{"id":8384,"date":"2026-01-17T08:59:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/?p=8384"},"modified":"2026-01-17T08:59:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:59:50","slug":"lead-with-impact-not-ego-ditching-watch-me-swim-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/17\/lead-with-impact-not-ego-ditching-watch-me-swim-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead With Impact, Not Ego: Ditching \u2018Watch Me Swim\u2019 Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Have you ever encountered a \u201cwatch me swim\u201d leader?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>This is the person who insists on letting you know about every accomplishment they\u2019ve achieved, no matter how small or insignificant. The attitude is very similar to the child splashing around the swimming pool, desperate for the grown-ups to notice their aquatic abilities.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For children in the pool it\u2019s cute. For leaders, it\u2019s a problem that can undermine their effectiveness because:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h2>It appears self-serving<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h2>It erodes trust in followers<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h2>It diminishes respect among other more secure leaders<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Effective leaders avoid such desperate seeking of the spotlight. They move with a quiet confidence that focuses on results for the team or organization which instills trust and momentum.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>As a leader, you can avoid the \u201cWatch Me Swim\u201d trap, by first recognizing these early warning signs\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>1. Embellishing the significance of accomplishments<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cWatch Me Swim\u201d leaders are often quick to congratulate themselves. A leader I know was called on the mat for sending an email to his board celebrating the fact that \u201cFourth quarter results were up significantly over third\u00a0quarter results.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But fourth\u00a0quarter results were\u00a0<em>always<\/em> up significantly over third\u00a0quarter results in that organization. It was merely part of an historical trend. And the board knew it.<\/p>\n<p>Ouch.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Implying credit for achievements you had little to do with<\/h2>\n<p>I knew a senior pastor who announced to his board that, on his watch, \u201cbaptisms had increased 20 percent\u201d. What he didn\u2019t mention was that virtually all of those baptisms had come out of youth ministry, and he really had had no part of this whatsoever.<\/p>\n<p>In effect he was caught saying, \u201cWatch Me Swim\u201d, and it hurt his credibility.<\/p>\n<h2>3. &#8220;Spinning\u201d lack of results<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cWatch Me Swim\u201d leaders have a way of attributing poor results to any factor other than their own leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Market conditions, a new competitor in town, a weakening economy, all of these can affect results. But to hear the \u201cWatch Me Swim\u201d leader tell it, you\u2019d think these were the only reasons for poor performance.<\/p>\n<h2>4. Making news out of the un-newsworthy<\/h2>\n<p>A leader I know once trumpeted the news\u00a0in an annual report that, under his leadership, there had been an increase in staff punctuality. I suppose that\u2019s good, but hardly worthy of mention in an annual report. He was really simply saying, \u201cWatch Me Swim\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Each of these symptoms reflects lack of security in leadership. Watch for these warning signs; they could be telling you that insecurity is creeping into your leadership. When this happens it&#8217;s time to walk away from the need for the spotlight, and move into quiet, self-assured leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise \u201cWatch Me Swim\u201d could soon turn\u00a0into \u201cHelp- I\u2019m Drowning\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever encountered a \u201cwatch me swim\u201d leader? This is the person who insists on letting you know about every accomplishment they\u2019ve achieved, no matter how small or insignificant. The attitude is very similar to the child splashing around the swimming pool, desperate for the grown-ups to notice their aquatic abilities. For children in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6870,"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":[1033,1015,1032,738,1016,7,580,581],"tags":[175,735,984],"class_list":["post-8384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authentic","category-character","category-credibility","category-effectiveness-2","category-integrity","category-leadership","category-results-2","category-self-assessment","tag-confidence","tag-credibility","tag-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8384","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8385,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8384\/revisions\/8385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}