|
Far off I hear the rolling, roaring cheers:
They come to me from many yesterdays,
From record deeds that cross the fading years,
And light the landscape with their brilliant plays,
Great stars that knew their days in fame's bright sun,
I hear them tramping to oblivion.
Back in time, Grantland Rice wrote those lines as the closing stanza to his poem titled "The Long Road" which appeared on the final page of the legendary sportswriter's last book. How far we've come from those days framed by a simple "deeds, not words" way of life.
Since we're in Super Bowl season, sports as a microcosm of life makes for interesting discussion, though undeniably these uncanny similarities are all around us. Free agency mentality and situational ethics rule the playing field, boardroom, and the halls of Congress. Across the panoply of sports, politics, and business, going, going, almost gone are the values of Welch, Lombardi, Thatcher or Iacocca; in, are the shadowy adaptations of compromise and disingenuous behavior.
A story lingers about GE's Jack Welch. He had asked some purchasing people to work on some basic tasks. Weeks later they met to review progress. To Welch's dismay they had none to report; only weighty analyses and a half-baked effort to coordinate departments. Welch was furious. He called the meeting to an abrupt halt then ordered it reconvened just 4 hours later. The agenda? To report on progress and he got it! More was accomplished in those 4 hours than had been achieved in all the weeks preceding. To some, deliberate theatrics may seem a small issue. Our experience suggests not only is it not small, but perhaps the biggest distinction between winners and losers; organizations that shoot straight versus those that crayfish from side to side. If you fear the latter, here are some questions to ask your core group. (1)What do you really think about failure? Assuming it's unacceptable to you, is it communicated far down the line? (2) Are tiny mistakes hidden or washed over or are they rapidly admitted and remedied with lessons learned before moving on? (3) Have you considered a "learn from mistakes" campaign? The permission to admit them attached to shared accounts of how they've been fixed and often converted to gain can give a whole new perspective to using misfires as object lesions for failure avoidance and staff unity. (4) Do you separate "good try failures" from "stupid mistake failures," or worse, "value failures?" Knowing the difference is dispositive.
More and more we yearn for the Lombardis, Nimitzs, Staubachs, Thatchers, and something irretrievably lost. With every graceless act, with every disingenuous statement, through all the abuses of power, largess and position, the sense of "team" has been compromised and a legitimate question could be asked: Just what would Lombardi do?
Most leaders are far more complex than the myths that surround them yet the great ones long gone from the international stage stood stoically on principle and an obligation to their "team." As we scan the horizon for answers and a leader of Thatcher's gravitas, we're sorely bereft of these men and women though they are always there, drifting through our national psyche in clouds of what was, what might yet be.
|
