This is my second post reflecting on episode 2 of the “The Last Dance” a 10-part documentary series about Michael Jordan’s last year with the Chicago Bulls. The purpose of this series to find one leadership nugget in each episode.
[UPDATE: Due to the positive feedback I received on this series I turned it into a short book called “Lead Like Mike”. If you want to support me and read the ten posts all in one place you can now order it here.
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Are You Waiting for Inspiration?
In the second episode, there was a scene where Michael Jordan, a college student at the time, told his coach, Dean Smith, that he wanted to be the best who ever played at the University of North Carolina.
Coach Smith responded, “Not if you play like you did last year.” And with that, Jordan found the mental trigger he needed to push himself to work harder.
Jordan wasn’t the fastest player in the NBA, he wasn’t strongest, he didn’t have the highest vertical leap, and he didn’t have the best scoring percentage. But what sets him apart was his “growth mindset” or his ability to be coachable.
Psychologist Carol Dweck describes it this way,
“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”
My favorite Jordan story, which I mention in my book, is when he was cut from his high school varsity team. The kid who took Jordan’s spot on the team is the legendary, Leroy Smith.
Smith is legendary, not due to his basketball career but because history will remember him as the boy who took Jordan’s spot and sent him home crying to mommy. Jordan himself said that without Leroy there would be no Michal Jordan.
Jordan’s mother said that from the following day she never saw her son without a basketball in his hands. Jordan used that disappointment and failure as fuel to push him to practice more.
Think about this for a minute.
How in the world could someone who didn’t make their varsity team as a sophomore eventually become one the greatest basketball players of all time? That’s not supposed to happen.
So, how did Jordan do it?
Practice, practice, and more practice. Right. But practice alone isn’t enough.
Jordan created a competitive advantage by finding ways of turning any disappointment, failure, or negative experience into fuel for his desire to improve and win. This is the same man who said “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan
Jordan and I have some things in common. I was cut from my high school team too. (I was cut in college too.) I also went home crying. But that’s as far as I can take my comparisons with Jordan. When I was cut, instead of being inspired to practice more, I just looked for an easier team to join.
Do you see the difference in mindsets here?
During practice scrimmages, one of his coaches in the NBA would move Jordan to the team that was losing if he was on the winning side. But Jordan learned not to complain; he took it as a personal challenge. And more times than not, his team would win.
Here’s my nugget from episode 2
NUGGET #2:Leaders find ways to inspire and motivate themselves to achieve by turning setbacks, disappointments, and even failures into a competitive advantage and by learning from those experiences.
Leaders create their own internal “why”. Jordan’s why was very simple. He wanted to win, make an impact, and leave his mark.
While researching for this blog post I found this quote from Ryan Blair an American entrepreneur and author (never heard of him but I love the quote), “If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.”
“If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.”
– Ryan Blair
Jordan found a way to win internally before he won outwardly. Waiting on external motivation and inspiration is a gamble because 1) you don’t know if you’ll find it and 2) it doesn’t last. Instead, we have the ability to inspire ourselves by using life’s circumstances to our advantage.
So, are you the type of person who is waiting for external motivation or do you create it yourself?
Like a lot of other sports fans, I’ve been watching ESPN’s “The Last Dance” which is a 10 part documentary series about Michael Jordan’s last year with the Chicago Bulls. But I’m not just watching this from a sport’s perspective. I’m looking for ONE leadership nugget from each episode.
And let me get one thing out of the way. In no way do I believe that Michael Jordan is perfect and that we should copy him and his obsession with competition. But I do believe there’s so much we can learn from his wins and his losses.
[UPDATE: Due to the positive feedback I received on this series I turned it into a short book called “Lead Like Mike”. If you want to support me and read the ten posts all in one place you can now order it here.
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So, without giving too much away there was a scene in episode 1 where Michael Jordan, who at that time was rookie, observed his teammates participating in things he didn’t agree with. He was given an opportunity to join but instead, he literally walked away. He didn’t criticize anyone, complain, or report it.
Reflecting on that moment, Michael explained that as an unproven rookie, he felt he didn’t have a voice to speak out. So, he said, “I had to lead with my actions.”
“I had to lead with my actions.”
Michael Jordan
For the remainder of the season, Michael stayed in his room when he wasn’t practicing or playing. He avoided anything that was counterproductive to him becoming a better athlete and winning.
To some extent, Michael was an outcast early on for not joining the “cool kids” and for being so extreme. But that moment was such a pivotal experience in his life and career that he remembers it as being foundational.
Eventually, Michael would grow into a more vocal leader. But at the beginning, Jordan set himself apart from the others without even touching a basketball.
LESSON #1: You can lead without being THE leaderas long as you are A leader. You don’t need a voice or a platform to start leading. This is something I go into more detail in my bookLeader by Choice and it’s so critical.
You don’t need to be in a leadership role to start acting like the change you want to see. You just have to DECIDE you want to be A Leader. And you don’t need to wait for someone to give you a promotion or a fancy title because leadership is earned.
There are people in leadership positions who are NOT leading. And there are people without titles who ARE leading.
Don’t wait for someone to give you permission to lead since that day might not come. Even if you’re not “the boss” or in charge, you can lead. In fact, you have an opportunity and a responsibility to lead. And it starts by leading yourself.
The reality is that you can’t lead others until you’ve started leading yourself. If you don’t “walk the talk” you don’t have any credibility so why would anyone listen to you?
You can’t lead without being respected. And you can’t be respected if you can’t lead with your actions. Leaders are like magnates. Their actions repel some people, but they also attract the right people. But it starts with your actions.
So, are you leading now with your actions or are you waiting for permission?
If you like this post, and want to increase your leadership I.Q check out my book, “Leader by Choice.”
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It was trash day. And I had forgotten. When my wife noticed, she let me know. So, as a world-not-so-famous leadership author, lecturer, and mentor I responded appropriately.
I said, “Oh, I didn’t know it was trash day. My new
teleworking schedule messed me up.”
I didn’t even have to think about what to say; I blamed it on the COVID19 lockdown. That excuse effortlessly rolled off my lips like poetry.
Did my loving wife give me a pass? Not for one second.
Passing the blame and making excuses is easy. And conversely, taking responsibility, especially when we fail, is hard. It feels unnatural.
Have you noticed most people want to lead, but few want the responsibilities that come along with it?
For example, the blame for the COVID19 pandemic is being been passed like a hot potato from the federal government, to the States, to city mayors, to the World Health Organization, to bats, to China, and at one point to college students on spring break in Miami. I even heard news commentators blame senior citizens for not volunteering to die ahead of others.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if someone stood out from the pack and said, “Going forward, I will take total responsibility for stopping this virus?”
Leadership is counterintuitive and at times countercultural.
Sometimes the natural involuntary responses that we feel are so right can be so wrong. Leadership requires the discipline to do the stuff we least want to do over and over again.
Accepting responsibility is counterintuitive.
It’s hard for most people to accept total responsibility
especially when things don’t work out. Accepting responsibility for failures
and mistakes makes us vulnerable and hurts our egos. And it shows everyone
something they already know.
Leaders make mistakes, even the good ones. But the more you want to lead, the more responsibility you must take.
A Free Education
Some leaders have convinced themselves they have to portray an image of perfection and knowing it all. Maybe this comes from our educational system. In his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki writes,
“In school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet, if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk.”
Taking total responsibility is crucial because that’s the key that opens the door to learning from and maximizing our mistakes and failures. If we don’t accept responsibility, we can’t learn.
Life is such that taking the harder option is usually the best decision over the long-term. And the easier option usually feels good in the moment but is unproductive in the long-term. This reminds of politician, radio host, and motivational speaker Les Brown’s quote,
“When you do what’s easy life becomes hard. And when you what’s hard life becomes easier.”
Even if you don’t take responsibility, you will still suffer the consequences. So, we might as well learn something from the experience, right? Don’t let that pain and failure go to waste.
Great leaders take responsibility not just for their results but those of their teams too without making any excuses. In the book Extreme Ownership: How US Navy Seals Lead and Win, the author, Jocko Willink explained,
“The most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
Bias Towards Execution
If you want to lead a team, your family, or yourself you can start practicing the art of total responsibility. This means taking control of only those things YOU can control. When you accept total responsibility, you are putting pressure on yourself to do what needs to be done.
One of the most important things leaders do is execute. Taking total responsibility creates a bias towards getting things done and puts positive pressure on ourselves.
By taking total responsibility, you are removing any wiggle room for excuses to creep into your life. Making excuses is a habit and if unchecked can take over your life. Willink also explained in his book,
“Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.”
When leaders choose to accept total responsibility, they allow themselves the opportunity to win from failure.
So, what about you? Do you take total responsibility or have excuses become a habit?
