Jul 02

Better for Having Been Here

As my work becomes more focused on helping individuals grow into the fullness of their leadership potential, including eliminating problematic behaviors (something I have direct experience with - and will be writing about a lot in this blog in the coming months), the more my attention gravitates to the words and deeds of men and women commonly accepted as successful in their fields.

I am no patsie when it comes to equating success (which usually means financial success) and leadership; many a financially successful man has been found out to be a lousy leader. Most of the men and women my middle management friends work for would fit this category. And, we all know at least one man or woman in our personal, if not professional, lives who would not be considered a financial success, yet is a tremendous positive influence for the people around him or her. Most of the terrific teachers I’ve had over the years fit this category.

Today, Andre Agassi played his final match at Wimbledon, having decided to retire after this year’s US Open in September. He lost to the emerging powerhouse of the sport, a 19-year old Spaniard, Rafael Nadal. Watching the match was like witnessing an archetypal battle played out live before my eyes. The elder in the denoument of his career, the one from whom so many up-and-coming players have learned by proxy - and have emulated, going tete-a-tete with a young challenger whose life, body and various intellects are ascending. Indeed, the elder ceded the space to the younger and exited with grace.

Listening to Agassi after the match, I was struck by one idea. When asked what he would like to be remembered for, he first payed tribute to the elders who he followed into the game, most notably Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe. What a wonderful and graceful start to his answer - essentially saying, I have risen on the shoulders of great forebears.

Next he said - and this was the goose-pimple-inducing thought, “I hope that I’ll be remembered for having made the game better for having been in it. Because, I have certainly become better for having had it in my life.”

I wonder how many executives enter the workplace thinking, I want to be remembered for having made the place better. I’ll tell you this, from the evidence I hear day in and day out, executives in America’s public companies are very often more focused on making the place more efficient and prosperous, not necessarily better. For clarity, better to me means having contributed something of lasting meaning and life-affirming value to the lives of the people involved - as defined by those people.

Agassi’s idea is about legacy. It is about more than success. Naturally, we are more likely to hear this from a successful player because the ones who retire from the tour not having won any major tournaments don’t often get quoted. But, my point is the legacies that endure, the legacies that are considered good and right decades after the person has stepped aside from the productivity that created the success, are those that had a high character component to them. Time is the great leveler, and those people who achieve financial success without simultaneously achieving character gravitas, or greatness or statesmanship, are eventually appropriately described as financial successes and not great leaders.

I love Andre Agassi’s humility, his reverence for the game he was privileged to play, and his hopefullness that he brought to it not only entertainment, but character, too.

Time will tell if Agassi behaved in ways that prove he valued character as much as winning. It’s one thing to hope for something, and quite another to act it out. I hope he proves to have been a true values-based leader. Because, we couldn’t possibly have enough examples of people whose drive for success includes elevating the lives of the people they work and play with along the way. Success without character is just numbers.

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