Leadership Lessons from a Hockey Game

Wild lost.  But the Nachos with jalepenos and cheese were great and sitting there with my arm around my wife was very cool.  Our seats were six rows up from the ice.  We were so close, we could count the missing teeth as the players slammed into the boards.  I wore my RED fire department jacket.  Bad choice.  We played the Detroit RED Wings.  The color red was NOT a good color to wear last night.

Anyway...loved the game, but I especially watched the refs.  There are some great leadership lessons here - especially when making decisions.

1.  When you make a call, you will be booed and cheered at the same time.  Thousands of people will watch as you make the call and they will immediately let you know if they like the call or not.  There will be no private decisions when you are a leader.  Every decision will be seen and evaluated.  Some will love it and some will hate it.  Some will even be angry and get up and leave.  And when they leave, they will call you all sorts of names.  But, you don't make the call based on who will like it or not.  You make the call based on playing the game right.

2.  There is no Hi-Def, Slo-Mo, Instant Replay from 17 different angles BEFORE you make a call.  If there were, you would never make a mistake - right?  I have lost count of the decisions I have made in strategy, marketing, staffing, budgeting, and even teaching series that had I knew then what I know now AFTER the decision, I would not have made that decision.  When you make the call, you make it on what you see at that moment in time and you make it with confidence.

3.  You follow through on your call and then keep going.  Regardless of getting booed or cheered, you keep going.  You keep focused on the game.  You stay doing what you are good at doing.  You don't second guess your call in the middle of the game.

4.  Decisions are best made when there is wild rock music playing, teeth are getting knocked out, and human bodies are flying and crashing into the wall.  Okay, maybe this one doesn't have much of a connection to decision making as a leader - but hey...