Leading with Integrity: Why Owning Mistakes is Crucial for Leadership Success

We hope to never make mistakes, but that is a childish and naive view of the world. Hoping to never make a mistake doesn’t prepare you to handle the situation when mistakes are made.

As Churchill said, “Success is not final, Failure isn’t fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.”

It is not the mistake that matters, it is how you handle it that your team will care about.

Larry Legend

Larry Bird, also known by some people as Larry Legend, is one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

He won the NBA Championship in 1981, 1984, and 1986. The rivalry between his Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers was one of the catalysts for making basketball the global sports powerhouse it is today.

He is also widely considered to be one of the best shit-talkers the game has ever seen.

In 1988, during the NBA All-Star Weekend 3-point competition, before the competition had even started. All of the players selected to shoot in the competition were waiting in the locker room.

Bird walks in and says the famous line “Who is coming in second”.

He went on to win his third consecutive 3-point competition, becoming the first person in history to do that.

Becoming a Coach

After playing, Bird became a coach. In the 3 years he coached, from 1997 to 2000, the Indiana Pacers went to the conference finals every year and made the NBA finals in 2000.

In game 4 of the 1998 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, Indiana were playing the Chicago Bulls with the great one, Michael Jordan.

Down 1 point with 2.9 seconds to go in the game. A play is run for Indiana’s star player, Reggie Miller. Miller made a lot of contact with Jordan but managed to get open. He caught the ball and threw up a contested 3-pointer.

It went in.

The stadium went wild.

But Larry didn’t. He was a cold and calculating killer on the court. The video shows he didn’t even flinch.

So we have a super high achiever, with ice in his veins, and a sharp tongue, who also had the ability to back it up.

Taking Ownership

Jalen Rose was an up-and-coming player. He was good and he knew it. In fairness, to make it in professional sports you have to have a level of confidence so it is not surprising he believed in his ability.

In game 7, the final and deciding game of that series with the Chicago Bulls, Rose hit two jump shots in a row in the 4th quarter.

Big-time players make big-time plays.

And Bird called a timeout and subbed Rose out of the game.

Rose never went back in.

Rose was understandably annoyed. The Pacers went on to lose the game and lost their chance at competing in the finals. Rose went straight to the shower and tried to get on the team bus before Bird.

He didn’t want to have anything to do with him.

However, Bird was already on the bus and Rose had to walk past him. Rose didn’t say anything, but Bird did.

“Jalen”

Rose didn’t want to engage with Bird but he turned and Bird said “I fucked up, I should have got you out there.”

And that was the end of the conversation – You can see Rose retell it below.

Ownership

Bird is a better player than Rose. Everyone knows it. But being better than someone doesn’t mean you are never wrong.

The sign of greatness is ownership. Everyone knew Bird made a mistake. That mistake would have festered because of the power dynamic, no one would have said anything.

It would have just been a damning shadow on their relationship.

But Bird showed his greatness, not by winning, but by acknowledging when he made the mistake.

As the leader of your team, you are going to do one of two things, make mistakes or never make mistakes.

If you never make mistakes then you aren’t trying to improve things and it will be a very boring place.

So now we know that you will make mistakes you have one of two choices, Own them or be North Korea.

The stories of North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il hitting 11 holes in one in a round of golf tell you that no one questions but everyone knows you are full of shit.

The players know and even the commentators of the game said out loud that they thought it was a bad choice to take Rose out, so Bird could have lived safe in the knowledge that no one would ever tell him he screwed up, but everyone would silently resent him.

But he chose to lead, and he told Rose “I fucked up” and that is why his players loved him.