Anger - The Danger Zone
I witnessed an amazing sight several years ago that was brought back to memory while watching a March Madness NCAA College Basketball game recently. It is a bit of a long story, but for brevity it goes something like this…
My daughter was a student at Michigan State University, and she sent us a text message one autumn Saturday afternoon that read, “At the football game. There is a storm brewing. The Michigan State Police have come out on the field and told us we all need to leave the stadium for safety. We are all chanting, Hell no, we won’t go!”
Believe it or not, I initially had mixed emotions. My first reaction was, “Hey baby girl, get the blazes out of there!” (above all, I want my children safe). This was followed by a second reaction which was, “Listen sweetheart, when the MSP give a command, DO IT!” (I want my children to respect and obey lawful authority). There was however a twinge of a thought mixed with the initial ones that went something like, “Wow, she has become a real Spartan! Not going to let a little late season lightning storm ruin a perfectly good football game. Go Green!” (I want my daughter to love going to college). Obviously, I didn’t share that last sentiment and did the mature thing and replied, “Best to pack up NOW and head back to Case Hall. They will resume the game when it is safe. Let me know when you arrive in your dorm room”, which she did. I was later informed that many students never actually left the stadium, opting instead to ride out the storm as part of the experience.
That was just the back story. The amazing sight I referenced however happened a following Saturday. This time, my wife and I went to East Lansing to watch the game ourselves, and just before game time, the most incredible thing happened. During the warm up, a very nasty storm started to form in the northwest and was heading southeast, straight for the campus. The doppler radar was displayed on the Jumbo Tron and you didn’t need an advanced degree in meteorology to know that a huge and nasty storm was barreling down on the stadium. Warnings started to scroll across the scoreboard, and announcements were being made that everybody needed to vacate the stadium until the storm passed and the game would resume. You could hear the Spartans in the student section warming up the vocals, “Hell no, we won’t go”.
Now the amazing part. While the students braced themselves for another revolt against the man, and against nature, who walks out onto the football field, but MSU Basketball Coach Tom Izzo.
Coach Izzo walked out onto the football field and strode directly in front of the student section. He stood there, and things quickly quieted down. He then addressed the students directly. I can not quote exactly what he said, but it was along the lines of this. ‘You students are awesome!! Your spirit for MSU is what propels us to victory. I am so proud of you. (Pause for students wildly cheering!). Then he went on, pointing to the scoreboard. You see the scoreboard showing the weather. A wicked mean storm is coming, and we will need to leave the stadium until it passes. (Pause for moans and boos and such). He went on and said in effect, I want you to each to stand up and quietly and orderly exit the stadium. I want you to do this to show the world how MSU Spartans do things. I want you to do it for me. I want you to do it for yourselves. And when this storm clears, he added, I am going to come back and sit right up there with you and cheer like a mad man as we kick some major butt this afternoon, (deafening cheering and chants of Go Green, Go White!)’. Tom stood there as thousands of students rose as one, and in an orderly fashion, filed out of the stadium. Tom Izzo did with a microphone what a cadre of police officers with Sig Sauer P229’s strapped on their hips could not do. He led. Coach Izzo is a tremendous leader.
This is just one of many examples that I have witnessed of Tom’s leadership over the years. It is why when the Society of Automotive Engineers (S.A.E.) World Congress was focused on the theme of leadership, I suggested Tom as one of the Keynote speakers. He obviously doesn’t know a lot about engineering, but he knocked it out of the park when he spoke to the expansive audience on how to motivate and inspire a team to take on formidable assignments!
What brought this all back from memory was all the fuss generated last week when Coach Izzo went wide open throttle in his admonishment of one of his young players, Aaron Henry during MSU’s lackadaisical first game against Bradley during the opening game of the NCAA basketball playoffs. The social media sites lit up when the coach dressed young Mr. Henry down for a lack of hustle, during this crucial time. People started calling the coach a tyrant, among other insults. They questioned his leadership, his style and his ability to coach in college basketball.
At this moment, Tom Izzo was demonstrating an important leadership lesson, and one that I will use for our leadership thought of the day. Tom Izzo, like all leaders has a full compliment of emotions, a full range of passion, a full toolbox of leadership approaches. Great leaders develop deep relationships with their charges, and they learn to meet them where they are. Leaders learn to supply what the team needs to be successful in the execution of their mission. If they need a hug, hug them. If they need direction, point the way. If they need training, teach. If they need an ear full, bellow away. In this example in the media, it was treated as if anger were a sin. It is not. It is as natural an emotion as fear or euphoria is.
Now to be sure, anger is a dangerous emotion. Many horrible consequences often arise from a situation when anger is the primary driving emotion. That is why we were taught at young ages to “count to 10” before spouting off, or taking some hasty action. Perhaps it is best captured in the letter Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus when he penned, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” Ephesians 4:26. We are further admonished often to use our tongue and words wisely, such as “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.”, Proverbs 15:1-2. While anger is a dangerous emotion that can lead situations from bad to worse, it is not in and of itself bad. There is indeed times and places where it is absolutely the proper emotion for the moment.
I think it wise to closely scrutinize when a situation becomes heated and take steps to prevent innocent people from being harmed. Nobody likes it when a leader starts to red line and boil over, and it surely should be a rarity and only in warranted situations. That said, and this case points out quite well, to assume that just because passions rise to the point of confrontation does not necessarily mean that something is terribly wrong or that the leader has “lost it”. As writer Don Yaeger wrote immediately following the incident, “And I can emphatically say Izzo hasn’t lost it. If anything, we have.” **
Let our leadership lesson boil down to this, if you want to lead, you need to touch hearts. To touch hearts, you need to know the heart’s desire and you need to care about those desires enough to take the necessary steps required to meet them. You need to learn to motivate and inspire, and do it in a fashion that the receiver will understand it best. To be a leader, people need to trust you. For them to trust you, you need to be real, to be consistent, to be honest, transparent and willing to show your true emotions when that is necessary. It is ok to be you, all of you.
Before we condemn a man like Tom Izzo for getting irate and for confronting one of his players for slacking off, Consider the whole man, and the context of the situation. Read about the 3X5 card that Aaron Henry wrote at the beginning of the season, and then overlay that on MSU’s one-point victory over Duke to advance to the Final Four. It helps pull it all into perspective. I am confident that Aaron Henry learned a life long lesson from his coach on that sideline, one he will never forget, and one he can apply many times over during his life. And, he will have one heck of a story to share with his loved ones!
Now on to the Final Four. Go Green!
Stay Strong,
Terry
