ARTICULATED

Not that this is rocket science, but nothing can paralyze a body quite like the fear of making a mistake, certainly if that fear is reinforced by a leader. The times when I’ve worked for a boss who seemed to spend their days just waiting for me to stumble, my creativity flat-lined and my innovation hibernated. By contrast, when I’ve been given latitude to make mistakes without fear of disproportionate criticism, I’ve flourished.

This little life lesson came to me recently on, of all places, the flag football field. In that particular environment, I’m embarrassed to admit that sometimes, I have been that oppressive leader – even when I’m not in charge.  I have been an agent for ensuring that neither my teammates nor I have a particularly great time.

I’ve known this for a while but have been oddly unable to address it. I’ve spent more time making excuses for my impatience. But this past Sunday, I tried an experiment. For two games, I completely lightened up. I focused on my attitude, not other peoples’ performance. I cast aside frustration. I encouraged my teammates to take it easy, even when the game was on the line, and made damn sure I led by example. I reminded myself that winning flag football games simply does not matter. I mean, really…

It was a little bumpy at first. Then everyone played really well. Then our team played far better than it had up until then. Then we won our games with authority. Then I said, “Wow.” And I’ve scarcely stopped thinking about it since.

Tags: Denver Gay & Lesbian Flag Football League, Kinkennon Communications, leadership, Shane Kinkennon

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 9:52 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Work and Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.