Leadership is Difficult-Part One

In case you’ve never seen the movie, allow me to give you a very brief summary, and then I’ll share some lessons that I took with me. For a more in depth summary click here.

Coach Carter was a business man and former decorated player at Richmond High School, when he was asked to take over as head coach. The previous coach was retiring and in his last season had won only four games. The players were undisciplined, rowdy, and didn’t seem to have much skill. 

Through Coach Carter’s efforts, the team was completely turned around in his first coaching season, and made it to the championship game. 

How did he do it? Here’s a few principles that stuck out to me:

1. The Law of the Lid

John Maxwell highlights this principle in his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. According to the “law of the lid” everything rises and falls on leadership. This principle was proved to be especially true in this case. The old coach didn’t have it. Coach Carter had it. No other variable had changed. The players were the same. The only difference was the coach. This is why whenever a sports team has a bad season, the first person to go is the coach. 

2. Structure and Direction

Coach Carter provided a level of structure that just did not exist before. The old coach was tired. Many of the players were failing classes, and the school system in place supported them playing even though they weren’t meeting the standard. Instead of urging and requiring his players to meet the standard, Coach Carter gave his players very clear structure and direction. He made them sign a contract with specific points of conduct that they had to maintain such as maintaining a 3.2 gpa, wearing jackets and ties on game day, and sitting on the front row of their classes. Because of this structure and direction the players were able to focus on the game.

3. Return to Fundamental Skills

Gordon Maxwell, in his new book The Outliers,

studies the fundamentals of what makes a person successful. Through his research he discovers that the basis has to do with the number 10,000. He says once someone has attained 10,000 hours of practice at something, one becomes very proficient at it, allowing someone to then begin perfecting it. This comes out to about 3 hours a day for a decade. Coach Carter’s team did not have this much time to practice. But it was clear in the movie that he made a pointed turn to cover the basics of conditioning, shooting, plays, etc. 

Which brings me to my dilemma. As a leader, these principles are somewhat intimidating and scary. I don’t want to think about the fact that if my church is declining it’s because of me! I don’t want to admit that if the church remains in a state of perpetual plateau, it’s because I’ve become comfortable with the view.   

It’s so much easier, and much more cathartic to put the blame on the people. To pass the buck. I want to do it all the time! And it feels better than blaming myself. 

“Those people are just stuck with their old-way of thinking.” 

“They just love tradition!”

“They’re impossible to change.”

But if I face the facts, I have to come to terms that people can change.

So how can I apply these principles to my situation?

1. Law of the Lid

I can seek to build myself up as a leader. The million dollar question, of course, is how. One thing I try to do is surround myself with good leaders. At the moment, most of the good leaders that I come into contact with are sitting to the left of my desk on a bookshelf. They’re always there for me to speak to me, but they aren’t very warm.

I also try to get in contact with other leaders in my field and poke their brains a little. I think the best way to learn as a leader, though, is to see good leadership in action. This is something that I wish I had a lot more of in my life. Right now I’m the only pastor of two churches, so it’s difficult to gauge my personal leadership capacity. I think it would be a wonderful experience to work hand-in-hand with a pioneering pastor/leader for my next gig. And to be able to see how an excellent leader would deal with a particular situation. To see how a good leader would react and what he would say when confronted with trials and obstacles. Alas, for the moment I’ll have to wait on this one.

2. Structure and Direction

I feel like I’ve been giving a sense of vision and direction in my churches. I like to read and discuss various books with my leaders. But I feel like there needs to be more clarity as far as structure is concerned. I’d like to be able to analyze the effectiveness of our current leadership structures. At the moment I don’t have much time to think about these things.

3. Return to Fundamental Skills

As a pastor, I think this entails making sure that my people understand the basics of Christianity. How we’re saved. How to study the Bible. How to pray. How to tell other people about God. Our mission as Christians. I think this covers the basics of Christianity.

I think there’s a couple other leadership lessons in there that I could recall. I’ll share some more in my next post.

If you’ve seen the movie, what did you take away as the best leadership principles? If you haven’t seen the movie, how are you doing in your leadership? What are you doing to build yourself up and build up other leaders around you?