Play Ball

I played football until eighth grade. I had an incredible career and I’m certain that people at my junior high still talk about my greatness. (They don’t.) But…I was small and I did not enjoy it, but I was in Texas and, at the time, every boy played football. When I look at football games now, I don’t exactly know what’s going on. I am far-removed from the game. So I can draw conclusions about football that are incomplete and just plain wrong. I can be wrong about team dynamics and the fatigue of players as I sit in my favorite chair and watch.

When someone leaves the classroom to become a university administrator, they stop “playing the game.” Sometimes they start tinkering with principles that are in place that don’t make sense to change. For universities, student retention is always front-of-mind, so they strive to keep students. (Which is a noble goal!) When I was in education full time, I would always think: Yes, I would love for my students to come to class every day, but they don’t.

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Administrator: Can’t you just tell them to come to class?

Me: No, I can’t!

Them: Can you make students show up to class and pass tests?

Me: Yeah, I’ll just tell the students to come to class, I’m sure they will. 🤷‍♀️

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When you get promoted to the next level, it means that you're not playing the game anymore. So it means that you forget how the game goes and you get a little rusty on current trends. And it also means that you have to hire great people, listen to them and trust them.

Steve Jobs famously said, “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to to , We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” (Even though I'm not so sure he was very good at leaving people alone, trusting them, and letting the smart people tell him what to do.)

I could probably figure it out, but I don't know how to map IT addresses. I don’t want to know. I want to hire it out. But that means that I have to trust the expertise, and perception and the boots-on-the-ground experience of those I work with and lead.

Not playing ball is okay as long as you know that you're not playing ball anymore. More than ever, it’s your job to listen to the right voices and trust them. Balance the new ideas with the old ones.

The bridge between the decision and the decision-maker is trust and listening.

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