“No one was trying to grab any credit or deflect any blame.”
So said Theo Epstein, president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs after his team lost 4 straight to the New York Mets in the 2015 National League Championship Series.
Good for him, I say.
{And a moment of silence and appreciation for those Cubbies and what an awesome year they had……….Thank you.}
“They all supported one another,” Epstein continued, “and in the end the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.”
So that’s them, but now look at how you run your organization, whether it’s a small work group, department, division, or an entire company. How do you, as your organization’s leader, handle pressure, and expectations, and failure and disappointment?
- Do you leverage the learning opportunities or just go with blame?
- Do you whine and moan or model a better way?
- Do you hold grudges or redouble your efforts to lead more compellingly?
You see, knowing which side of the fair/foul line you’re on matters. And which side of the fair/foul line you’re on is a choice that YOU get to make.
Which begs the question:
“Which side of the fair/foul line would your staff say you’ve chosen to be on?!”
Success Springs from Failure
Napoleon Hill said that “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
Your job, as a leader, is to find that seed, talk about its importance, and set the stage for learning and growing from it.