Don’t Make This Leadership Mistake with New Team Members

I love sports. Though, like many avid sports fans, I often struggle with sportscasters. Some are great, to be sure — Vin Scully was the gold standard — but most are not. The reason why most are not great is, in part, because of a habit I like to refer to as “Narrative Dependency.” Here’s an example of Narrative Dependency: a few weeks ago, I watched an <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-football-league/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">National Football League (NFL)</a> preseason game. In the game, there were two rookie wide receivers making their debuts. Player A was touted as the next great receiver for the franchise. They arrived at the team with a few sponsorships already in place and cameras were fixed on this player every time they took the field. Then the broadcast crew introduced player B, another rookie wide receiver who had no major sponsorships and carried no anticipated storyline. On two plays early in the game, both player A and player B made significant mistakes of equal importance. Neither contributed offensively during the first half. Nevertheless, as the halftime recap got underway, the broadcast narrative for player A went something like this: “I just love the way player A bounced back from that mistake. He’s a rookie, these things happen. He’ll learn from it.” Meanwhile, for player B, the broadcast narrative was diametrically opposed. It went something like this: “I’m just not sure how long player B is going to be allowed to make those mistakes. This is the NFL, there’s very little room for error.” <a href="https://strategyofmind.medium.com/dont-make-this-leadership-mistake-with-new-team-members-2a7db0afee49">Learn More</a>