For those readers who don’t watch pro football (US style), calling an audible is a football term that means you change the play based on what you see the other team doing.

Power Players are masters at calling an audible. One of the hardest things to do is to change a strategy (or a play) midway through a game.

In business this would be the equivalent of changing the strategy live in a room with the potential client sitting on the opposite side of the table.

Best audible I ever saw? A CEO who realised five minutes in that the prepared (and rehearsed) pitch was totally and completely wrong. He gathered up the documents, threw them in the bin and asked the client what they really wanted from the company.

He turned the meeting into a live Q&A and it was thrilling to watch. Power Players are genius at calling an audible.

If the brief or the game changes right before your very eyes, you have to learn to hustle and come up with some brilliance on the spot. This is a sure-fire way to fast track your trajectory to Power Player status.