Ordinary people make up extraordinary teams. It’s the most basic of people that are most capable of making significant contributions. The more ordinary the people, the better the team.
Ordinary People
Every Wednesday morning, I meet with a group of guys at Bojangles to discuss faith, life, and leadership. We walk chapter by chapter through books, generating great discussion on the topic along the way.
Our discussion this week, “How ordinary people can make a significant impact.” The book we are reading is called Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur.
Regardless of where you stand in your belief or your unbelief, one would have to agree that by the numbers, Christianity has been the most influential religion in history. The leader, Jesus, used ordinary men to carry his cause forward. He could have chosen kings, soldiers, high ranking politicians, or the financial elite for the task, but He didn’t. Ordinary people were his selection.
The crew He chose was the Bad News Bears of the day. The author described this team of misfits as, “prone to mistakes, misstatements, wrong attitudes, lapses in faith, and bitter failure…in and of themselves they were clearly not sufficient for the task.”
While some may feel that sounds overly harsh, I feel it is overly relatable! Been there, done it all.
Molding and Shaping Ordinary
Coaching young athletes has given me great perspective on leadership. The process of Building a Team requires picking the right players. Notice I didn’t say the best players, I said the “right players.” The ones that fit the system…ordinary ones.
During our group discussion, I shared this concept of building teams on ordinary people. It has served me extremely well over the years as a coach, our teams consistently won at very high levels. It has served me well professionally too.
As I was sharing that Wednesday morning…it hit me. We never did it with extraordinary kids, we did it with ordinary ones. While we had extraordinary athletes, they were also ordinary kids. Like the twelve, they fell short, made mistakes, had behavioral issues, experienced lazy streaks, failed to take ownership, misstated the truth, and struggled with poor attitudes.
What they needed was a coach. One that could develop them into a team, could mold and shape them into the potential player they could be, one that believed in them more than they believed in themselves. It’s all they needed.
Great coaches take ordinary players and build great teams. Great leaders do the same.
Second Chances or Life Sentences?
Nobody developed ordinary like legendary Coach Nick Saban. There is a great clip floating around on YouTube of a press conference in which he is pressed by a reporter about a player who made an off the field mistake.
Saban said, “There is always a lot of criticism, when somebody does something wrong. Everyone wants to know how you are going to punish the guy.”
He went on to give the example of Muhsin Muhammad, a former player, who landed himself in trouble with the law. Saban was pressured by many to kick him off the team, but he didn’t. While Coach did not cite the exact methods, he explained that Muhammed was suspended and experienced discipline.
Because of that second chance, Muhammed would spend fifteen years in the National Football League, go on to own his own business, and that his oldest of seven children would attend Princeton.” An emotional Saban asked the press this, “So, my question is where do you want them (players who make mistakes) to be? You want to condemn them to a life sentence? Or do you want to have the guy’s children going to Princeton?” A great question, but an even more profound statement.
Great coaches give second chances to the ordinary. Great leaders do the same.
Conclusion
I attended a high school football game on Friday night where several kids that I used to coach were playing in. When they played for us, our coaching staff had every right to give up on them. Whether it was behavioral or lack of effort, there was plausible reason to stop the molding and shaping process and give up on them. In fact, I received pressure from other parents to issue harsher punishments.
We didn’t cave to that pressure, but we did discipline. See…too many people confuse discipline for punishment. Discipline is the process of Molding and Shaping a person into who they could be. It’s like an artisan shaping a piece of pottery. It takes time, it takes painful moments, but when you get to the final product…it’s an ordinary masterpiece.
By the way, you’ll see a few of these ordinary kids playing on Saturdays soon. Who knows…maybe their kids will end up at Princeton?
So the next time you are feeling ordinary, join the crowd. We all fall short, we all make mistakes, will all experience failures, and make a bad choice(s). It’s the ordinary thing to do.
Ordinary is the mechanism to do extraordinary things in this world. History has proven it time and time again.
Great leaders build ordinary people. Ordinary people can change the world.
