Pressure is privilege…

 

The Denver Broncos recently reported to training camp.  There was the usual sports media attention and hype over the team’s potential and upcoming season.  Since winning the Super Bowl in 2016, the Broncos have not been very competitive.  Of course, our current pandemic is wreaking havoc on all level of sports, recreation, and everyday life so who knows what the 2020-2021 NFL season will bring.

Speaking of “wreaking havoc”, the Denver Broncos’ outside linebacker, Von Miller, has been an All-Pro and Super Bowl MVP defensive force over the years.  However, since 2016 even he has not played to a havoc-wreaking level of expectation.  Often times as leaders and star players go, so does the rest of the team (in business as well as sports). 

During his pre-season interview Von said this year would be different.  He said he has been studying the commitment to greatness other athletes such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had made to lead their teams to multiple championships.  He was inspired.

Von elaborated that in past years he thought being a “quiet leader” was good enough.  Von is known for his laid-back personality and his fun-loving lifestyle away from football.  He felt his leadership responsibility was simply to play his best during the season.  Von said he’s learning greatest requires so much more than that.

If the Broncos expect to compete at a championship level, their best players will have to lead them.  Von is the best of their best.  He acknowledged that the accolades he’s earned with his play on the field have also brought added pressure to lead his team to a higher level of performance.  In the past, he preferred to leave that added pressure to others.  This year?

            Pressure is privilege

It’s true - when you have the talent, ability, and opportunity to lead, that role comes with increased pressure.  To have others follow you is a privilege. 

Here’s one example from someone whose story is inspiring to Von Miller:

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.  I’ve lost almost 300 games.  Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.  I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed. 

                 Michael Jordan

 I worked for an awe-inspiring sales leader once.  Dan Callahan was revered at Integral Systems.  Every employee I met at the company spoke of Dan in a way I had never heard before or since in my entire career; every employee.

I asked Susan Welcome, a manager at Integral about this reverence for Dan.  She told me when the company first started out, Dan was a sales rep.  On more than one occasion Dan along with everyone else at the company knew when he went out on road trip to close a deal if he did not bring back the signed contract AND pre-payment for the software the company would not be able to fund payroll.

Dan “carried” so much more than just the pressure of his sales quota; the fate of his companies’ employees was in the balance on his ability to close deals.  Yet to meet him, he had this calm, youthful, choirboy persona – he never talked about the pressures he faced during Integral’s early years.  He just went about his business of being the best - and leading the best - every single day.  The greats don’t work for just money.  They accept, “pressure is privilege”.

GAP

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.