Leading with the Heart

Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated. Instead of providing a spawning ground for creativity, a leader may be so structured, so ruled, so totally predictable, that he completely erases any enjoyment on the part of the team. I recall one year, for instance, when our guys had been playing very poorly and expected a good chewing out from me. But when they showed up for practice, they found a volleyball net set up on the court. And that’s all we did during that practice—play volleyball. I felt the players had forgotten what it was like to have fun playing ball.