What A True Leader Looks Like

In case anyone missed it this past Monday, this here was class personified.
 
Doc Rivers, coach of the LA Clippers called a timeout, at home, up 9 points, with just over 9 seconds to go. The game was over – but he got on the PA system & asked the fans to acknowledge one of the NBA’s best/classiest guys, Dirk Nowitzki, as this will likely be his last time playing in front of that crowd after a long career.
 
In this world we currently live in, where it seems like we need to take sides, & there are many polarizing subjects we are at odds on, this was great to see. You can be fierce competitors & still have great respect for one another.
 
I just got off the phone with the South Carolina Gamecocks about our upcoming #SameHere🤙 Sit-Down with them on 4/1. One of the things they asked for, was for our team to meet with their entire group of coaches – heads & assistants, to talk about what they as leaders must do, around the topic of mental health.
 
While the conversation will go deep, as it did with the coaches at Providence College, here’s the main message: vulnerability from leaders WINS. It allows your players/employees/students/kids to feel comfortable opening up themselves & getting things off their chests. In doing so with one another, it also binds them closer together as teams/units, because we are more willing to get in the bunker & “have the back” of those we know more & more about, personally.  It also allows them to focus on the task at hand, as opposed to carrying around what bothers them from the past.
 
Doc showed he was human the other night. He did it in front of many thousands of fans. Being human doesn’t need to take place in front of many thousands…it can be just between you & one other, as a leader.  But think about the impact being human/vulnerable can have on those who look up to you as a leader. Makes all the difference in the world!