Nevermind the Critics: Leaders Fight Through Adversity

I was at the sixth game of the Bulls/Pistons series in Chicago’s United Center. I’ll never forget Michael Jordan’s performance at the game’s end. In the Bulls last eight possessions of the game, he scored on seven of them and had an assist on one.

The intensity in the arena was incredible. The Pistons were the reigning NBA champions and the Bulls just could not beat them. So, Jordan’s performance sent the series to a seventh game in Detroit.

All of Chicago was excited about this seventh game only to have Scottie Pippen get a migraine headache and not be able to play.

In the first game of this year’s Spurs/Heat finals, LeBron James could not play the last seven minutes of the game due to severe cramping.

Both Pippen and James were the recipients of extensive criticism. They simply weren’t tough enough to compete during the most important part of the season.

I have two questions for the critics. Have you ever had a migraine? Has your body ever shut down due to cramping? If you have experienced either of these, you know there is no way you can possibly play with either condition. Just like Pippen and James, leaders will be criticized and often harshly. And just like James and Pippen, leaders have to pay no attention to people who have no idea what they are talking about.

In the last analysis, leaders must get all the data they can, consult with people they trust, see the big picture, and make the best decisions they can. And then adhere to what Sister Margaret Duffy, the late registrar at the University of St. Francis, used to say, “Period. Amen!”