The 2 Things Leaders Can Control

Posted by Scott Williams
3 Comments
September 17, 2010
Kid Lessons | Leadership | Life Application | Next-Level Leader | Parenting

I love Football season and I love the fact that I have had the opportunity to coach my oldest son (11yo) Wesley’s team for the last couple of years.  I also get the opportunity to be a sideline coach for my youngest son (7yo) Jayden’s team.  By sideline coach, that means I’m the dad that yells and coaches from the sideline.  I love watching them play, coaching them up and giving them little pep talks before a game or practice.

I always give them the same pep talk, and that pep talk ends with me asking them one simple question.  That question is this, “Son, what are the two things that you can control?” and they respond “Attitude and Effort!”  That’s Right… Now Go Get em’!

This got me to thinking about Leadership and Life, as it relates to the things that we can control. The 2 Things Leaders Can Control – Attitude and Effort.

  • 1. Attitude-  A leader’s attitude is one of the most important factors when evaluating the health of a team.  If a leader has a “Can-Do” attitude, that attitude will generally rub off on those that follow.  If a leader has a crappy/negative attitude, then you can expect to have a bunch of crappy/negative employees.  Leaders have a choice every single day as to how their attitude will be and that choice will inevitably affect their team…  So if you’re a leader, Choose Wisely!   Quote: I CAN is 100 times more important than IQ.
  • 2. Effort- The bottom line is that you get out what you put in.  The amount of effort that a leader spends dreaming, thinking, plotting, planning, directing, planning, training, developing, believing, thinking, trying, utting forth effort directly impact the results.  This doesn’t mean do all the work and burn the midnight-oil, it means if you want to be a successful leader you have got to put some effort into having a successful team and put forth the effort in all areas to be successful. Quote: We are responsible for the effort, not the outcome.

In life there are many things that are out of our control; however the two things that we have complete control over is our attitude and our effort.

NBA coaching legend Pat Riley says it best, as he sums up the two of these principles in one great quote: Great effort springs naturally from great attitude.~Pat Riley

How have you seen these two things negative or positively impact a leaders success or success in life in general?  Share your  overall thoughts.

  • http://frozenlaughs.com heady

    I just recently finished The Winning Attitude by John Maxwell. Attitude is such a key. I’m always encouraging my children to have the best attitude at all times, even when you don’t feel like it. Go Win!

  • http://DrDougGreen.Com Douglas W. Green, EdD

    Scott:
    I agree totally with your view on this. Your second point needed a bit of proof reading. Here is the cleaned up version. Free free to post it without attribution. Note that I also put one space between each sentence. This is preferred in publishing circles. Keep up the good work
    Best,
    Doug Green
    2. Effort- The bottom line is that you get out what you put in. The amount of effort that a leader spends dreaming, thinking, plotting, planning, directing, training, developing, believing, thinking, trying, and putting forth effort directly impacts the results. This doesn’t mean you do all the work and burn the midnight-oil. It means if you want to be a successful leader you have got to put some effort into having a successful team, and put forth the effort in all areas to be successful. Quote: We are responsible for the effort, not the outcome.

  • http://Www.purplestrand.com Wendy

    So true, we are experiencing this at work. Our leader has been saying for months we are burnt out. He was burnt out & now the rest of the team has followed. I’m praying daily that changes, great read! Thanks man!!

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