Little League Leadership

Celebrate the incremental achievements, not just the final results.  This communicates progress, inspires others, and reinforces successful, repeatable behavior.  ~Gary Burnison, The Twelve Absolutes of Leadership

In the midst of heightened security alerts, continued violence, and gruesome massacres, last week the city of Chicago was given a reason to celebrate.   Jackie Robinson West, a little league team from the south side became the National Little League Champions and lost the World title in the finals to South Korea.  The south side of Chicago has been in the news almost exclusively for the violence that continues to plague that part of the city.  That made this Little League National Championship even more worthy of a celebration.

These 11 and 12-year-old boys played their hearts out but had no idea how their victories were impacting an entire city.  When they arrived home and entered the airport they were greeted with thunderous applause and cheers.  Then there was the parade ending at Millennium Park with 10,000 fans supporting these boys who were honored by the Mayor.  That was followed by appearances at a Cubs game and a Sox game.  In between there were numerous TV interviews and next weekend I believe the entire team is off to Disney World for continued celebration.      

As the adults nearly forced their exuberance onto these youngsters, when the boys were interviewed and asked what they looked forward to most, the typical response was "sleep."  These boys were exhausted; but it was clear, the city wanted and needed a celebration.  I would even go far as to say the city was desperate for a reason to celebrate.

Several years ago when I began a program to become a certified coach, I thought the practice of beginning every training session with the opportunity for anyone to share any recent victories or reason to celebrate was sort of a waste of time.  But, I soon realized that we don't do nearly enough celebrating.  We focus on what's bad, wrong, not working, causing us frustration, etc. and take far too little notice of what is worthy of celebrating.  So now I've actually incorporated the practice of beginning with celebrating whenever I do leadership training.

I'm not arguing that we ignore the negative or problems that need to be solved.  But I am suggesting that we find ways to tip the scales a bit more on the celebrating side of the equation.  Dwight Frindt, co-author of Accelerate: High Leverage Leadership for Today's World says, "Acknowledgment and celebration are essential to fueling passion, making people feel valid and valuable, and giving the team a real sense of progress that makes it all worthwhile."

In honor of Labor Day (and Jackie Robinson West), let's all find a way to celebrate our labor this week.