The following are 5 leadership lessons I (re)learned last week about aggressive learning, fatherhood, lonely work, albino killer whales, and the high price of leadership:
Aggressive Learning
Successful leaders prioritize personal growth. They are constantly meeting new people, going new places, having new experiences, and learning new things.
I want to be an aggressive learner, but there is a requirement for this to happen. On page 78 of Marty Smith’s new book Sideline C.E.O.: Leadership Principles from Championship Coaches, former North Carolina Tar Heel head basketball coach Roy Williams said, “If you listen, you learn… Nobody ever learned anything by talking.”
It’s been said that success comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. I am not be looking for success but I definitely want to be aggressively listening for it.
Similarities Between Fatherhood And Being A Head Coach
It can be intellectually lazy to compare being a head coach to a father. After all, you can fire and replace a head coach. A head coach and a player is often a short-term transanctional relationship. Conversely, a father is a relationship connected by blood for a lifetime.
However, click the image below and you will learn three similarities between being a head coach and father learned by Miami Dolphins head coach and new father Mike McDaniel:
Click Image To Watch
The following are the three similarities mentioned by Coach McDaniel:
- “There similar in that it’s a servitude role.”
- “You’re constantly concerned about the well-being of other people.”
- “Wanting to be something for someone.”
Lonely Work
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal wrote the following words about Texas Rangers outfielder Evan Carter, “Before Game 2 of the Division Series in Baltimore, Evan Carter sat at a small table outside the Rangers’ clubhouse, leaning over an iPad. The Rangers provide their players with scouting reports and video of opposing pitchers, but Carter also likes to watch video on his own. He studies how the opposing starter sequences his pitches, how he works left-handed hitters throughout the game. He takes notes, writing down his plan. “It just helps me when I do it myself,” he said. “I absorb it a little bit better.”
The most successful leaders do the hard work of preparation by themselves, when no one is watching. It’s just Carter, his iPad, and a notepad. This is what success looks like.
Average Is Overrated
The California Killer Whale Project routinely identifies specific orcas and gives them a designated name. A four-year old whale known as CA216C1 has been nicknamed “Frosty” because it has either leucism or Chediak-Higashi Syndrome. These conditions cause a rare lack of pigmentation in the mammals. See the picture below.
This albino killer whale reminds us of the value of being distinct. If you notice, we are not discussing the other five orcas in the pod, just Frosty. Average is overrated. What some see as a “condition” or “defect” is actually what makes you remarkable.
Celebrate your uniqueness and leverage it to impact your world.
The High Price Of Leadership
Leadership 101 teaches us that leaders must be willing to pay a higher price than others are willing to pay. This truth was on full display in a graphic moment by New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu. During the final moments of this week’s Game 4 of the WNBA Finals, the Liberty superstar got physically sick.
As you will see in the video below, no problem. Give me a trash can, wipe off my chin, and keep on playing.
Ionescu reminds us that leaders do not call in, they crawl in. As Billy Stephens wrote to me on X, “This is because people call in to a job, leaders are willing to crawl in to the mission because even crawling is still progress.”
Have a great leadership week! I hope this inspires you to (re)learn new things this week as well.
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