How Creating "Game Tape" Makes You a Better Leader

If you don't have an objective record of your employees' performance, you can't be the best coach possible.

Ever since Paul Brown started playing back film for the Cleveland Browns in the 1940s, game tape has been an indispensable tool in professional sports.

Nothing helps you learn faster than looking back at an objective record of reality. If you’re a player, you can see your performance reflected with the unblinking eye of the camera. If you’re a coach, you can analyze how your team is playing from a standardized view of the game, like the all-22 view for football coaches.

The eye in the sky, as they say, don’t lie.

Watching tape is key. I basically watch every game. It's the only way to break down your opponents. —Tony Parker

Game tape allows you to analyze, pause, rewind, and understand exactly what happened on the field. You can follow the thread from kickoff to finish and see how it all came together. The objective, of course, is to understand what’s working and what isn’t, and how to improve for the next game.

As leaders in the business context—specifically, as managers and coaches of o…