When things don’t go as planned

If you’ve read many (any?) of my writings, you may have gathered that I’m a sports fan and often use sports-related stories to make a point. This week is no different. Earlier this NFL season, I, like many football fans, suffered through the debacle that was the replacement referees. I’m sure you recall those ill-prepared officials who were thrown into duty when the NFL owners and the regular refs were engaged in a labor dispute.

As a Green Bay Packers fan, I would argue that my team was on the wrong end of the worst call made by the replacement refs when an apparent game-ending interception by the Packers turned into a game-winning catch for the Seattle Seahawks. I’m not here to argue that the wrong call was made (there’s no reasonable argument that could be made that it was the right call), but only to point out that sometimes defeat is yanked from the grasp of victory.

It happened again the other night in baseball when an umpire made a call in the one-game playoff between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals. Down by two runs late in the game, the Braves had runners at first and second with only one out. Their batter popped the ball up to shallow left field. The left fielder dashed in and the shortstop backpedaled as the ball dropped. Just before making the catch, the shortstop moved out of the way, thinking his teammate had called for the ball. The ball fell to the ground between the two players, causing the runner to be safe. Not so fast. At the last second, the umpire had called the infield fly rule (I know, the ball landed in the outfield, but it didn’t matter) and the batter was automatically called out. The Cardinals went on to win the game and the Braves’ season was over. It’s a devastating way for the season to end for the Braves.

I’m not here to offer my ideas for strengthening the officiating of professional sports. My point is that sometimes you can do things right and they still don’t turn out the way you’d like. The Packers didn’t play the best game, but I’d argue they played well enough to win — but they didn’t. The Braves might have lost that game anyway, but they had a real chance to take a lead late in the game and instead were hurt by a bad call. Things don’t always go as planned. The question is, how will you respond when they don’t?

I worked for a man who wasn’t a big sports fan and considered the majority of athletes to be dumb jocks. But, I always argued that one thing you know about every athlete is that they have faced adversity. When you put yourself in any type of competition — sports or otherwise — you risk defeat. And those losses often contribute more to a person’s character than the victories.

Walt Disney said, “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me . . . You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” Well, the Packers and the Braves have had a kick in the teeth. The test of their strength will be in how they respond.

The same goes for all of us as managers. In business, you’re bound to have good times and bad. There’s a great quote from the movie Hoosiers (yes, a sports movie) about facing tough times: “(The) sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass every day, but, mister you ain’t seen a ray of light since you got here.” As a manager, you might be able to relate to that quote.

We’ve all had runs when everything we touched turned to gold and then there have been times when they seemed to turn to something else. The good times are easy to take, but it’s the bad that will really shape you as a manager. In tough times, you need to be resilient, but also creative — much more creative in bad times than good. It’s cliché, but the tough times allow us to see what we’re really made of.

Here’s my simple advice: Enjoy the good times, but don’t overlook the lessons you can take from the bad. They are what will help you be a better manager and a better person. And don’t ever believe that the tough times won’t end — they will.  And when they do, you will be stronger for it and you will better appreciate the good times having survived the bad.