The problem with success is that sometimes it can be one’s own worst enemy.
This can be true at home – how many parents have “breathed easier” after a child’s accomplishment or achievement?
It can also be true in the workplace – how many successful entrepreneurs & leaders in the business world have eased up after making the quarterly goals?
On the fields & courts of athletics how many times have we seen defending champions falter the next season?
Ed Orgeron, a beloved & respected Football Coach finally brought a National Championship back to Baton Rouge & his LSU Tigers in 2019. That year’s Tiger Football team was legendary; they went 15-0 & were led on the field by Heisman Trophy winning Quarterback Joe Burrow who went on to be the NFL’s overall #1 draft pick. Less than 2 years later LSU parted ways with Orgeron.
Get In Touch With JP
Prior to his time with Kashbox, JP spent 28 years as an NCAA Lacrosse Coach (22 years as a Head Coach). During that span, JP had the opportunity to coach with & against some of the top lacrosse coaches in the country.
Impatience is a reality in today’s sports world. Impatience from front-office staff & owners. Impatience from fans, supporters, & boosters. Impatience from within the organization’s players. The hell with what you did last year or even yesterday.
Rest on your accomplishments for too long, become complacent, & in today’s “what have you done lately” society, you’ll risk seeing that pink slip come sliding across your desk.
Become bored with the challenge or task at hand, & risk the same fate as Coach O.
Celebrate too long? Not a chance in today’s instant gratification world if you’re gonna keep that job.
Worst of all, get stuck in your ways, in your old habits, & you might as well kiss that position goodbye.
Coach O isn’t alone as a Championship Coach who was dismissed from his organization shortly after hoisting the Championship hardware. Similar fates befell on Kevin Ollie with UConn Men’s Basketball, Doug Pederson with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, & Tyronn Lue with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
Sustaining success ain’t easy regardless of where you are, what position you are in. For those who achieve the highest success one of their greatest challenges is to continue chasing that success, to continue accepting the challenges now brought on by success, & to constantly adapt, change, & evolve along their new pathway.
For many in Leadership positions this fall from grace can be devastating. Far too often Leaders are tied into their roles, they maybe even define much of their professional existence by their position. Embarrassment, uncertainty, & a fear of outside perception can all combine to make the Leader in this situation question themselves.
For the strongest Leaders however, there is a constant desire to adapt. To change the narrative. To make the best of the situation, & to recognize the positives that come with it. Because there can always be positives in any given scenario, one just might have to retrain their brain to see it that way.
Climbing Mountains
Once you reach the mountaintop where else is there to go?
As a parent the job is never done. Raised smart, successful graduates? Great, what’s next? The job doesn’t end. Next phase, next situation, next emergency.
At work once the mountain is climbed there’ll be more mountains to go, higher expectations now that you’ve shown what you are capable of.
The elite Leaders recognize the challenges that success brings, & they are willing to adapt their habits & practices accordingly. Others slip into obscurity as they struggle to meet the ever-changing demands that success brings.
Learning to love the repetition that brings success is a key to success for many elite Leaders. Without a love for repetition the everyday process can become muddled. A muddled process will only serve to create distraction, uncertainty, & hesitation. The love of repetition, however, can spark a relentless drive for even greater, continued success.
The humility to put past accomplishments behind you is difficult. Human nature wants us to celebrate accomplishments. It wants us to take the foot off the gas. It coaxes us into believing that success breeds success. The best Leaders, however, use their humility to drive them forward – they use this humility to focus on the windshield & what’s in front, not the rearview & what’s behind.
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The best at their craft have an intrinsic motivation to prove ‘em all wrong. Doubt me? Good, I’ll show you. Don’t think I can do it again? Godd, I’ll show you. Time & again.
I’ve yet to meet a Leader who didn’t embrace adversity. Who didn’t trust the process that adversity brings. Who knows that life isn’t defined by the events that happen, but rather is defined by the actions taken following the event:
- E + R = O / Event + Reaction = Outcome
Impactful Leaders stay positive when faced with adversity. They trust in the process and move forward. They don’t let pressure define them, they define the pressure with their actions.
Adapting
While some Leaders adapt & advance others may find they need to re-set their position. A successful re-set may take some time & effort. It may require a little extra work, some more attention to detail. Whatever it is that the new task at hand requires there will be one main, overriding theme that the best Leaders need to have: Adaptability.
Adaptability doesn’t rely on a title. It doesn’t rely on a position.
To be great at adaptability the best Leaders will fall back on a few core principles that anyone can use to make the best of their current situations:
- Great Leaders will rely on their core principles. Everyone has their own ethos. Regardless of title, position, or situation presented the best will never waver from the core principles that they believe in. In fact, the elite Leader will not only fall back on their core principles, but they will use them to ensure adaptability.
- Many great Leaders will rely on their faith & beliefs.
- Great Leaders aren’t afraid to ask for support, & in their times of struggle they will rely on those trusted & who have shown they have the Leader’s back. Nobody can go it alone, & the best Leaders recognize this.
- Great Leaders will trust in the process. They will rely on their habits & practices, one step at a time, to take over when the going gets tough.
The adaptable Leader recognizes that things change. If the title or position changes, so be it. But the impact one can continue to have will not change. The role a Leader is in does not define them; they are not bound by that title or position. Instead a change of venue, a role change, changing arenas is embraced.
Because greatness in Leadership is not about where you lead from, but instead is about what you do next. It’s about the impacts you can have…..regardless of title, position, or arena.
Swinging at the Curveball
As I reflect back on the ups & downs of life I have come to realize that many of life’s “downs” are actually “ups”. But it could be the other way if you allow it to be.
I was fired from a dream job. After 22+ years. With no explanation.
I’d survived 22 years as an NCAA Head Coach while raising 3 daughters on my own. I’d run a small business on the side to make sure the mortgage & tuition bills kept getting paid.
& then, without warning, the job was gone. Thanks for nothing.
The “Now what?” was real.
But the dust settled quicker than I thought it would. I realized how lucky I was. To have had the dream job. To have survived it for 22+ years. But also for how lucky I was to get to start on a new journey, a new adventure. How lucky I was to be able to shift my focus to “What’s next?” How lucky I was to get to start over in a new arena. How lucky I was to leave something behind.
& guess what? I never looked back. & I don’t plan to.
Just because life threw a curveball didn’t mean I had to sit back & take it. It meant I could take a swing at it. It meant that I could be grateful for the curveball, & my new chance to knock it out of the park. The mission didn’t change, only the arena.
Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius said “There can be no impeding our intentions or our dispositions because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting.”
Nothing changes the mission, if the mission itself adapts. Adapts to a change in venue. Adapts to a change in circumstance. Adapts to a change in detail.
Grow. Adapt. Evolve.
The obstacles confronted along the way aren’t actually obstacles at all. They’re opportunities.
Be a great Leader today, the best leader you can possibly be, by embracing these obstacles & turning them into opportunities.
Along with his responsibilities as an NCAA Coach, JP has also been a small-business owner for the past 22 years. He founded & built a successful lacrosse camp business that, in addition to camps, expanded into travel teams, clinics, lessons, & consultations.
In both of his careers as an NCAA Coach & small-business owner, JP has helped to teach, coach, mentor, & develop hundreds of players & coaches.