LEAD BOLDLY: Can I borrow your shoes?
Julie Jakopic
Leadership evangelist helping multi-talented leaders build resilient organizations and lives they love while delivering results and changing the world for good. Consultant/TEDx and Keynote Speaker/Media Contributor.
A strange question.
But one I asked a couple of weeks ago.? I was at a retreat where we were divided into teams of 10 and invited to play basketball. While I may have learned how to catch an inflated ball in a swimming pool, the best way I knew to help my team win at basketball, would’ve been to join another team.
On my team we also had a former winning college basketball player who was immediately creating strategies. We didn’t need a strategy person either.
But as we got off the bus at the gym, it turned out our star player’s shoes were falling apart. Pretty hard to play basketball barefoot.
So while he and the team worked on strategy, I found myself asking all the men who were not on the opposing team of our first game for their shoe size until I found the person with the same size shoes.
It was a great opportunity to lead from behind. Our job as leaders is not always to be out front but to provide support to our team to achieve their goals. In this case, to find the shoes. Where in your work does your team need you in front? Where do they need you in the back?
Have a great week!
Julie
P.S. By the way we won the tournament!
What I’m learning this week: It’s been gray and dank here for weeks but we are all actually fine. On the other hand, our friends in North Carolina are facing years of recovery.? You can help here. Supporting the agencies who were there before and will be there for the future.
Where am I headed??Heading to Enrichment Services Programs to work with Head Start leaders.