Play like you have nothing to lose.

“How many of you have ever worked for a bad leader?”
(Every time I ask the question almost everyone raises a hand.)

“What made him or her a bad leader?” I usually ask. You hear a number of different responses. Occasionally someone will talk about a truly toxic leader. But most of the time the common answer is more like this:
“They only cared about themselves.”

“And how long did it take you to figure that out?”
“About five minutes,” I have heard more than once.

I wondered today whether the common problem with these self-concerned leaders is the inability to play like they had nothing to lose.

Frankly, as leaders we always have something to lose. When we make the hard call, stand by our people, serve as “poop-umbrellas” absorbing or deflecting the “stuff” that sometimes rains from on high we run the risk of everything from taking heat to losing our job or reputation. Which brings me to the events of the past couple weeks.

I confess I have had to resist joining the throngs who have written about the recent Eagles Super Bowl victory, especially as a fan for almost half a century; one who remembers clearly the many “almost made its” and “there’s always next years” that have become the stock jargon of Philly fans. But indulge me as I can’t help but think that there is a leadership lesson in their victory this year.

Who goes for it on fourth and goal from the one yard-line just before the half with a trick play that they’ve never run before; throwing to a guy who hasn’t caught a pass in a game since high school? What coach listens to the players on the field and takes a gamble that if it had failed and they ultimately lost the game would have been the play every pundit would point to as the moment of supreme mistake, ultimate error, the deadly “momentum changer” that doomed the game to defeat.

But even after watching and re-watching the clip and listening to the recorded dialogue, I don’t get any sense that there was a fear of taking heat, losing job or reputation as the decision was made.

They seemed to be playing as though they had nothing to lose.

It’s easy to understand why a leader might do otherwise. A politician works hard to get elected and becomes motivated to remain in office. A healthcare administrator works her whole life to become a hospital CEO. An officer begins the journey to general as an ROTC cadet. A teacher gets his masters then doctorate with the hope to one day become a principal and then the day finally comes. The next in line for corporate CEO is competing with scores of others. A coach or player is finally in the Super Bowl…

I wonder sometimes whether the fear we take counsel of is ultimately the fear of loss to self. And whether we can too quickly allow that fear to keep us from taking the risks we must to achieve organizational success. Certainly, there is much at stake. But Teddy Roosevelt has advice for every leader who is willing to get into the arena:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” (April 23, 1910)

This week the credit belongs to a team of leaders who played as though they had nothing to lose and won.

Next week the same opportunity may be ours.

Chuck Callahan Henry V 4.3 – Lead from the Front      https://henryv43.wordpress.com/