WHY LEADERS MUST BE UNREASONABLE

An article Coach VanHekken found that works for the whole program, the whole school, and the whole world!!!

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
George Bernard Shaw

Leaders must be unreasonable. Why? Because success does not occur naturally. As leadership guru Peter Drucker once said, “ The only things that happen naturally in an organization are friction, confusion, and mal-performance. Everything else is the result of leadership.” To be successful, all teams, businesses, and groups need at least one unreasonable leader who will drive the team to greatness. You have to be the catalyst for your team.

If you want your team to be great you:

• Can’t tolerate mediocrity; can’t permit people to get distracted by trivial issues
• Can’t allow people to fall into the trap of the comfort zone
• Can’t let people give up or give in
• Can’t accept lame excuses

Because of your intense commitment and unrelenting will, you must DEMAND certain standards from yourself and your teammates. Why? Because you have invested too much to settle for anything less!

• You must be unreasonable when you observe laziness
• You must be unreasonable when you see selfishness
• You must be unreasonable when you hear negativity

Sometimes your unreasonableness must come across softly when you ENCOURAGE, COAX, AWAKEN, PERSUADE, STRETCH, TRIGGER, INSPIRE…. Other times your unreasonableness must come across harshly when you CHALLENGE, PROVOKE, PROD, PUSH, PULL, INCITE, GOAD, BADGER, HOUND, ENFORCE…. Invest the time to accurately judge the person and situation to know which approach is best. Bottom line: As a leader, you must BE UNREASONABLE when it comes to your team’s success. You just can’t afford to be intimidated, timid, uninvolved, permissive, apathetic, or “reasonable.”


Web site for leadership development for team captains:
www.teamcaptainsnetwork.com