignificant differences in how we think and act can make an enormous impact.

THE IMPACT PLAYERS

Monica Padman left college with two degrees  – one in theater and one in public relations. She moved to Hollywood to follow her dream of becoming an actor and comedian – to make people laugh and feel. Like most striving actors, she worked a variety of part-time jobs in between auditions and small roles.

Padman scored a small part on Showtime’s House of Lies, where she played the onscreen assistant to the actress Kristen Bell. They became friendly, and when Padman realized Bell has a young daughter, she mentioned that she did some babysitting. Bell and her husband, the actor Dax Shepard, took her up on the offer. As she became a trusted part of the household, she saw the challenges Bell faced juggling multiple acting and producing projects and offered to help with scheduling. Though it might have been tempting for the aspiring actress to ask the Hollywood A-lister to help her get on-screen roles, Padman worked where she was needed, as Bell’s off-screen assistant.

When Bell and Shepard asked her to work for them full-time, Padman was understandably reluctant – how could she find time to audition? But she decided to take it. Over time, she became more than just a trusted employee; she became a friend and creative partner to both Bell and Shepard.

While working for the family, she spent many hours sitting on the porch debating with Shepard. Their arguments were fun as they were fierce, so when Shepard suggested they develop their banter into a podcast, she was up for that too. Thus was born Armchair Expert, a podcast where cohosts Shepard and Padman explore the messiness of being human with experts and celebrity guests. Smart, funny, playful, and thought provoking, the podcast became 2018’s most downloaded new podcast and has continued to grow in popularity.

Padman could have pursued a direct path to her passion. Instead, she worked wholeheartedly where she could be most useful. By playing passionately where she was most needed, she found a bigger opportunity and, perhaps, her true purpose.

Professionals such as Monica Padman, and many more like her in other industries, are the all-stars of the workplace who bring their A-game everywhere they go and to everything they do. They work with purpose and passion, but their passion is channeled, focused on what matters most to the organizations they work for and the issues of our time. These professionals become influential voices in the world, known as much for their unique capabilities as for their broad impact.

They are Impact Players: players who make a significant contribution individually but who also have an enormously positive impact to the entire team.

The author shares her insights she and her team have gleaned from their study of Impact Players and introduce the practices and the mindsets that cause their work to land with impact and differentiate them from other hardworking contributors.

First, some definition is in order. In their research, the author and her team studied three different categories of contributors:

• High-impact contributors: Those who are doing work of exceptional value and impact
• Typical contributors: Smart, talented people who are doing solid (if not great) work
• Under-contributors: Smart, talented people who are playing below their capability level

This book focus primarily on the distinction between the first two categories in order to explore the subtle, often counterintuitive differences in mindset that become big differentiators in impact.

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT PLAYER

So what did the author and her team find? For starters, they found Impact Players across a wide variety of job types, at all levels, and in every industry they encountered. Some  of them serve in highly visible roles, such as Monica Padman, or receive public praise, such as Dr. Beth Ripley who was awarded a 2020 Service to America Medal by the Partnership for Public Service for her pioneering work in 3D printing.

Something else was very clear: Those considered typical contributors were no slouches. They were capable, diligent, hardworking professionals. They did their jobs well, followed direction, took ownership, stayed focused, and carried their weight. In many ways they were the type of employees any manager would want on their team.

However, in analyzing the differences between high-impact players and other hardworking contributors, they discovered key differences in how they think and work.

IMPACT PLAYERS WEAR OPPORTUNITY GOGGLES

The approach taken by the Impact Players isn’t just marginally different, it is radically different – and it’s rooted in how these professionals deal with situations they cannot control. Typical contributors excelled in ordinary situations, but they were more easily flummoxed by uncertainty and got stuck amid ambiguity. When others may have freaked out or checked out, Impact Players dove into the chaos head-on, much as a savvy ocean swimmer dives into and through a massive oncoming wave rather than panicking and being tumbled in the surf.

Virtually all professionals deal with waves of ambiguity, regardless of where they work. These challenges are problems everyone can see but no one owns, new terrain with never-before-seen obstacles, goals that morph as they get closer, and work demands that increase faster than one’s capability grows. These challenges once considered extraordinary have become everyday, perennial realities of the modern workplace, and the way Impact Players view and respond to these external factors is at the heart of what makes them extraordinarily valuable.

IMPACT PLAYERS REACT DIFFERENTLY TO UNCERTAINTY

Because Impact Players see uncertainty and ambiguity as an opportunity to add value, they react fundamentally differently as well.

The following practices were the five key differentiators the author and her team found between Impact Players and their colleagues. Each is a set of behaviors that flow from the belief that opportunity can be found amid ambiguity and challenge.

1. Do the Job That’s Needed. When dealing with messy problems, Impact Players address the needs of the organization; they ventured beyond their assigned job to tackle the real job that needs to be done. Impact Players aim to serve; this orientation prompts them to empathize with their stakeholders, look for unmet needs, and focus where they are most useful. As they do, they increase organizational responsiveness, create a culture of agility and service, and build a reputation as flexible utility players who can be valuable in a variety of jobs.
   
   In contrast, the more typical players operate with a duty-oriented mindset, taking a narrow view of their role and playing their position. While others do their job, Impact Players do the job that needs to be done.
   
2. Step Up, Step Back. When it’s clear that something needs to be done but it’s unclear who is in charge, Impact Players step up and lead. They don’t wait to be asked; they get things started and involve others, even when they’re not officially in charge. They practice a fluid model of leadership – leading on demand rather than by command. Their willingness to both lead and follow creates a culture of courage, initiative, and agility inside their organization.
   
   In  contrast, when roles are unclear, most players act as bystanders. They assume other people are in charge and will tell them when they are needed and what to do. While others wait for direction, Impact Players step up and lead.
   
3. Finish Stronger. Impact Players tend to be completion freaks; they stick with things and get the entire job done, even when the job becomes hard and plagued with unforeseen obstacles. They work with a heightened sense of urgency and an assumption of personal strength, which prompts them to take ownership, solve problems, and finish jobs without constant supervision. But they don’t just push through roadblocks – they improvise and give themselves permission to do things differently and find better ways of working.
   
   In contrast, more typical players operate with an avoidance mindset. They take responsible action, but when things get tough they escalate issues up the management chain rather than taking ownership; at worst, they get distracted or discouraged and stall out completely. While others escalate problems, Impact Players move things across the finish line and build strength along the way.
   
4. Ask and Adjust. Impact Players tend to adapt to changing conditions faster than their peers because they interpret new rules and new targets as opportunities for learning and growth. They certainly appreciate affirmation and positive feedback, yet they actively seek corrective feedback and contrary views and use this information to recalibrate and refocus their efforts. In the process, they strengthen a culture of learning and innovation, help the organization stay relevant, and build personal reputations as coachable players who up-level their own game and raise the bar for everyone on the team.
   
   In contrast, most professionals interpret change as annoying, unfair, or threatening to the stability of their work environment. In volatile conditions, they tend to stick to what they know best and keep playing the game by the rules that validate their current expertise. While others attempt to manage change, Impact Players are learning and adapting to change.
   
5. Make Work Light. When a team is weighed down by increased pressure and unrelenting demands, Impact Players make hard work easier. They provide lift, not by taking on other people’s work but by being easy to work with. They bring a sense of buoyancy and equanimity that reduces drama, politics, and stress and increase the joy of work. By creating a positive and productive work environment for everyone, they reinforce a culture of collaboration and inclusion and develop a reputation as high-performing, low-maintenance players – the type everyone wants to work with.
   
   In contrast, when the pressure is on and workloads are at a peak, typical players tend to seek help rather than offer to help. As this becomes their default response, they add to the burden of already overtaxed teams during difficult times and can become a burden to their leaders and colleagues. While others add to the load, Impact Players make heavy demands feel lighter.

IMPACT PLAYERS TAP INTO UNWRITTEN RULES

One of the primary  insights that emerged from the author’s research was that Impact Players seem to understand the rules of the workplace better than others. They figure out the unwritten rule book – the standards of behavior that one should follow in a particular job or organization. They tune in to the needs of the organization and determine what’s important to their immediate colleagues; they figure out what needs to get done and ascertain the right way to get it done.

So, what do organizational leaders value most? Managers want their staff to make their jobs easier – to help them lead their teams and be self-managing whenever possible. They need people who can think for themselves and step up to a challenge. In reality, managers want people to help them find solutions and foster teamwork.

When Impact Players figure out these invisible rules and understand what their stakeholders value, they build credibility. Their leaders are delighted and eager to support them, and they expand their impact potential.

Consider how each of these managers describes one of their Impact Players.

• LinkedIn sales leader Scott Faraci talked about account executive Amanda Rost, who had just handled an important sales meeting with ease and brilliance: “I was literally jumping around with excitement. I thought, “This is crazy. Who is this superstar I just hired? If I could have built a statue and put it at the center of our sales force as a shining beacon of how to be a sales executive, I would have.”
  
• Roberto Kuplich, a development manager at SAP Brazil, spoke about Paulo Bütenbende, a highly respected software architect on his team: “You can lay me off, but don’t lay off Paulo.”
  
• Julia Anas, a senior HR executive, described HR business partner Jonathan Modica as “the first person to raise his hand for the hard, hairy problems” and said, “I look forward to our one-on-ones because I get energy from him.”
  

Though it wasn’t surprising that the most impactful professionals figured out the invisible rules, it was alarming to learn how many capable people were consistently missing the mark. These were smart, talented, and hardworking individuals, but they seemed to misunderstand what their leaders considered valuable and miss the subtext in the workplace norms. The typical contributors were often delivering a solid performance, but it would go unnoticed or fall flat.

There have been many times when the author missed the mark by merely doing what she was asked to do rather than thinking through what she should do. On one such occasion, a large company invited her to teach a leadership workshop to address a specific set of challenges its managers faced. Her client outlined their challenges, and they held numerous discussions. She then prepared a plan that she felt would best address their issues, and they all agreed on the approach.

A month later, she delivered the workshop as planned, ensuring that she hit each of the critical points. The session was solid, but she could  tell that it lacked impact. You see, in the month between the formulation of the plan and the delivery of the program, the COVID 19 pandemic had begun sweeping the world and disrupting nearly every aspect of work. Managers were now dealing with an entirely new set of challenges (managing uncertainty, suspending business operations, and staff working from home). She had done her job, but she failed to see that it was no longer the job that was needed.

Much like the author, the professionals who miss the mark are well intentioned but misguided. They were doing what seemed valuable, either because it was important in the past or because it was widely touted as the way of the future. But many of their work practices were counterfeits – an illusion of value lacking real substance. The author call these value decoys – professional habits or beliefs that seem useful and appear appreciated but erode more value than they create. They are the shiny objects that distract us from contributing in valuable ways.

IMPACT GENERATES INVESTMENT

The way Impact Players think about and respond to uncertainty and ambiguity makes them especially fit for the challenges of the modern work world. They are flexible, quick, strong, agile, and collaborative – the type of people you want on your team when your world is rattled or something goes awry. Impact Players will help you find solutions while others point fingers at problems. As one manager put it, the Impact Player was “someone I would want to be trapped on a desert island with” compared to another employee, who is “someone I would have to help to survive.” While others might build a shelter and hunker down during a storm, the Impact Player is building a windmill to create power. In challenging environment, Impact Players are assets that appreciate over time.

When the author  asked managers to quantify the value of the Impact Player’s contribution relative to their peers, they estimated on average, that the Impact Players on their teams delivered more than three times the value delivered by a typical contributor. Further, they indicated that the value contributed by the Impact Player was almost ten times that of an under-contributor (a smart, talented colleague contributing below their capability).

The fact that Impact Players are perceived to be more than three times as valuable as typical contributors means everything in terms of access to rewards, both intrinsic (such as working on great projects) and extrinsic (such as promotions and compensation). And when it comes to the development of talent, these players receive an extra helping of mentoring and a double dose of challenging assignments. The tangible value they provide to others is like a deposit that prompts reciprocal  investment and spawns a mutually beneficial cycle.

REPLICATING THE STARTER

Managers naturally want to replicate the Impact Player Mindset. Recall the words of Amanda Rost’s manager cited at the beginning of this summary: “If I could have built a statue of her and put it in the center of our sales floor as a shining beacon of how to be a sales executive, I would have.”

How do you get a positive mindset to spread across the team? How do you make a belief, behavior, or sense of energy infectious? Building a champion team is a bit like making sourdough bread. Baking a loaf of this tangy, airy bread requires sourdough starter – some of the bacteria that is already growing and living in the flour and water. When water starter is kept in  a warm environment and frequently fed fresh flour and water, it grows and spreads.

Similarly, to replicate a set of mindsets or behaviors, you need starter talent – people who can serve as the model and catalyst. Like the sourdough starter, this person could be either transplanted or carefully cultivated. When the Impact Player starter is placed in close contact with potential-but-not-yet-high-impact contributors in a warm-but -not-heated environment and fed the right amount of support and reinforcement, the Impact Players’ qualities spread. Eventually everyone rises.

The author observed this dynamic in her own team at The Wiseman Group. When Lauren Hancock joined her research team as a data scientist, she could see that she was a gifted analyst. Everything she touched got better – more rigorous and understandable. She had an infectious enthusiasm for making data-driven decisions. But as she worked closely with her, she could see there was more to her gift. Not only did she increase the rigor of the work, she did so without increasing complexity. Collaborating with Lauren always improved the author’s thinking and made her work easier – not just because Lauren took work off her plate but because she could find the simplest way to make sound decisions. This was a gift that needed to be shared.

Accelerating the spread of positive, high-impact practices and slowing the spread of detrimental influences help create an all-star team. And as any sports fan knows, all-star teams win championships, but they don’t last forever.

As top contributors grow, they need bigger arenas to play in. You may need to let them move to a new opportunity where (with the right environment) their mindset and ways of working will spread across another team. But their effect continues to redound. When Impact Players depart, they don’t leave a hole; they leave more talent, more starters.

SUSTAINING A WINNING CULTURE

As the cycle repeats, you will start to build something more powerful that a few strong players on your team and stronger than rule books and playbooks. You will create a culture – a set of norms and values about how work gets done. These are in the water and permeate the air, and they become ways of working that  persist long after a single player leaves a team.

The resulting culture is a collective expression of the mindsets that produce extraordinary value: service, stewardship, strength, confidence, and contribution. The culture will teem with a sense of adventure and a productive combination of initiative and accountability – a willingness to venture out but also a drive to get it done. People will have the confidence they need to learn and innovate and the agility to adapt to moving targets. The organization will have the collective strength to tackle hard problems, navigate ambiguous situations, and pursue opportunities. The culture will also value service – not servitude but a willingness to help colleagues and a penchant for excellent customer relations.

CONCLUSION

When Karen Kaplan joined the ad agency Hill Holliday, she was looking for an easy job that would get her through law school. When she was offered a job as receptionist, the founder told her that she would be the face and voice of the company. That’s when she realized that her job was important and her work made a difference. So she decided she would be the CEO of reception. Then she raised her hand and accepted each opportunity that came her way, appointing herself the CEO of those responsibilities as well. Now, thirty years later, she is the CEO of Hill Holiday, which gives her the ability to provide these types of opportunities to others.

Or take the case of Jojo Mirador, the surgical technician. Jojo’s the one who doesn’t just hand surgeons the instrument they ask for, he gives them the one they most need. During surgery other surgical technicians simply hand the surgeons the requested instrument. But Jojo watches the surgeon’s hands, anticipates their next more, and figures out what the surgeon needs before they ask for it.

When Philadelpia 76ers Scott O’Neil was searching for a word to describe an Impact Player, he said, “Passion’s not the right word. There’s probably some all-encompassing word that means you’re all in – ‘I’m with you, I’m next to you. I’m in front of you when things happen. I’m behind you when you’re falling. I’m completely committed.’ Whatever that one word is, that’s what he has.”

This is what the author calls a high-contributing environment—a setting where people bring their best thinking and do their best work, each person’s intelligence is deeply utilized, and everyone on  the team adds value. It’s an environment in which people are “all in”—fully committed to or involved in an endeavor.

Eugene O’Kelly, former chairman and CEO of KPMG, a global network of professional firms providing advisory services, was reflecting on his life when he said, “Too often, commitment was measured by how many hours you were willing to work. But commitment is best measured not by the time one is willing to give up, but by the energy one wants to put in.”

Being all in is not the same as being exhausted – tired and depleted of energy, resources, and strength. In hard-charging organizations, people are driven hard, pushed, prodded, and often exhausted. In high-contribution organizations, people are given an opportunity to contribute at their fullest and are in with both feet.

What’s the difference? Agency and choice. In one culture, management makes demands; in the other, people contribute freely. When leaders create conditions in which people can contribute fully and wholeheartedly, work is exhilarating. Work becomes more than a mere job or even career; it becomes a joyful expression of our most complete selves.

An all-in environment, where people are neither used up nor underutilized, is attainable with contributors who play for impact and leaders who bring out the best in others.

If you are an aspiring leader, the Impact Player is your path to leadership. When you think and work this way, you are viewed as a leader, and when leadership opportunities arise, you will be a natural pick.

Managers, building a team of Impact Players is your ticket out of management and into leadership. When you no longer need to step in and fill the gaps left by talented but under-contributing employees, it becomes easier to be a good leader. You can reclaim you equanimity and fulfill your own role with clear vision and composure.

While the career path for the most impactful players may lead to greater rewards, the real prize might be a better work experience: greater choice, more fun, deeper fulfillment. Indeed, the best reason for playing at your fullest may just be for the experience itself.

In the opening scene of the movie Forrest Gump, a feather falls from the sky and is tossed and tumbled in the breeze. Like this feather, life if uncertain. So are most careers. Opportunities present themselves like feathers in the wind. Tom Hanks, reflecting on the messages of the movie, said, “Our destiny is  only defined by how we deal with the chance elements of life … Here is this feather that can land anywhere and it lands at your feet.” What do you do with random chances? Do we see them as threats, or do we seize the opportunities they present?

Though all people have value and bring capability to their jobs, some make themselves more valuable than others. They play bigger. They find a need and fill it. They turn uncertainty and ambiguity into opportunity. Yet the way they work is anything but random. They find out what’s important to those they serve, and they make it important to themselves. They take the lead and finish the job. They stay light on their feet to adapt quickly, and they make work light for others.

How big do you plan to play” as Marianne Williamson, author and spirtual  leader said, “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.” Where can you be of greatest value? What is life summoning you to do?

If you want to make a difference, look around. Notice what needs your attention. Tap into your passion and your purpose, and find a way to contribute, to create impact, to  play bigger and better. Imagine the impact starting right now.

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