Leadership Lessons with MJ (Part One)
Anyone who knows me knows that I am an avid basketball fan and Michael Jordan fan. He is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). No debate or discussion needed. Last night I watched "The Last Dance," the documentary about the 1998 Chicago Bulls championship run. There is a scene toward the end of the 7th episode where the interviewer asks him if he thinks he's perceived as a nice guy. "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 [documentary] they are going say, 'Well, he wasn't really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.' Well, that's you. Because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them [my teammates] to win, to be a part of that as well."
Then in tears, he says, "Look I don't have to do this. I only do this because it is who I am. That's how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don't want to play that way, then don't play that way."
When he said this - as a leader - I felt him deeply. It was as if he was saying, "Look, I don't mean to be a jerk or insensitive... I just want us all, my teammates and myself, to reach the mountain top." I can resonate with this train of thought on multiple levels. You want everyone to reach their potential. And when you see potential in them, you'll do all that is in your power to help them achieve it. The problem is that as a leader, you have to be ok with everyone not getting to the mountaintop with you. Later on in the documentary, his teammate Scott Burrell says, "I don't believe MJ understood that nobody would ever be MJ." Now, if I am hearing him correctly, Scott's saying, "I loved MJ pushing me to be better, and I appreciated it... I just don't know if I was going ever be what he thought I could be or wanted me to be."
Scott's confession brings up a key point. MJ's heart was about winning and being the best for both himself and his team, which isn't wrong. And please don't hear me validating his borderline abusive antics with his teammates! But I believe that sometimes a person's motivations can be wildly misinterpreted - hence MJ's tears in the interview. His intention was always to pull the best out of people, even though it seemed harsh at the moment. (Which he teammates talk about later in the documentary.)
Now, some leaders swing to the opposite side. Instead of being too harsh, they become too much of a friend. And their leadership becomes undervalued. Then, when they do inevitably need to move forward, it looks like they're betraying that friendship. So, if a leader is too friendly or too harsh - misinterpretation is inevitable. That leader will need to press forward with or without the people he or she started with because they are still motivated to reach the mountaintop.
As I was watching the documentary, this was an epiphany moment for me as a pastor. See, the difference between MJ's leadership and Jesus is that Jesus had the same drive and the same tenacity, but he wasn't going to force anyone to follow him or live up to their potential. Instead, he was patient and intentional. When we read about Jesus calling his disciples in John 1, he just says, "Come and see." If they came - he invested in them. If not - he continued investing in them but from afar, preaching from mountaintops and boats instead of in houses and intimate spaces. He only built deep with the ones that wanted to go deep, those faithful 12. He never made people follow. He offered intentionally, and if people followed, he poured into them.
Leaders get so tired trying to make disciples or help people reach their potential when that's not true leadership or what Jesus called us to do. Paul instructs us in 2 Timothy 2:2 to pour into faithful men who will teach others. He doesn't say to make faithful men. In the words of the old Campus Crusade adage, they already need to be FAT (faithful, available, and teachable) when they come to follow. Jesus didn't spin his wheels with the masses. He poured into a few to reach the masses.
The difference between MJ and Jesus is that Jesus said to make disciples, not to groom people. Making disciples means taking hungry, faithful, teachable people and giving your life away in service to them, knowing that they will continue to pass everything along. Making disciples takes discernment, not force. Even then, you still may get it wrong (i.e., Judas Iscariot), but there is grace. So, leader, press on! Practice leadership and discernment without force, but with intentionality and patience. And though this won't protect you from hardship and loneliness, I believe you will experience less of it.
This may be just a word of reminder to some of you, or maybe a new word, but either way - they're just my thoughts. Hope they help. (Part 2 is coming soon.)
