![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/mccallum.jpg\" "\\"mccallum\\"")
<\/p>\nOn September 22, 2012, a moment took place at a Canadian Football League game that provided a textbook leadership lesson.<\/p>\n
And it had nothing to do with the game itself.<\/p>\n
It took place in the locker room of the British Columbia Lions moments after their game against the Edmonton Eskimos.<\/p>\n
In the late stages of the game the Lions had found themselves trailing 18-16 and were forced to attempt a 47 yard field goal.<\/p>\n
Veteran kicker Paul McCallum trotted out onto the field and calmly kicked the ball through the uprights with one minute left on the clock. Final score; BC 19, Edmonton 18.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Later, in the expected pandemonium of the Lions\u2019 locker room, the Vancouver Sun reports that McCallum called for silence and gave a lesson in leadership I\u2019ll long remember.<\/p>\n
Rather than basking in his teammates\u2019 adulation for his heroic kick, McCallum apologized to them, and told them he needs to be better.<\/p>\n
In the stunned silence McCallum, the special teams\u2019 captain, reminded them that the reason the team was forced into a late come-from-behind field goal, was that he had missed two earlier attempts; from closer range.<\/p>\n
Lions\u2019 head coach Mike Benevides later talked to reporters about the leadership his kicker had displayed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no denial in him,\u201d Benevides said. \u201cWhen a man stands in front of his peers and says that, that goes a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Specifically, what McCallum demonstrated were at least three vital leadership truths.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0 Authentic humility engenders greater loyalty than competence alone<\/strong> 2.\u00a0\u00a0 Authentic humility is needed for self-improvement<\/strong> 3.\u00a0\u00a0 Authentic humility provides tremendous credibility<\/strong> So if you want to enjoy you current level of leadership, by all means embrace your successes.<\/p>\n But if you want to grow as a leader embrace your short comings.<\/p>\n All it takes is a dose of humility.<\/p>\n What would you add to this list?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On September 22, 2012, a moment took place at a Canadian Football League game that provided a textbook leadership lesson. And it had nothing to do with the game itself. It took place in the locker room of the British Columbia Lions moments after their game against the Edmonton Eskimos. In the late stages of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[478,7,582],"tags":[735,698,968,969,878,91,970],"class_list":["post-2570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-leadership","category-sports-analogies","tag-credibility","tag-credit","tag-humility","tag-leadership-truth","tag-loyalty","tag-responsibility","tag-self-improvement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2570"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2575,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2570\/revisions\/2575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMcCallum\u2019s teammates already knew he was a great kicker. This episode reminded them that he was also a great leader worth following.<\/p>\n
\nBefore you can improve as a leader you need to recognize your short-comings. Humility allows you to look beyond your successes to also see your growth areas.<\/p>\n
\nImagine if, during an upcoming game, McCallum needed to challenge a teammate to play better. Only by having acknowledged his own need to improve would he have the credibility to issue such a challenge.<\/p>\n