Did I like my Dad’s imposed evening solitude?  Of course not!  Both my brother and I begrudged Dad all those lost domestic hours.  But over the years, I’ve grown to respect his dogged commitment to the task. Although he never actually got published, Dad wrote at least three novels over a 30+ year period, dutifully mailing off chapter after chapter to prospective publishers.   Why didn’t he self-publish, you ask?  You try spending the next three decades writing unpublished novels and then tell me you haven’t developed a stubborn streak.  Dad was old-school: when you set a plan (ie. get picked up by an established publishing house) you don’t waver until the job is done.   Even as he was dying of lymphoma at age 80, my Dad was still fighting for more time…even a few more months… to get his latest book finished and published.

Eighty years is a long time to live and my Dad wasn’t even a particularly strong man, physically.   Contracting polio when he was 17 years old, he suffered post-polio symptoms throughout his adult life…watching his legs gradually wither down to the size of a normal person’s arms.  Using a cane user since my first memories, Dad was pretty much limited to a wheel chair by his 70s.  He didn’t exercise; he ate a good amount of meat; he hated green vegetables; he had type 2 diabetes.  Although not a heavy man, he certainly had his health issues.   And yet he lived to 80!   My guess is that if he hadn’t gotten cancer, he would’ve pushed on into his 90s.  What kept Dad going was his keen, curious mind.  He loved reading.   He enjoyed playing with his computer and teaching the other seniors in his retirement residence how to navigate the internet.   He was never happier than when he was out in the common area, zipping around in his electric wheelchair, striking up conversations and climbing on his soapbox to discuss music, religion and politics.  Dad had community and he had purpose.

Which brings me to Blue Zones.   Perhaps you’ve heard about them.   In his book best-selling book, “Blue Zones:  9 Lessons for Living Longer (from the people who lived the longest)”, National Geographic journalist and explorer Dan Buettner examines the handful of cultures in the world that are breaking records in overall health and longevity.  These cultures include people living in Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Icaria (Greece), and among the Seventh-day Adventists of Loma Linda, California,  Although wildly divergent in their ethnic and genetic make up, these cultures have a few things in common, namely:

• They follow a predominantly plant-based diet
• They lead active lifestyles
• They have a strong sense of community
• The live with purpose

Although my Dad didn’t meet all 4 criteria above, he surely did enough to make it to his ninth decade.   With his strong sense of  community and purpose, he lead a long, engaged life.  Just think how much longer he might have lived if he had fortified his diet with more fruits and vegetables and committed more effort to exercise!  (Even with his weakened limbs, Dad was able to hold his own in a swimming pool).

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I believe there is much that leaders in the workplace can take away from Blue Zones (and from my Dad as well).   After all, what leader doesn’t want their team to last a long time?   Who doesn’t hope that his co-workers will thrive and maintain their productivity for the long-term?   Fortunately, the Blue Zone blueprint is right there in front of us for the taking, namely:

• Promote a healthy diet and exercise in your department
• Provide frequent opportunities to get out of the office together, building community
• Communicate your culture’s purpose as clearly and and as powerfully as you can and help your staff align that purpose with their own aims and goals.

Who knows?  You team could be exceeding quotas (and writing books) into their 80’s!

“Last month I spent a week motorcycling back-country roads in Oregon, California and Washington. Unfortunately one of my friends had an accident that broke a few parts on both the bike and the rider. The trip was over for them.

The morning after the accident, we met in the lobby of a motel near the hospital to plan how to get our injured friend and his damaged bike back home. Thinking that we were on our own to solve this, we didn’t come up with many options. The motel owner overheard us and offered to help. He had lots of ideas that we would never have considered.

In the end, this generous man drove my injured friend two hours to the Seattle airport, shipped his luggage home and offered to store the damaged motorcycle in his garage.

We often feel that it is our responsibility to solve problems on our own. Seeking help isn’t a reflection of our ability; it demonstrates that we are confident enough to find the best possible solution. Sometimes, great ideas come from unexpected places.”
–GG

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(Editor’s note: I had my own injury/good Samaritan moment back in 2001. While on a trip in Costa Rica, my journey took me down south to the lovely Corcovado National Park. To get to the entrance, we had to take a small boat from our campground. On the return trip (after a lovely walk through the rainforest), a much larger vessel came speeding around a corner and smacked, dramatically, into our glorified row boat, sending everyone flying. In the wrong place at the wrong time, I took the main brunt of the collision, suffering a shot to my lower back (from the other ship’s prow) that resulted in a glowing bruise the size of a grapefruit. Back at the campground later that day, the proprietor was disconsolate. Not only did he book an emergency flight for me back to the capital (San Jose), but he also had his partner take me, hand in hand, to a doctor. All of this the proprietor paid for out of his own pocket.

Was he worried about a potential lawsuit? Perhaps. But I choose to believe that the campground owner, like the motel keeper in the story above, was simply interested in doing the right thing and helping wherever he could. Left to my own devices, I probably would’ve rested at the campground and hoped that my spine was all right. Thankfully, the proprietor was a man of action – and I was willing to accept his assistance. Truly, great ideas can come from unlikely sources.

Both the motel keeper and the campground owner earned our trust through willingness for self-sacrifice. By giving up their own needs, they became eminently trust-worthy.

As a leader in your organization, how often are YOU asking for help and soliciting ideas (rather than trying to do it all yourself)? How often are you practicing self-sacrifice for the sake of the team? Your answers to these questions might just determine the levels of trust and productivity your department will achieve going forward.
–DB
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Gord Grant is a professional coach who teaches his clients to consistently have the performance they want in life, work and sport. He can be reached at his email address gord@gordongrantcoaching.com or through his LinkedIn Profile: https://ca.linkedin.com/pub/gordon-grant/28/485/995

A pregnant tiger stumbles through the woods, desperately seeking its next meal.  With her unborn cub weighing her down, the tiger mama is nearing the end of her rope.  If she doesn’t find something to eat soon, she’ll most certainly die.   Crawling out to edge of a rocky promontory, she looks down greedily on a field populated by dozens of goats. Summoning up one last effort, the tiger mama throws herself into space – only to die of exhaustion before she even reaches the ground.  Miraculously her tiger cub not only survives the fall but is born fully awake and conscious.  Looking around, it spies a mother goat and proceeds to begin nursing from the goat’s teats.  In a strange case of nature’s born enemies defying their instincts, the mother goat allows the cub to feed, thereby adopting the cub into the herd.

For twelve months and a day, the cub lives the carefree life of a goat  — leaping and frolicking with its goat siblings, eating grass and berries (and the occasional tin can) – convinced that it is, in fact, an actual goat.   Then one day, a ferocious, fully-grown tiger rushes out of the nearby forest, eager for a meal.   Realizing that its very survival is in jeopardy, the herd scatters in all directions – all except for the tiny tiger cub, frozen in place by a mixture of fear and awe.  Certain that it will soon be one dead goat, the cub cowers in the shadow of the mighty tiger, awaiting its fate like the brave soul that it is.  Surprisingly, rather than attacking the cub, the tiger bends down, grabs the little goat/tiger by the scruff of the neck, and carries it over to a nearby river.  Beholding its reflection in the water for the first time, with the adult tiger behind it, the cub suddenly realizes who and what it is.   Letting out a mighty ROAR, the cub embraces it tiger-ness in every cell of its body.   Together  – cub and adult — the two tigers trot back into the forest, eager to rejoin the tiger family.

(with thanks to Michael Meade and his book “Fate and Destiny”)

Like the cub who became a goat, teams, too, can go astray, losing sight of their true nature and, most importantly, their true destiny.
What is your team’s purpose?   What great things is your team fated to achieve?   And how successfully are you realizing your potential?

Teams, like people, have a tendency to stay small and “goat-like”, finding it safer to under-achieve, safer to stay invisible and under the radar.  For with success comes heightened expectations — not to mention the jealous attacks from other teams, hungry for recognition.   And yet remaining small is even more dangerous than going large.  With each passing week, you feel something snarling inside of you – your true team self, perhaps, demanding authentic expression.

As a team leader, it’s up to you to hold up a mirror in front of your teammates – to show them what’s possible, to challenge them to put their goat selves behind them, to encourage them to ROAR.

The first game of the day is just getting started when my occasional nemesis, Rick from Ukraine, starts doing that controlling thing he does. You know – telling people where to position themselves, moving everyone around, and making sure his team is the strongest on the court. This drives me crazy! Where I come from, you always try to set up the teams as evenly as possible in order to maximize the chances of having the closest game possible. Sadly, hyper-competitive Rick (who does NOT like to lose) rarely sees it this way. Compounding things is Rick’s communication style which is, shall we say, blunt. It’s not unusual to hear him blurt out something like “You’re no good”, “You can’t hit” or “I no set for you.” Again, I come from a different school of thought – one that strives to build people up via encouragement and affirmation. I’m also an unrepentant advocate for the underdog. So when Rick starts laying into my friend, Steph, about her supposedly poor passing skills, I kind of snap. Soon I’m yelling at Rick, he’s yelling back at me, and before I know, I find myself storming off the court, declaring “I cannot play with this guy.”

Pretty immature stuff, huh? What was I thinking (or not thinking)?!!

And yet, what was I to do – just stand there and take it? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. In fact, there seems to be 5 distinct methods for managing toxic relationships, both at work and at play. They are:

Remain a victim to it

Change it

Change your perspective of it

Accept it

Leave it

Obviously in this particular scenario on the volleyball court, I chose method #5 – I left the situation, Although, in retrospect, I wish I could have handled things more calmly and reasonably, my choice was a valid solution. I couldn’t change Rick’s behavior and I couldn’t accept it, so I got out of there.
Let’s take a closer look at the five methods.

Remain a victim to the relationship: The most passive approach, playing the victim includes accepting a feeling of loss of control. It means reconciling yourself to powerlessness, uncontrolled anger, grief and sometimes depression. Remaining a victim is the path of least resistance, to be sure, but it also decreases our energy and drains us until we feel like nothing is left.

Change the relationship: A more proactive approach, this method involves trying to find a common point of agreement with the other person that enables the relationship to continue on at an at least neutral level. If you can pull it off (through stellar communication), the relationship can often be shifted for the better. The key is for all parties involved to move from WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) to WIIFU (What’s in it for us?).

Change the relationship by changing one’s perspective of it: Rather than changing the relationship with actions and new behaviors, this approach asks you to modify and shift your own way of looking at things. How can you see the other person from a new vantage point? What qualities of him or her can you appreciate?

Accept the relationship: In this strategy, you suspend your judgment of the relationship, releasing all stress and burden. You accept the relationship as it is – as an experience that does not require anything. You’re simply at peace with where the situation is at the moment.

Leave the relationship: If you don’t like a relationship, and you can’t change it, remain in it, change the way you look at it, or accept it, you’re only remaining option is to leave/terminate it. Sometimes the individual chemistry and make up of two individuals is such that we simply cannot co-exist in a relationship. This is not good or bad, it just is.

After the volleyball game, I went up to Rick and let him know that I like and respect him off the court (which is true) but don’t share his values on the court. I then suggested that we don’t play together for a while. It didn’t feel great – in general, I’m a peace maker. In a perfect world, I would’ve found that common ground with Rick and we would’ve patched things up. But not everyone is ready or willing to change. Sometimes you just have to get out…to surround yourself with your peeps. Life is too short to swim in toxic waters.

Bookstores make me happy in an old-fashioned sort of way, and coincidentally, they’re also cram-packed with books about happiness. In the near future, I expect all shop owners to devote an entire section to “Happiness Books”, so consumed are people with this pursuit of personal bliss. Life and liberty – those values promised by our political forefathers – meh! What we all want is happiness, and we want it now.

The question is, where does happiness really come from, and how do we get more of it in our lives? Certainly big houses and fancy cars don’t seem to be doing the trick. There’s a reason, after all, that psychiatrists make such a good living in the West, especially those who work with the most affluent. If the accumulation of “stuff”, then, doesn’t necessarily lead to proven happiness, what does?

According to interfaith scholar and Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast, happiness starts with just three simple verbs: “Stop, Look, Go”. If these words sound familiar, that’s because they’re what many of us hear from our parents when we are first learning how to cross the street. “Stop at the corner, look right and left, and only then, go.” As Steindl-Rast explains in his fascinating TED talk about happiness, we too – as adults – need to slow down and stop rushing through the intersections of our life. When you stop, you open your senses to the richness of life. When you look around, you become aware that life is made up of a series of moments, one after another, each filled with potential. And in each moment, you receive an opportunity to do something. Whatever the moment offers, take that opportunity and go with it.

Steindl-Rast has been described as the Guru of Gratefulness. Throughout his talk, he suggests that it’s not necessarily happy people who are grateful but conversely, it’s grateful people who become happy. Significantly, some of the people with the most misfortune in their lives are also the happiest. Think Steven Hawking, the celebrated physicist who has stated on numerous occasions that his disease (ALS) led him to use his brain in mind-bending ways that he wouldn’t have before his illness. Or Pete Best, the former Beatles drummer (later replaced by Ringo Starr) who appears happier now, in his 70s, than he ever was as a young musician in Liverpool. Says Best: “That’s yesterday. Forty years ago. What’s important is what’s happening today and tomorrow. When you realize that, you get on with it.”

Steindl-Rast’s recipe for happiness is simple: Build more stop signs into your life. Slow down. Appreciate the moment. This is not to suggest that we should be grateful for everything. We don’t have to be thankful for war, violence, oppression and exploitation. But we can be grateful for the opportunity that arises in the face of negative events – the opportunity be patient, the opportunity to learn something, the opportunity to stand up for our convictions. And the great thing is, if this moment isn’t to your liking, there’s always another moment coming right along. And another. And another.

Gratefulness can change the world.

• If we’re grateful, we’re not fearful. If we’re not
fearful, we’re not violent.

• If we’re grateful, we act from a feeling of
enough. If we have enough, we don’t feel
scarcity.

• If we’re grateful, we appreciate others and respect
their diversity.

So consider this a challenge. Today, build at least 3 “stop signs” into your work schedule… 3 times when you stop what you’re doing and just look around and appreciate. Perhaps you appreciate your work space. Or the fascinating problems you get to solve every day. Or the amazing people that you work with. Or the opportunities you have, moment to moment, to learn something – both about yourself and the world.

Your workplace is an airport bookstore. Take a moment to browse the “happiness section”. You’ll be grateful for the change it makes in your life.

If we’re talking about team-work, then sure, overall performance tends to rise when participants sublimate their own personal objectives for the sake of a collective outcome. A good example from the present day is the amazing phenomenon of the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors basketball team, currently maintaining the top record in the NBA. This is a team with two big-time all-stars, the sweet-shooting Klay Thompson and the transcendent Stephen Curry, a leading MVP candidate. So yes, they’ve got their hotshots. Nevertheless, what makes the Warriors great this year is their near total lack of ego, from the top down. Curry, for example, never asks his coach for more minutes so he can inflate his stats. Two former all-stars, veterans David Lee and Andre Iguodala, are happily coming off the bench every night, for the first time in their careers, willing to do whatever the coach asks for the benefit the team. Pretty much everyone on the Warriors realizes that the ultimate goal is a championship — not solo numbers, not individual fame and glory.

Clearly, excessive individual ego has little place on a successful team. But individuals do matter – most especially in regard to team-energy, where “I” (individualism) has a big role to play in productivity. Energy – both positive and negative — is contagious, like a virus. If, as an individual, you bring a bright, sunny, can-do attitude to the workplace, it can “infect” the whole team with positivity. And the opposite, of course, is true as well. One Debbie Downer can poison the conversation faster than the Roman Empress Agrippina could feed toxic mushrooms to her husband, Claudius.

So hopefully it’s agreed, then, that while there is no place for the individual “glory hog” in a successful team, individuals ARE important. Heck, a team without people is, well, an individual, right! Although our egos might need to be suppressed for the sake of the team, our positive energy needs to be expressed in order for the group to reach its ultimate performance level. WE have a responsibility to up our energetic games by working on ourselves.

No matter how you spell team, no matter what vowels (E, A, or I) exist at the center, teams matter greatly in our society. As individuals strengthen their communication skills and emotional intelligence, so does the team; as teams become smarter and more “functional”, so does the organization; as the organization becomes more enlightened, so does the entire industry; and with globalization, enlightened industries have the power to impact the country and therefore change the world.

So there you have it: world change starts with teams made up of individuals. The “I’s” do have it!

Years go by, and Jim is still wearing his cast. Inconvenient? Absolutely! But Jim has made accommodations. For example, a shoe maker in town has crafted a special shoe for him, one that disguises the cast, rendering it practically invisible. And Jim has his story down perfectly: he can’t run and jump at full speed, you see, because of a genetic bone weakness. The ankle could snap at any time. He has to where the cast for protection—or so his explanation goes!
By the time Jim reaches adulthood, he doesn’t even remember why he ever got the cast on in the first place. It’s just something that he’s always had, he always will have, and that’s that. Now and again, Jim plays a little basketball with some of the war vets around town — folks with real disabilities – and hobbling around, Jim thinks to himself, “This is fine; I can live with this. I was never cut out for the NBA anyway. This is my level.”

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Jim is a fiction. He doesn’t exist. I made him up to demonstrate a point. We all get scared when we’re kids. Events happen that threaten to shake apart our fragile worlds. So – quite logically – we create defense mechanisms to protect ourselves, to keep us safe. And this makes perfect sense at the time. Jim keeps his cast on because, from his 12-year-old perspective, failure will not only feel really bad, but it might just jeopardize his parents’ marriage.

We are Jim and Jim is us. Our childhood defense mechanisms become habitual and, no matter how old we get, how seemingly powerful we become, we hold closely to our defenses – unaware of how our out-dated thinking might be holding us back.

Like Jim, how often have YOU decided to stay small in order to avoid the dreadful prospect of failure?

When have YOU made a choice to be a big fish in a small pond, rather than confronting the possibility that you might not be good enough to swim in life’s bigger ponds?

How does it feel, knowing that day after day, you’re settling; you’re not going for your highest potential?

If Jim was here right now – if he was a loved one, or a family member — what would we say to him? The answer, of course, is TAKE OFF THE CAST! But what if he’s still afraid? That cast has been there for a long, long time; it’s not just going to come off on its own. In order for Jim to remove the childhood limitations that continue to hold him back, he’ll need to adopt a new attitude, one that starts with self forgiveness. Jim must first come to realize that he is not “bad” person for running away from his potential. His story made a kind of sense at the time of conception. But Jim’s a grown-up now! He can take care of himself. He can create his own safety. He no longer needs the cast.

I imagine a happy ending for our friend Jim. At age 30, he adopts a meditation practice. He begins going to self-help workshops. He hires a life coach. One day, with the encouragement of his friends, he grabs a large pair of shears from the cupboard and cuts away his cast. Although weak from years of atrophy, his ankle slowly regains its strength. And when his first son arrives, Jim runs – yes runs – down the steps of the hospital in celebration, leaping into the air in effortless joy. It’s not too late for Jim to move freely, to run and jump and celebrate — to at last fulfill his potential.

So are you ready to take the cast off?

#1 It (the good deed) has to be something that really helps people.

#2 It must be something they can’t do by themselves.

#3 I (the giver) will do it for them, then they will do a similar deed for three other people.

Although I found the movie at times a bit too saccharine for my taste, I certainly appreciated the sentiment: Giving not only feels good, but it can jump start a contagion of philanthropic behavior.

The movie came to mind for me today as I was watching this inspiring YouTube video:

The video tells the story of Mason Wartman, a former office worker on Wall Street who left his desk job to open a pizza shop in Philadelphia. At Rosa’s Fresh Pizza, one of the first things you notice is a wall of colored post-it notes. Each note represents a pre-purchased, $1 slice of pizza that someone has offered up for people in need. In short, if you’re homeless and hungry, you can come into Rosa’s and receive a free slice. And it’s NOT charity from Wartman and his staff; the pizza has been paid for… by a good-hearted patron who paid a buck to help a stranger, then captured his intentions as a post-it note on the wall.

It’s a simple concept and rather elegant, kind of like when you’re crossing a bridge and discover at the gate that someone has paid your bridge toll for you. You think, “Wow, that’s kind.” And maybe, just maybe, you consider doing the same for the person behind you!

By all accounts, Wartman’s pre-purchased pizza policy has had a remarkable impact on the community in the City of Brotherly Love. One homeless person in the video even remarks that the slices have helped reduce hunger-related thefts. And interestingly, above and beyond the positive PR, the concept has been great for Rosa’s profits. Pre-purchased slices represent 10% of Rosa’s business!

So, what can you do “pay it forward” at your workplace? Where can you help someone publicly yet anonymously, inspiring others to join you in the giving? The ideas are endless! Imagine the change in your corporate culture, as people look for ways to help rather than to horde. That really would be a slice of progress.

Today I asked Tim to share a few of his thoughts on team leadership ­ from a jazz improv perspective. Here are his insightful comments:

“What I’ve learned from leading jazz groups, and from being a sideman for that matter, is that a group functions best when the leader is strong, confident, and has a vision. Within the context of that, he must also give the members of the band the feeling that they are totally free to express themselves within the boundaries of what the leader is setting out to do. I often find myself describing an improvising quartet as an excellent example of living, dynamic democracy. The jazz group was born to express the American spirit, and it has evolved into a form that is capable of expressing the spirits of communities of musicians throughout the world.

“The leader needs to pick members who will be compatible, and create an environment of mutual respect. With this in place, the sidemen can relax into a feeling of safety, from which they can explore and take risks without being judged unfairly for mistakes. If the leader is too selfish or demanding, the band members start to see themselves as just being there to do a job and collect a paycheck, and they lose respect for the leader. But more importantly, they become detached from the music and go on autopilot, ceasing to be actively expressing their own true music. On the flip side, if the leader defers too much to others in the band, the sidemen lose respect for him because they expect to be led somewhere interesting. This situation can result in everyone acting like a leader to pick up the slack in the band, and arguments over decision making and the direction of the music inevitably ensue.

“Then there’s the issue of “swing”. There’s the fundamental level of swing where everyone is feeling the beat together, and the music has natural momentum. Then there’s the next level where four artists all hearing the music in its moment of creation together generate an incredible propulsion. The rush of that stream carries each individual and the group into a place where they are all playing in a way that no one imagined before or could possibly recreate. The music is not only in the moment, it is of the moment. That’s what I live for! Occasionally it happens, and I dream of the day when I can play enough and have enough work for my band to live in that place more.

“So I see the wisdom of team leadership lying in the ability to acknowledge and nurture each individual’s freedom and creativity while simultaneously having the vision to create a group dynamic that takes the individuals bound together to a new and unforeseen place.”

Editor’s Note: I was fortunate enough to catch Tim in concert in San Francisco this past weekend. I was impressed with the way the musicians in his quartet listened intently to each other without trying to upstage one another. The goal was always to keep the music moving forward, and to make others look good. It reminded me of the way my favorite NBA team, the Golden State Warriors, have been playing basketball this year: without egos…completely oriented toward team performance rather than individual statistics.

Business leaders can learn much from the world of jazz improv. Before your next team meeting, consider asking yourself the following questions:

Do I have a strong, confident vision for my team, and if so, what is it and have I communicated it sufficiently?

Am I taking people somewhere “interesting”?

Do I provide my “sidemen” the freedom to express themselves within the boundaries of my vision?

On the other hand, am I providing so much freedom that my team members are left confused about the direction they’re being asked to take?

Do we “swing” as a team? Are we attaining that feeling of flow in which people are functioning at their highest performance level? If not, what aspects of my leadership style might be preventing this?

When it comes to teamwork, let the spirits of Miles Davis and Duke Ellington be your guide.

(Visit Tim Armacost on the web at www.timarmacost.com)

Given that over 120 million viewers were watching the end of Super Bowl XLIX this past Sunday, the chances are fairly good that at least some (if not most) of you witnessed the puzzling play calling from Seattle Seahawks’ coach, Pete Carroll. Here was the situation. Down by four points with less than a minute to play in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks have possession of the ball with one yard separating them from the end zone and, most likely, their second consecutive Super Bowl victory. The common-sense call is to run the ball with Marshawn Lynch, a bowling ball of a human being with the nickname “Beast Mode”. Lynch who, on the previous play, pounded ahead for four yards, has already run for over 100 yards in the game, demonstrating time and again that the Patriots can’t mount much resistance when a short gain is required of him. Everyone in the stadium (including this writer) is expecting a safe, off-tackle plunge from Lynch. But then something remarkable happens; the Seahawks’ brilliant young quarterback, Russell Wilson, unexpectedly drops back for a pass and slings the ball over the middle in the direction of wide receiver Ricardo Lockette, knifing towards the goal line. Against all odds, Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler steps in front of Lockette and intercepts the ball, essentially ending the game and handing New
England their 4th Super Bowl victory.

What could Pete Carroll have been thinking?

TV sportscaster Chris Collinsworth was obviously thinking the same thing when he exclaimed:

“I’m sorry, but I can’t believe the call. I cannot believe the call. You’ve got Marshawn Lynch in the backfield. You’ve got a guy that’s been border line unstoppable in this part of the field. I can’t believe the call… I don’t believe it. I’m sitting here and I absolutely cannot believe that play call. If I lose the Super Bowl because Marshawn Lynch can’t get in from the 1-yard line, so be it. So be it. But there is no way… I don’t believe the call.”

Like much of the sports media, I have to agree with Collinsworth’s assessment – ostensibly, Carroll’s call was a mistake. The odds certainly were strongly in favor of running the ball with Lynch. But Carroll apparently saw things differently. In a press conference after the game, Carroll calmly explained that for the play in question, New England had sent in their “goal-line package”, expressly designed to stop the run. Explains the coach:

“We easily could have gone otherwise. But when they sent their goal line guys in, I know that we have the advantage on the matchups in the passing game, so let’s throw it. It’s OK.”

If Carroll’s decision had worked out, great! The Seahawks pass for a touchdown and everyone calls it one of the gutsiest, out-of-the-box calls in Super Bowl history. And if it fails (as it did), Carroll and Wilson are goats of the highest order, those crazy gunslingers who cost an entire city a chance to celebrate.
What did you think of the call?

For me, the interesting question is not whether the play was a mistake or not, but rather, what Seattle is going to make of it going forward. It would be easy (and not unprecedented) for Seahawks owner Paul Allen to fire Carroll outright, laying all the blame on the coach’s shoulders. In the NFL in particular, winning is everything; coaches have a fairly short leash. It’s “win now or pack your bags.”

America certainly venerates its winners and vilifies its losers. Consider the case of poor Bill Buckner, a star baseball player whose error in game six of the 1986 World Series cost the Red Sox a championship. The city of Boston has never forgiven Buckner for his mistake, essentially running him out town — completely forgetting the player’s hall of fame statistics earned over a long, distinguished career. One wonders how the city of Seattle will treat Carroll and staff over the next few weeks and months.

As mentioned, Carroll hasn’t really apologized for his mistake. He’s sticking with the argument that “doing the predictable thing” didn’t get his team to the Super Bowl. The Seahawks live by the unexpected and die by the unexpected. I get it. What interests me is how Carroll is spinning things with his players. After all, once a coach has lost the locker room, his days as the team leader are over. If the Seahawks, in their disappointment, rise up as one against Carroll and his coaching staff, pointing fingers at the men responsible for their Super loss, it could be a slippery slope for Seattle back to mediocrity.

As a leader, Carroll’s task is to remind people that there are no mistakes; there are only learning opportunities. So what work (and life) lessons can the coach and his team harvest from this year’s Super Bowl loss? How about:

• Whether you win or you lose, you have an opportunity to display class and character.

• When you have a philosophy you believe in (in this case, unpredictability), you stick with it, whatever the consequences.

• As good as it feels to be on top, you often learn more about yourselves when you’re dropped down to the bottom. We certainly feel more compassion and empathy for the world’s down-trodden masses when we’ve taken a hit ourselves.

You get the idea. In the short term, the Seahawks are undoubtedly feeling sad and disappointed this week. After all, they’ve been deprived of their much-anticipated winner’s high. But in the long term, losing DOES build character and engender insight. The most successful people on the planet see opportunity in all experience, enjoying the process no matter what happens. In fact, true visionaries often enjoy when things don’t go exactly as planned; they love serendipity, as it usually opens the door to a new options and possibilities.

Can Pete Carroll successfully convey this message to the Seattle Seahawks? Given what I know about his established rapport with his team, I’m guessing yes. It probably doesn’t hurt, as well, that each player on the losing squad of the Super Bowl gets a $49,000 bonus for simply appearing in the big game. So much for the “downtrodden masses”.