The Ohio State football team lost to Penn State last night,
an unexpected and frustrating turn of events. Scrolling through Twitter this morning, I found myself irritated—not about the loss, but
about some reactions to the loss. Some
people feel like they need to say nasty things Coach Urban Meyer, in spite of
this being only his fifth loss in five years and his first true road loss in
five years. Catch that? The first true road loss in five years.
Gawd.
“Don’t worry about Urban Meyer,” my husband tells me. “He can take it.”
My husband knows a thing or two about athletic leadership. He is an athletic director, overseeing a
large middle school athletic program, and has coached football at various
levels for almost twenty years.
“I think of it like a musical act,” he said. “It comes down to this: Who’s willing to take the microphone? Or, better, who has to take the mic?” he asked.
“Like Taylor Swift. Is she going to let anyone else stand up front and sing the loudest?
Hell, no. She knows it has to be her, because she knows she can do it the
best. That doesn’t mean she won’t make
mistakes—she will—but is willing to risk it because she wants to be the one
making decisions.”
“I guess all lead singers are leaders, aren’t they?”
“And the best leaders are lead singers. They just can't… not be in
front. That’s what it’s like for Urban
Meyer."
So, in thinking about being a leader, that’s the thing to
consider when reflecting on our work: “Am I acting like a lead singer?”
If the answer isn’t a simple yes, it’s time to
re-evaluate. Because you have be the
lead singer in any leadership position--leading a family, leading a class, leading a team, leading a school.
You’ve got to plan, organize, and rock the performance—a performance
that happens in front of critics, day after day. And you’ve got to lose, too, and take what
is said about you, and get up, and do it again.
Urban Meyer will be alright.
He’ll be back with the microphone next week, front and center, leading
the next encore-worthy performance. 
