Leadership by MJ

Like many, my Sunday nights consist of watching The Last Dance. Sad that tonight will be the last two episodes of the series as it’s been a real nice distraction from the COVID-19 situation. It’s been an amazing series so far and last week’s episodes were just fantastic.

It’s been thrilling to watch Michael Jordan’s viewpoints on the controversies and life in general. The end of episode 7 when MJ gets emotional discussing his leadership style was probably the best two minutes of TV I’ve watched in recent memory.

It’s been well documented that MJ was an “asshole”. He berated teammates and would often even get in physical altercations.

“Look, winning has a price and leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged. … When people see this, they are going to say: ‘Well, he wasn’t really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.’ Well, that’s you. Because you never won anything.”

Many may not agree with MJ’s leadership style, but you can’t deny the six championships that he won. The real question is was it all necessary? Could MJ have lightened up a bit and still won as he did. Perhaps his teammates could have been even better and maybe they would have won more.

Leadership comes in many different shapes, ways and form. Whether it’s sports, business, or anything else in life, I truly believe that there are many leadership styles that can lead to success. I’ve been fortunate to be around many great leaders in my life.

The one common thing that I have always noticed despite many differing personalities and styles is that the best leaders adapt to differing situations and always lead by example.

The ability to tackle adversity and adapt to a wide range of personality types is crucial to leadership. The good leaders tackle problems head on with the cards they are dealt. They can relate to the different styles of their team.

Leaders also must lead by example. Living and breathing what you are preaching is how you get people to follow you. A leader who doesn’t live by what they are preaching is no leader at all. Michael Jordan probably said it best.

"You ask all my teammates, the one thing about Michael Jordan was, 'He never asked me to do something that he didn't f---ing do,'"