SOME LEADERS BELIEVE that their focus should only be on the “big things,” and don’t concern themselves with the “little things.” We disagree. We have a saying in the Marines, “The little things take care of the big things.” Mission accomplishment becomes nearly impossible if we lose focus of the details.

In the military, we have very specific rules and regulations as to how we wear our uniforms, how we cut our hair, and even how we lace our boots. That type of daily attention to detail may seem excessive, but we know that it is the details that often have life-or-death consequences. If we can’t trust a young Marine to lace his boots left over right like he has been taught, we can’t trust that Marine to call in an accurate grid of artillery when our position is being overrun by the enemy.

Simple details can have huge consequences. A football wide receiver breaking out of his route one yard too early or too late can be the difference between a game-winning touchdown and a game-ending drop. A defender in lacrosse not paying attention to her scouting report and knowing her opponent’s tendencies can lead to her giving up a game-winning goal in overtime. A misplaced comma in a financial statement could lead to the loss of thousands or even millions of dollars.

Too often, leaders focus on these details only when mistakes have already been made and the consequences paid. The football coach, furious with his player for running the wrong route, says nothing when he walks into a filthy, cluttered, and disorganized locker room all week long upon completion of practice. The lacrosse coach may be upset with her defender for not paying attention to the scouting report, but never said anything all season when that same player showed up in an incorrect uniform. The director of finance was irate at the subordinate who made a mistake on the quarterly financial report, but consistently accepted emails and other correspondence from that same employee rife with typos and grammatical mistakes. The little things take care of the big things.

A few years ago, Mac attended the lacrosse game of one of our clients. Before and during the game, the coach consistently preached discipline and an attention to detail. Even as a non-lacrosse player, Mac could tell that the team played sloppy, disorganized, and undisciplined lacrosse. They made frequent mental mistakes and failed to recognize things that the coaches had clearly gone over in the scouting report in the locker room before the game. After the game, the coach asked Mac’s thoughts. He told him that he was impressed with how hard his team fought, but that he wasn’t surprised at the team’s lack of discipline and attention to detail. As Mac said it, he gestured to the locker room around them. Each individual locker was an absolute mess. Clothes and sneakers lay haphazardly throughout the area. In the middle of the locker room there was a bin for players’ dirty uniforms and towels. The players had just tossed their laundry in the general direction of the bin and sweaty jerseys and towels were strewn around it. Their locker room reflected their playing style. The little things take care of the big things.

The Program is frequently invited to speak at conventions, clinics, and camps. At one of these clinics the speaker immediately preceding us was Eric Spoelstra, the head coach of the NBA’s Miami Heat. Coach Spoelstra described a player he had coached who possessed an unmatched level of discipline and attention to detail. He recounted how this player’s locker was almost OCD-like in its uniformity. His basketball shoes were always perfectly aligned on the floor, his jerseys neatly hung and color coordinated, and the deodorant was always in the same place. He went on to tell us that that player was LeBron James, one of the greatest players of all time. He appreciates that a fanatical devotion to discipline and an attention to detail is what will make him truly great. The little things take care of the big things.

If we want to ensure a detail-focused, organized, and disciplined team on a particular battlefield, we must ensure they are detail- focused, organized, and disciplined on every battlefield. As leaders, we must focus on the details both in our own personal lives and in our organizations. If we allow our teammates to demonstrate a poor attention to detail during the daily performance of their duties, and we fail to hold them accountable, we can blame only ourselves when our organization demonstrates poor attention to detail on game day, regardless of the playing field.

Here are some outward signs of a detail-oriented team:

1. Clean and organized common areas
2. Dress code
3. Well groomed (even if you just rolled out of bed, you don’t look like you did)
4. Punctual
5. Gear and equipment treated as if you bought it
6. Notepad and pen for all meetings