The sports headlines are all carrying the same message last week; “The Anniversary of The Scandal."You don’t have to read the articles to know that they’re talking about Tiger Woods. It’s been a year since his fall from grace; a year since that notorious car accident in front of his house, and the subsequent revelation that golf’s wonder boy had ruined his family, and his reputation, by maintaining adulterous affairs with as many as a dozen or more mistresses.
It took Woods many months before he finally addressed the media about his failings, but when he did a single sentence said it all.
“I thought I was bigger than the game.”
Bigger than the game. How many leaders have we seen come crashing down because they thought they had arrived at the place where they were above the rules?
Think of King Saul. Israel’s first King had it all. Samuel describes him as “as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else.” (1 Samuel 9:2) As King, Saul had a 30-year run in leadership and achieved great things for Israel.
But eventually he thought he was bigger than the game. He took it upon himself to offer sacrifices; something God permitted only a priest to perform.
Samuel’s rebuke of Saul was as stinging as anything Tiger Woods ever heard. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure.” (1 Samuel 13: 13-14)
I don’t know what all of this means for you, but let me suggest three questions that will help you discern if you might be acting like you are bigger than the game:
- Do you ever allow yourself more latitude than you would extend to your staff?
- Do you ever rebuke your staff for behavior you know you’re guilty of yourself?
- Do you ever expect more of your team than you’re willing to commit to yourself?
By: Scott Cochrane (@WScottCochrane)
Former ‘marketplace guy’ and executive pastor, and now executive director at The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada.
Post used with permission from Scott's Blog: A Leader's Journey (Thanks Scott!)
This is great question..."How do you prevent yourself from behaving like you’re bigger than the “game”?" In my case, I was hired to lead some major culture and strategy changes in the organization I currently serve. As a result of this, I have been entrusted with a great deal of decision making power. Candidly, I am someone who needs to take intentional steps to stay in check with what I am called to do as a leader. In an effort to help us stay focused on our goals and promote a culture of synergy between leaders and team members I moved out of my office into a cube, turning my office into what we now call the "bullpen." While we have other meeting rooms in our building, the bullpen is reserved specifically for support our strategic plan. I have a certain set a values applied to this space. Any meetings in there require a "CanDo, Lead, Follow or Get out of the way." attitude. So if my team wants to have a meeting go to a meeting room...if we want to pour energy into propelling our organization forward let's meet in the bullpen. This same value applies to me...
ReplyDeleteMike, I think your final sentence is what this is all about; "This same value applies to me." That's the ball game; ensuring that we as leaders live by the same values as we drive throughout our organizations. Have you ever been on a team where the leader was behaving 'bigger than the game'? How did you handle it?
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